The Gordon-Roberts House

06/11/2024

Did George Really Sleep There?

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/551hxSNx9kdqwLL7/

02/29/2024

Twenty-nine cool things to do on Leap Day. (PRO TIP: This list probably works on other days!)

It's a Leap Year! So, we've put together 29 things you can do in Allegany County, the Mountain Side of Maryland with your extra calendar day.

12/22/2023

There are good people in America. A heartland holiday read worth the time.

Notoriously frugal, Terry Kahn amassed more than $13 million, to the surprise of almost everyone. When he died, he gave his fortune to nonprofits.

11/02/2023

11/01/2023

09/11/2023

This!

https://www.times-news.com/news/photos-heritage-days-dodges-storms-has-large-turnout/article_910f79ea-500b-11ee-a92c-231609cb9b5b.html

CUMBERLAND — The 54th annual Heritage Days street festival had a large turnout over the weekend with the vendors and attendees dodging extreme heat and thunderstorms.

02/15/2023

09/25/2022

Visit with a Shawnee family who will demonstrate some daily life skills of their ancestors in 18th century Western Pennsylvania.

07/14/2021

The Gordon Roberts House is open for tours tomorrow, Thursday July 15th, from 1:30 to 5pm!! Hope to see you here!

05/14/2021

Master Gardners Sherry Frick and Mary Jo Price planting flowers at the Gordon Roberts House. 😊

03/11/2021

March is Women’s History Month and in recognition we will be highlighting amazing, history making Maryland women throughout history.

Elizabeth Lowndes was born into the family of a successful Cumberland, MD merchant, Richard Lowndes and Louisa Black. Her family ties led backwards throughout American greatness including lines of the Bladens, Lloyds, Platers- even to the line of Washington.

Sent as a young girl to the Patapsco Institute, Elizabeth was schooled in “advanced female education” and leadership programs. This training served her well later in life when she was married to Lloyd Lowndes Jr. in 1869. By 1892 he was elected as Governor of Maryland making Elizabeth First Lady.

The couple served Maryland as the only gubernatorial couple from Allegany County then and still. As First Lady of Maryland, Elizabeth was well known as being a congenial conversationalist, a much required skill for the spouse of a politician. Women’s histories are often not detailed in history books but in correspondences you will find just what sway the measured words of a politician’s wife over dinner or tea can have in later negotiations. Mrs. Lowndes was also known as an affable hostess, entertaining guests from many walks of life. Her ability to placate opposing politicians and charm many allowed her husband’s agendas to often pass smoothly over paths she had paved in forming relationships. She was even said to have been able to make jovial the notoriously uncharismatic President Benjamin Harrison.

Later in life, Elizabeth chose to use her life of privilege engaging in philanthropic endeavors. She was heavily involved in Emmanuel Episcopal church on Washington Street participating in their programs and outreaches. She was a charter member of the Cumberland Civic Club, early supporter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals and aided her daughter in establishing a tuberculosis hospital in the area. After her husband passed in 1905, Elizabeth served on the board of Lady Governors of the Exposition of Jamestown. She was known to donate to civic needs freely such as purchasing a fire engine for the city of Annapolis when they found themselves in need.

Sadly, when she passed in 1922 she was poorly eulogized by the Baltimore Sun which focuses merely on her bloodlines rather than her personal successes. In a time when Women’s History Month was not a consideration the Sun merely said of her:

“ She possessed the indefinable distinction that belonged to a day when breeding was more essential than bookishness, and when social culture ranked higher in woman's realm than university degrees or political ambition . . . [she] was what is meant by true womanhood, by the rare combination of what used to be called high breeding with strength of
character and spiritual power.”

We choose today to instead remember her for the political partner she was to her husband whose prowess for navigating political and social troubled waters afforded her prominence in a time when women were not much celebrated for roles outside of the home and family.

The Lowndes family donated several elegant pieces of Victorian era furniture to the Gordon-Roberts House which are proudly displayed still today as articles of Elizabeth Lowndes’ legacy.