Rock Hall was built in 1810 by Roger Johnson, the brother of Thomas Johnson, Maryland's first governor. The brothers owned and operated furnaces, employing about 400 people in that operation and ancillary business lines. At that time this area was practically wilderness, with Elk, wolves, cougars, bears, turkeys, and passenger pidgeons, and everything else that would eventually be pushed further west.
The house is a remarkable architectural example of a manor house built at that time. The first addition was constructed around 1825, adding another stairwell, an upstairs sleeping porch, great receiving room and incorporating the kitchen hearth. The hearth stone was bigger than a Volkswagen, and the wood floor was laid around it.
The two-story second addition was built as a frame house around 1930, with clapboard siding. It looks like a doll house.
It is a private residence and was brought back from the brink of disaster some 40 years ago, when the windows were rotted out, the roof was nearly gone, the floors warped. The plaster ceilings and walls were replaced, electrical and plumbing brought up to the current century's standard. The kitchen hearth was uncovered, fully entact, having been encapsulated in a plaster sleeve. Some of the iron inner workings of the hearth were still there.
The stone tiered mounting block still stands at the end of the walk, which is lined by ancient boxwoods.
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