Homeland

In June of 1924, the Roland Park Company acquired Homeland, the 391-acre northern Baltimore City estate that would become the company's third residential development. Homeland, assembled by David Maulden Perine, was part of a "rich and picturesque country" landscape (Baltimore Sun July 19, 1871). In 1922, Elias Glenn Perine, son of the original owner, died. Two years later, the company purchased Homeland for over one million dollars and quickly cleared the land for modern homes...
More Description

In June of 1924, the Roland Park Company acquired Homeland, the 391-acre northern Baltimore City estate that would become the company's third residential development. Homeland, assembled by David Maulden Perine, was part of a "rich and picturesque country" landscape (Baltimore Sun July 19, 1871). In 1922, Elias Glenn Perine, son of the original owner, died. Two years later, the company purchased Homeland for over one million dollars and quickly cleared the land for modern homes reflecting the latest taste in home design. Half-timbered Tudor Revival cottages, tile-roofed Italian Revival villas, clapboard Cape Cods, and homes so eclectic that they defy categorization, began to rise. Homeland, together with its predecessors, Roland Park (1891) and Guilford (1913), formed The District. Comprising more than a thousand tree-covered acres on what was then the outskirts of Baltimore City, The District was an early American suburban development and one of the first to embrace the strategies employed at England¿s Letchworth (1903), "the world's first garden city." The District, one of the most influential early American suburbs, remains one of the loveliest today. Kansas City native Edward H. Bouton of the Roland Park Company led the effort to procure land for The District. This land was sewn together with the aid of the Olmsted Brothers. The Olmsted Brothers contributed to many early suburban developments including Forest Hills Gardens in the borough of Queens, New York (1911). These communities bear the Olmstedian hallmarks of respect for existing site topography, curvilinear streetscapes, a preference for natural landscape design over formalized treatments, and the creation of distinct spaces harmoniously integrated into a whole.This "picture" book, illustrated by the artist Tom Chalkley, is intended to appeal to young and old alike. We have arranged these pages in an order suitable for guiding a walking tour, the better to appreciate Homeland's Olmsted Brothers landscape design.