Belmont to Become Nature Park

Howard County plans to buy —the Elkridge estate built in the 1730s—and use it as a history and nature park, County Executive Ken Ulman announced Wednesday. The estate currently is owned by Howard Community College.

“There’s no question that this is a gem,” Ulman said, speaking under a tent in front of the buttercup-colored manor house.

Built by iron magnate Caleb Dorsey in 1738, the Belmont property includes a manor house, barn, carriage house, cottage and other amenities on 82 sprawling acres at the end of Belmont Woods Drive.

“It’s a really important gem,” continued Ulman. “Howard County will move to acquire this property from Howard Community College and preserve it as a history and nature park for all future generations.”

The county had to notify the college by May 29 whether it would buy the property, according to a Howard County spokesman.

It will cost Howard County $89,000 to buy the estate from the college, according to a statement from the county executive's office.

Five years ago, Howard County loaned the college $2.6 million so it could purchase the property.

"Anything they put into the project, they got to deduct off of the purchase price that we had been offered," said Lynn Coleman, vice president of administration and finance for .

"Total, the county had contributed $2,610,000—and that included $2,200,000 for the original purchase and $410,000 for the barn," said Coleman. "We had been offered $2.7 million [by an outside buyer] so [the county] offered $2.6 million and they got to pay the difference" of $89,000 needed to complete the sale.

Settlement on the property is expected this summer, according to a spokesman for the county executive's office.

Howard Community College intended to use the estate for a hospitality program but , citing the economy.

The county had the right of first refusal in buying the property, thanks to an amendment that Councilwoman Courtney Watson (D-Elkridge) wrote into legislation around the county's loan.

Ulman said Belmont will open this fall for nature hikes on a limited basis and that the estate will open for larger events in fall 2013.

"We will generate revenue through events and weddings," said Ulman, who noted that it is not an expectation of a county park to generate revenue.

Mary Ellen Baker, the general manager for Belmont, said she knows there's a demand for the venue. “I have a list of people already that want to have weddings here,” Baker told Patch.

Baker, whose previous experience includes running the Wine in the Woods festival in Columbia, said the Department of Recreation and Parks asked her to manage Belmont in August 2011. At the earliest, she said weddings would take place there in fall 2013.

“First, we have to do remediation and cleanup,” Baker said.

The county conducted due diligence regarding the Elkridge property for about one year, and had . Its research revealed "some contamination in the ground" and "aspects of the manor house that the county needs to clean up," reported the Howard County Times.

“We are not going to operate this as a retreat center the way it was," Ulman told Patch. "This is really going to become a nature park."

The parks department will handle management, and programming would run through various nonprofits, Ulman said. 

“We envision a modest budget by working with nonprofits to offer programming here," he said. Possible organizations he mentioned included the Patapsco Valley Heritage Greenway and the Sierra Club.

This article was updated to include additional information from Howard Community College.