Carrollton Hall was commissioned in 1831 by Emily and John McTavish on property given to them by Emily’s grandfather, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. The thousand acres of land given to them was known as Folly Quarter or Folly Farm. It was one of many quarter farms that made up the Carroll Family plantation, Doughoregan. Each quarter would have had a group of enslaved people who lived at the quarter farm, worked the land, tended to the animals, and carried out tradecrafts, such as woodworking or smithing. There would also have been an overseer and possibly his family who lived there.
When Emily and John built their new house at Folly Quarter, they were entering into an established community, many of whom Emily may have known from her time at Doughoregan growing up and as an adult. Carrollton Hall joined an existing landscape made up of agricultural fields, orchards, slave quarters, barns, dairy buildings, a blacksmith’s forge, wood shop, bathhouse, laundries, an overseer’s house, and more.
Our research into the buildings and landscape, as well as the diverse people who designed, built, lived, and worked in them, is ongoing.
As you drive up the drive to Carrollton Hall, it’s hard to miss the cows grazing in nearby fields or Little Portion Farm, a fruit and vegetable farm complete with greenhouses, wildflower gardens, and a small orchard. The land at Folly Quarter is the only former Carroll-related property still used in an agricultural context today.