Ingleside

"Ingleside" originally was a 130-acre tract on the west side of Baltimore County. Its first known owner was James Gibson [(1793-1872)] , who styled himself 'of Ingleside' ; he was a scion of the wealthy Gibson family that was seated in what today is the 'Bolton Hill' section of Baltimore City, and may have purchased 'Ingleside' with a legacy from his father, William Gibson [(1753-1832)]. In the 1840s James Gibson's wife, Emily Ann [Grundy] Gibson [(1795-1868)], established a female seminary at Ingleside, which lasted into the 1870s. After Mrs. Gibson's death, one of her many spinster daughters, Maria Gibson [(1818-1895)], took over the 'Ingleside Seminary' and kept it going until Mr. Gibson's death required the sale of the property.

The tract was bought by Baltimore shipping merchant Bernard Nadal Baker [(1854-1918)], who had married into the wealthy Livezey family of Catonsville and wanted a country seat close to their Ingleside Avenue residence. He apparently bought not only the Gibson's 'Ingleside', but the 120-acre 'Hemsworth Park' - the country seat of Baltimore dry-goods merchant Ross Campbell [(1820-1876)] - that had adjoined it on the west. On the 250 acres that comprised this expanded 'Ingleside', Mr. Baker built a new, 49-room mansion -modeled on an unidentified British stately home that Mr. Baker reportedly had seen in the course of his travels - after the Gibson's house burned in ca. 1885. The Bakers entertained lavishly in their Catonsville home for the rest of their lives.

Mr. and Mrs. Baker bequeathed 'Ingleside' to their only children, Elizabeth Catherine [(1882-1975)] {sometimes the wife of Maryland governor Albert Cabell Ritchie}, and Marguerite Elton [(1879-1967) {sometimes the wife of Thomas Bullitt Harrison and others}, neither of whom ever showed much interest in living it it. From 1918 to 932 a Catonsville contractor, Anthony T. Carozza, seems to have occupied some or all of the property, but after that it became progressively more derelict until it was gutted by fire in 1952. The house was demolished in 1953, and a portion of the property was taken for the expansion of the Baltimore National Pike (U.S. 40) in the 1950s. Today [2023] the balance of the tract constitutes the Ingleside Shopping Center on the northwest corner of Baltimore National Pike and Johnnycake Road.

Taylor's "Map of the city and county of Baltimore" (1857) Ill. ["Ingleside Seminary, the residence of J. Gibson, Esq." shown in two vignettes above map's bottom righthand corner].

"Old country seats were scenes of gaiety" [in] "Baltimore News", June 25, 1914, page 7 ("Ingleside" mentioned).

Hopkins' "Atlas of Baltimore, Maryland and environs", vol. 2 (1877) Plate E; righthand sheet (Lower left corner of sheet depicts 'Ingleside' and 'Hemsworth Park' (labeled 'R. Campbell Est.') as separate but adjacent tracts).

Bromley's "Atlas of Baltimore County, Maryland" (1915) Plate 7, lefthand sheet [Center of top of sheet is marked 'Ingleside/B.N. Baker/250 acres'].

Wise's "Catonsville" (2005,) pages 38-40. Ills. [Captioned views of interior and exterior of "Ingleside"].

Scarborough's "Baltimore's spreading suburbs" [in] Baltimore "Sun", November 27, 1932, section 2, page 1 Ill. [View of 'Ingleside' is captioned "now occupied by Miss Katherine Schindel"].

"Negro school site proposed" [in] Baltimore "Sun", page 11, column C [Abortive proposal noted to use 'Ingleside' acreage as site for annex to Cheltenham School for Colored Boys].

"Blaze destroys old Ingleside estate in Baltimore County" [in] Baltimore "Sun", March 30, 1952, page 34, column C Ill. [Derelict house burns].

"Catonsville 50 years ago" column [in] "Catonsville Herald Argus" on December 4, 1952; October 22, 1953; and February 4, 1954.

"To build over 500 houses in Westview Park, formerly Ingleside" [in] "Catonsville Herald-Argus", December 2, 1954. [Development plans outlined].

Baltimore "Sun", October 2, 1955, page SM 10 [Full-page spread of A. Aubrey Bodine photograph of ruins of 'Ingleside" as seen from U.S. 40/Baltimore National Pike].