Exhibition Guide
Designer: Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Spring House or Dairy. c. 1812. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of W.J. O’Brien, BMA 1932.25.1. Photography by Mitro Hood
Spring House or Dairy
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Art Object Info
This yellow spring house, or dairy, was used to store fresh milk, eggs, and other perishable food at Oakland, a plantation previously located two and a half miles north of the Museum. The building was essentially a pre-electric refrigerator. It stood over a natural spring, whose water flowed through canals set one and a half feet deep into the floor. To keep items from spoiling, enslaved workers placed ceramic or metal canisters containing dairy products into the cool troughs, and fruits and vegetables were stored on a second story.
The building is insulated by thick walls and adjustable windows to control breezes. The design was commissioned by the plantation owner and enslaver Robert Goodloe Harper (1765–1825), a United States senator. Harper hired his friend Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the United States Capitol Building, to draw the plan, and Latrobe transformed what could have been a plain stone structure into a temple to agriculture. The building presents an idealized vision of American farming, hiding the brutality of enslavement behind a façade celebrating the ancient Greek empire. The triangular pediment crowning the porch rests on four Ionic columns with spiral scrolls, referencing Greek temple architecture. Originally, the Spring House was painted with oak leaves and flowers and an inscription reading “Pour Elle” (For Her), perhaps a reference to Harper’s wife, Catherine.
In 1932, the Spring House was relocated to the Museum property and situated in line with the John Russell Pope building’s east-west axis. During the relocation, a second-story wooden floor and staircase were removed, and a brick floor with a herringbone-pattern border was installed on the lower level to mark where water flowed through the dairy. During a 2003 restoration, the Museum installed a new wood roof and reopened four windows, reintroducing natural air circulation. The house was also painted a yellow ochre color, similar to other estate dairies in Maryland and Virginia. Today, the BMA opens the Spring House to the public to show exhibitions and works of art from the Museum’s collection and to remind visitors of the histories of enslavement in Baltimore City.
Spring House or Dairy
This yellow spring house, or dairy, was used to store fresh milk, eggs, and other perishable food at Oakland, a plantation previously located two and a half miles north of the Museum. The building was essentially a pre-electric refrigerator. It stood over a natural spring, whose water flowed through canals set one and a half feet deep into the floor. To keep items from spoiling, enslaved workers placed ceramic or metal canisters containing dairy products into the cool troughs, and fruits and vegetables were stored on a second story.
The building is insulated by thick walls and adjustable windows to control breezes. The design was commissioned by the plantation owner and enslaver Robert Goodloe Harper (1765–1825), a United States senator. Harper hired his friend Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the United States Capitol Building, to draw the plan, and Latrobe transformed what could have been a plain stone structure into a temple to agriculture. The building presents an idealized vision of American farming, hiding the brutality of enslavement behind a façade celebrating the ancient Greek empire. The triangular pediment crowning the porch rests on four Ionic columns with spiral scrolls, referencing Greek temple architecture. Originally, the Spring House was painted with oak leaves and flowers and an inscription reading “Pour Elle” (For Her), perhaps a reference to Harper’s wife, Catherine.
In 1932, the Spring House was relocated to the Museum property and situated in line with the John Russell Pope building’s east-west axis. During the relocation, a second-story wooden floor and staircase were removed, and a brick floor with a herringbone-pattern border was installed on the lower level to mark where water flowed through the dairy. During a 2003 restoration, the Museum installed a new wood roof and reopened four windows, reintroducing natural air circulation. The house was also painted a yellow ochre color, similar to other estate dairies in Maryland and Virginia. Today, the BMA opens the Spring House to the public to show exhibitions and works of art from the Museum’s collection and to remind visitors of the histories of enslavement in Baltimore City.