Living in History: 5 Great House Museums in Washington
Washington's most fascinating house museums allow visitors to relive history by roaming through rooms
Riversdale House Museum
Courtesy M-NCPPC / Cassi-Hayden
Technological advances have been a boon to house museums, at Riversdale, a Federal style mansion near College Park, as anywhere else. But Riversdale has been the envy of many in the field because of the many letters Rosalie Stier Calvert sent to her father, Henri Joseph Stier, after he moved back to their native Belgium in the early 1800s. In fact, the discovery of the letters — which were collected and published in 1991 as Mistress of Riversdale — is what prompted the house to be set up as a museum and opened to the public in 1993. Prior to that it had been used as offices for the bi-county agency that owns it, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
The letters serve as both the lifeblood and the guiding force at Riversdale, according to employee Maria Grenchik during a recent tour. “We use the book and her letters on an almost daily basis as we’re trying to restore the house to what it looked like when she lived here, but also to interpret it to give a good idea of what it would have been like to live here.”
The Stier family built Riversdale in the very early 1800s, after having taken refuge in America during the French Revolution. Rosalie Stier became head of household at Riversdale, where she raised nine children with her husband George Calvert, a descendant of one of Maryland’s founding families. In turn, one of the couple’s children, Charles Benedict Calvert, helped found the University of Maryland, in addition to serving as a U.S. Congressman. Another intriguing former resident of Riversdale is Adam Francis Plummer, who started as a slave but stayed on as a free employee — and also as a close friend of Charles Calvert — for a total of 41 years.
Riversdale House Museum is 4811 Riverdale Rd. Riverdale, Md. Call 301-864-0420 or visit riversdale.org.
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