RIVERDALE PARK, MD -- Nobody remembers the losers.
Perhaps that is the explanation for the nearly forgotten status of a fascinating historic site in Riverdale Park, Md.
The Riversdale House Museum tells the story of a broad expanse of Maryland history from the founding of the colony by George Calvert the Lord Baltimore, through slavery, and the roots of the University of Maryland.
But the federalist mansion built shortly before the War of 1812 is closely tied to one of the most forgettable defeats in U.S. military history, the Battle of Bladensburg.
American troops folded and fled as outnumbered British attackers moved toward Washington. The invaders sacked the city, burned the White House, and nearly captured President James Madison.
The Riverdale house survived the battle nearby. Slaves living on the 740-acre plantation were directed to help bury the dead.
The mistress of the property at the time, Rosalie Stier Calvert, was married to a grandson of the first Lord Baltimore. She left an important collection of her letters, titled Mistress of Riversdale, The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 1991. The letters range in date from 1795 to 1821, and illuminate the life of Calvert's plantation household, including the events leading up to and during the War of 1812.
A slave, Adam Francis Plummer, also lived at the plantation and left a diary that is one of of the few detailed written accounts of the slave experience in America.
A small agricultural school founded on the property eventually moved and grew to become the University of Maryland.
Today, the house in the heart of Riverdale Park, Md. has been restored and is operated as a museum by the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation.
On Saturday August 11th, the Riversdale House Museum will host an annual gathering of re-enactors to commemorate the 204th anniversary of the Battle of Bladensburg.
The Museum will also unveil the restoration of a cannon linked to the Calverts that is displayed on the property.
The cannon was brought to Maryland in 1634 by the colonists who founded St. Mary's City, the first colonial settlement in the state.
