HISTORY
Swansbury, an extraordinary Federal-era frame villa, may be the most architecturally intriguing building in Harford County, Maryland. It was built and continuously owned by successive generations of the Griffith-Smith-Jay family, whose members had blood ties to the first Chief Justice of the United States and military and social ties to the nation's first president. Visually, the entire complex remains virtually unchanged from its Federal-are appearance.
Swansbury also contains an array of eleven frame outbuildings (barns, wash house, poultry houses, meat house, etc.) which seem to date from the early 19th century; a log structure, almost certainly built as slaves' quarters, stands nearby and probably dates from the 18th century.
Pictured here is the "Corn House" front and center, the "Cow Barn" to the right, and the "Hay Barracks" peaking out on the left.
