Skip to content

Public Hours

April through October
Sundays 1-4 PM (except Easter)
Extended hours based per event.

Explore

About the Farm

Hancock Family

Photo Gallery

History

Events Calendar

Upcoming:

No data was found

Docent Center

Hello, all, 

Last weekend we had 87 visitors.  We thank all of you who helped make the Pet Parade a fun and successful event. Several people gave me a total of $50 in donations. This year we added candy grab bags because of candy left over from the Downs Park Trick or Treat Trail. Everyone thought it was a great idea. So, think about whether we should add it next year. Also, several people mentioned that they love our event because it is well organized. So, again thank you for making the event such a wonderful success.

*****************************************

This Sunday (November 2, 2025) and next Sunday (November 9, 2025) are this year’s version of the year in review meeting.  There will be a paper version of the review, a table of food and drinks, and more work on removing our artifacts from the barn. 

Port-a-potties will remain in place thru November.

***************************************

During the renovation, event equipment and displays, plus artifacts must be removed from the barn. If you have anything in the barn that needs to be removed OR if you are willing to help remove the artifacts, please contact Bill. 

*************************************** 

The following items have been taken care of:
-Nancy is storing the scale that was on display in the barn and will be storing the shallop and case
-the Park rangers are storing the portable TV 
-Amelia is storing the costumes in one of her closets
-Lisa Geyer is storing the library books
–cloth chairs and tables are in the Morten building
-Bill is taking care of the picker checks 
-all items except the quilt have been removed from the barn walls – Bill will call the company that hung the quilt to determine how and the cost of removing the quilt – Due to the size of the quilt, it will be left up until more specific renovation plans are made.

*************************************** 

A physical inventory of items being removed from the barn has been started. If you have stored or are going to store items, please check with Bill to see that your items are added to the inventory.
Items still to be taken care of:
-remove the Model T – Glenn Schmidt
-remove the Arab wagon – possibly to the Morten building
-remove the books for sale 
-refrigerator 
-children and Indian display – Ember
-take metal shelves in the closet to the Morten Building
-wooden chairs
-spinning wheels 
-paintings – Lois, Paul, & Bill
-family tools – Tom Calvert

***************************************

This link  (Docent Calendar  for 2025) has all the Events plus other activities we are involved in. At the top of the 2025 calendar page is a link to the proposed 2026 page. Events from this year have 2026 dates. When a date is fixed for an event the title of the event will start with 2026. Statewide Maryland Day is the only event listed for 2026 at this time.

Betty Ann

Email Betty Ann with QUESTIONS, UPDATES AND CHANGES 

×

Split Rail Fence

The traditional “Snake and Cross” or “Zigzag” fence is based on remnants of the original fence. The 11 foot, hand split rails would have been constructed of chestnut. The chestnut blight killed most of the towering trees in the early 1900’s.

×

Entrance

Hancock’s Resolution is now a Historic Park in the Anne Arundel County Park System. While farmsteads like this used to cover this county side (except this one was constructed with stone while the great majority were wood frame) this c. 1785 stone house and milk house are the last surviving authentic, restored but not renovated, farm structures left in the entire region. As such they are of singular importance. (1785 was four years before George Washington became President of the United States.

×

Cook House

The owner of this two story farmhouse, Henry Alfred Cook, married Rhoda Virginia Hancock, who was born upstairs at Hancock’s Resolution. Constructed in the mid 1800s with an addition added later in the century, this house was originally located approximately a mile west of its present location. It was moved to the park in 1991 to serve as a care taker’s home.

×

Bodkin Creek

In either one or both of June 12 and 14, 1608 (N.S.*) (the first date before going up the Bolus (Patapsco) River and the second date coming back down the river) Capt. John Smith and his crew entered and mapped Bodkin Creek, very probably looking for fresh water. (* “N.S” stands for “New Style”, meaning the Gregorian calendar presently in use and not the earlier “Julian Calendar”, in use at the time of his voyage.”

×

Graveyard

The Hancock family graveyard contains at least 125 head and foot stones. The graves are marked with headstones made of the local sandstone, which was readily available. While many of the tombstone’s inscriptions have worn away, several from the 19th and 20th centuries are still readable including one marked “A. H.” and dated 1809, which marks the grave of Anne Hancock, third wife of Stephen. Stephen’s grave is some distance away to the left and the space between the graves may contain the graves of Stephen’s children and earlier wives.

×

Farm Field

The farm field is an area where exhibition crops are planted and farming using historical methods is demonstrated.

×

Bee Hives

Bee hives in boxes, baskets or even parts of hollow logs were a part of traditional farming practices. Beehives were documented on Francis Hancock’s 1832 probate inventory; honey and beeswax were important to both 17th and 18th century farms. The bees at the farm are tended by the farm’s master gardeners and housed in modern “Langstroth’s Hives.” These movable frame hives, patented in 1852, revolutionized bee keeping and are still preferred today.

×

House

Stephen Hancock built the house in 1785 and Hancock descendents continued to live in the house until the 1960s. Lacking electricity, plumbing and central heating the house is largely unchanged since its construction. The house is constructed of native sandstone. Galleting is used on the entire wall surface of both the house and the adjacent milk house. It is the only known rural example of this technique in the Chesapeake region. The first floor contains one large room with plaster over hand-split lath. Original Federal period trim, including baseboards, chair rail, window and door surrounds, decorate the room as does the elaborate mantelpiece.

×

Milk House

In the 18th and early 19th century dairy products were stored in the milk house. The Hancock family used the building as a grocery and dry goods store in the early 20th century until the frame building was later constructed. It also has the galleting that is also used on the house.

×

Gardens

A “kitchen garden” located just outside the home consisted of both foods and herbs and ornamental plants. Kitchen gardens were common place into the 1900s. The current garden is a historically accurate reconstruction of the Hancock family garden. A grove of ancient Lilacs and a thicket of Chickasaw Plums (known to be utilized by the pre-Colonial Indian populations of Anne Arundel County) are found outside the gardens.

×

Well

The well is believed to have dated from the 18th century when the house was constructed. The well remained in use until the 1950’s when the elderly Mamie Hancock could no longer manage the daily chore of hauling water for everyday use and a modern well with hand pump was installed closer to the house. Approximately 14 feet deep, the well is lined with stones “dry laid” and is untouched except for repairs at the frost line.

×

Store

The Hancock family ran a dry goods and grocery store in the 20th century. The store served the local farmers, lighthouse keepers, fisherman, and oyster dredgers as well as the seasonal workers who were employed at the farm. This current building is a historically accurate reconstruction of the frame building and houses displays and a small gift shop.

×

Barn Site

This is believed to be the site of an early barn. At some future date, we hope to reconstruct the barn and have farm animals.

×

Trail

Self-guided Tour (map available at entrance)

×

Trail

Self-guided Tour (map available at entrance)

×

Bodkin Creek

War of 1812 Burning of Lion picture – wording to use: On August 24, 1814, a British raiding party, patrolling the Patapsco area in advance of their attack on Baltimore, entered Bodkin Creek and burned a “fine” American schooner they identified as being the “Lion of Baltimore”. That is the same name as one of America’s best privateers in the War of 1812 although, it turns out, there may have been more than one vessel of that name.