Not yet finished, but Clifton Mansion restoration is a grand work in progress
Jacques Kelly
Baltimore Sun
March 11, 2016
I entered Clifton Mansion through the porch on which philanthropist and university founder Johns Hopkins might have watched a sunset.
Standing on this rebuilt veranda, I thought, “It’s happened. Finally.” The Clifton that was endangered by decades of hard use, then outright neglect, lives again.
This Northeast Baltimore landmark, a home Hopkins constructed in 1852 around Battle of Baltimore defender Henry Thompson’s residence, is again the magnificent summer retreat it once was.
It’s been quite a saga, starting from the days when Clifton was a proposed location for the Johns Hopkins University. The university never did move here, and the city purchased it 1895 for a park.
In 1916, Baltimore’s first public golf course opened on the property’s lawns and walks, and the mansion became its clubhouse. Victorian parlors were ripped apart for locker rooms and showers.
Clifton was a pathetic, battered relic by the 1990s. Its sheer size was daunting. Dwindling recreation and park budgets could never keep up with what was needed.
It was saved by Civic Works, the nonprofit whose mission statement says it “strengthens Baltimore’s communities through education, skills development and community service.”
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