Rising Sun Inn

Rising Sun Inn. Historic Generals Highway. Constructed in 1753, the Rising Sun Inn is a rare example of an intact 18th-century tavern and dwelling. Situated on historic Generals Highway, the Inn offered respite to weary travelers and their horses. This monument to 18th- and 19th-century rural life has been an active part of the community for nearly 270 years. Today, it is a historic museum and Chapter House for the Ann Arundel Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Rising Sun Inn sits on "Howard's First Choice," a 160-acre tract of land patented in 1668. The property was expanded by Charles Worthington to 215 acres in 1704. In 1753, Worthington sold it to a local planter, Edward Baldwin, who built the earliest part of the Rising Sun Inn that still stands today. In 1759, his property was divided between his sons, James and Henry.

Lt. Henry Baldwin was a Revolutionary War veteran, serving in the 2nd and 3rd Maryland Line as quartermaster from 1777-1783. Baldwin's plantation supplied the Army with tobacco, shipped from nearby Indian Landing. After the War, Henry married Sarah Hall Rawlings, a widow of a local tavernkeeper. They built an addition to the Rising Sun Inn and began operating Baldwin's Tavern in 1785. Sarah died in 1789 and Henry then married Maria Woodward.

Henry passed away in 1793, leaving his widow, Maria, to run business on her own, until she remarried to Augustine Gambrill. The tavern then became known as Gambrill's Tavern, operating until 1815. It was the heart of the local community, serving as a stagecoach stop, post office, tax collector's stop, and an important meeting place for legal and business matters.

In 1819, Richard Caton and his wife, Mary Carroll, purchased the Rising Sun Inn (Catonsville, MD is named in Richard's honor. while Mary was the daughter of Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence.) From 1836 on,it changed hands a few more times, until the property stood vacant in 1913.

In 1911, Alice Leakin Welsh of Waterbury organized the Ann Arundel Chapter, NSDAR, resulting in the bequest of the Rising Sun Inn to the DAR in 1916. Under more than a century of ownership now by the local NSDAR chapter, the Inn has undergone careful restoration (on going today) and served continuously as a Chapter house for the women who saved it from ruin. Over its history, it also functioned as a Red Cross work center, a recreation center for Ft. Meade soldiers in both World Wars, and even a tea house in its intervening years.

An Architectural Treasure

The Rising Sun Inn is a combined wood-frame/brick structure characteristic of 18th-century rural Chesapeake architecture. The older section, constructed c. 1753 by Edward Baldwin as a dwelling, is a 1 1/2-story central hall plan with a gable roof. This section is notable for its massive brick gable-end, an internal chimney laid in header bond- a rare style to find outside of Annapolis. In 1784, Henry Baldwin added a one-room, gambrel-roofed addition, allowing the entire first floor for the tavern operation. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The Old Stagecoach Road

In the 1700s, Generals Highway was a major corridor for stagecoach travel between Baltimore and Annapolis. The name references General George Washington's and the French Major General Comte de Rochambeau's use of it during the Revolutionary War, in part commemorating Rochambeau's march to Yorktown in 1781, where a British defeat by his troops effectively ended the Revolutionary War. Despite the road being straightened when it was paved in the early 20th-century, the orientation of the Rising Sun Inn recalls the colonial road's original alignment and course.

The Friends of the Rising Sun Inn is a 501(c)3 non-profit, volunteer organization. Its mission is to preserve the Rising Sun Inn property as a museum and to provide educational, public history programs. Members of the Ann Arundel Chapter of the DAR sit on the Board of Directors who oversee the historic inn's preservation (visit http://www.risingsuninn.org).

(Captions):

Brick gable-end (oldest part of the house).

The above historic photo of the Rising Sun Inn was taken prior to the early restoration work started by the DAR c. 1916.

Image above is a detail of Dennis Griffith's Map of Maryland, 1794 (Library of Congress). Generals Highway is highlighted in blue and the red arrow indicates Baldwin's Tavern (the Rising Sun Inn).