baltimore county - Mason Dixon Arrive Magazine

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HARVEY LADEW’S
By John T. Marck
Manor House
One of Maryland’s most beautiful tourist attractions,
located in Monkton on Jarrettsville Pike,
is Ladew Topiary Gardens and Pleasant Valley
House, the home of Harvey Smith Ladew.
Harvey Ladew was born in New York in 1886,
the son and heir to his family business making
leather belts … not the leather belts a person
might wear, but the ones used in factories to
operate various types of machinery. Because of
the family business, Ladew became a millionaire,
never had to work and his plan was to enjoy life
while he was young, and begin work when he was
50 years old. As Harvey said, “There is so much
to see, to do, I thought I’d reverse life’s patterns –
play, then work.”
A mischievous boy, and a man of great humor,
he was raised under the good, fashionable life
in New York. Traveling often in his youth to
Europe, his favorite trick was sitting on the
thrones in castles. By the time he was 15, he had
sat on more thrones than all of Queen Victoria’s
vast family put together. At the outbreak of World
War I, Harvey took the first boat that was available
home, which happened to be the Kaiser’s
confiscated yacht. Following the war, where he
served as an Army liaison officer, he decided to
retire from the family business, and pursue one
of his passions, fox hunting. Having hunted for
21 seasons, not only in Maryland, but also in
England, Ireland and France, he once set an international
fox hunting record by riding to hounds
on both sides of the Atlantic in a 72-hour period.
This was accomplished by crossing the Atlantic in
an amphibious plane. It was this passion for the
fox that led him to Maryland. In 1929, he moved from his
home on Long Island to Maryland and purchased Pleasant
Valley House, because the hunting was good and the fences
“weren’t made of wire,” as they were in Long Island.
When Harvey purchased this house it was in a dreadful
condition. In 1929, at age 43, Harvey was to some degree
starting over. Here was a man who was used to living in
mansions, and manor houses, and who stayed at various
castles in Europe, and who came from a fine house on
Long Island, which had magnificent flowers and greenhouses
about. Pleasant Valley had none of the things he
was used to, not even plumbing or electricity. The only
flowers on the property was a dying lilac bush that was
“promptly put out of its misery” he once said. Still, as
hunting was his passion, he needed a house in which to
live so he could do this hunting in Maryland, mostly for
convenience.
Upon his purchasing Pleasant Valley house in 1929,
he started to redo the house. The house was originally
built in 1770, and over the next 47 years he added on the
house, and perfected the many gardens within its 200 acres
to what they are today. As one walks through the house
today, you get the feeling that you are a guest of Ladew,
rather than just a visitor touring the home. Everything that
you see within the house is the same as when Harvey lived
there. Throughout the house, the most notable themes are
the fox and hound, from the stuffed fox heads hanging on
the walls, to the many paintings, both canvas and on the
windows. Although Harvey was the genius behind the renovations,
it was his friend and architect, James O’Connor,
who made it all possible.
Upon entering the drawing room, one will notice the
architectural details of the broken pediments and molding,
which were copied from the Hammond-Harwood House
in Annapolis due to Harvey’s love of the state of Maryland.
The paneling in the drawing room is a rare Elizabethan
type, which he found in London, and the ceiling plasterwork
was copied from a period design by some New
York craftsmen. The ceiling plaster was white in color, but
Harvey felt that it looked too new, so using the fireplace in
the room, he would make a fire, then close the flue, allowing
the black smoke to fill the room, darkening the ceiling,
creating the “old look.” Hanging on the walls in the drawing
room are two Chippendale-style mirrors, quite unique,
with the fox and hound theme on the gilt frame.
Upon entering Ladew’s office, one will see that it is
filled with hunting memorabilia. Also, throughout the
house are many photographs and letters displayed. Two
letters of particular interest are one from the then Prince
of Wales, later King Edward VIII, thanking Harvey for
lending him his favorite horse, named “Ghost” for a hunt
on Long Island. The second are letters to Ladew from T.E.
Lawrence.
Ladew had an oval Chippendale partners’ desk, but did
not know where to put it in the house. He asked a friend
for advice, and the friend said why not build a room around
it? And so he did, again with the help from O’Connor.
Harvey called this room his circulating library, which contains
more than 3,000 volumes, many first editions. In the
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library are Quilters many bookcases, Guild of which
one swings Star out Tips much Salon like a door.
Fountain Green FarmBehind this Stebbins bookcase Anderson is a small closet
& Building Supply like area, which Studio leads C Jewelry to an exterior
Four Corners Travel door. As the Toll story Brothers goes, Harvey, upon
Four Corners Liquorsgetting bored Two with Sisters his Gallery guests, would
Forever Clean slip out through Utopia the Women’s bookcase Fashions to the
Franz Construction outside. Valleybrook Country Club
Gatchellville Shop In the entrance Wilson’s Farm hall, Market at the foot
GBMC, Jacksonville of the stairs Wine leading the to Woods Ladew’s bedroom,
is a newel post inset containing
Would you a silver like dollar to join dated this 1847. list? The original
owner did this to indicate the year
the mortgage was finally paid off.
The Ladew estate features 15
enchanting garden rooms, a nature
walk and a historic manor house. The
gardens and nature walk are selfguided,
and the house tour is guided.
From the formal rose garden to the
cottage garden, water lily garden
36 Mason-Dixon ARRIVE | APRIL 2011 Mason-Dixon ARRIVE | APRIL 2011 37