Charles E. Bryan

restorers and agriculturalists  

Telephone company executive Charles E. Bryan and his wife purchased Mount Pleasant from the Osborn family in 1907. The original house was in severe disrepair, and not much was salvageable.   

The couple hired the firm Parker and Thomas to design a new mansion. As noted in an interview between Charles Bryan's stepson and historian Christopher Weeks, they saved the walnut Chinese Chippendale stair rail and reused as much of the original eighteenth-century woodwork as they could. The new house would also retain the lion's head door knocker.

Equally importantly, it was the Bryans who oversaw the revitalization of the lawns, gardens, and orchards.  Manure from Havre de Grace race tracks, lime, and straw helped to replenish the soil, and the orchards were said to run more efficiently and productively than ever before. The first Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage came to Mount Pleasant in 1930 to see the Bryan's gardens. Charles Bryan, who was often a guest and speaker at garden clubs, even hosted local college students as part of a farm internship program. 

Works Consulted