Five Minute Histories: The Rogers Mansion at the Zoo

Today we had back to bucolic Druid Hill Park to feature the Mansion House at the Zoo, which at one point was a restaurant and at another point an aviary! Thanks for watching and we’ll see you later this week.
This is our series called "Five Minute Histories." We record short videos about different historic places all over Baltimore and post them on our Facebook page, RUclips channel, and website. For more information or to become a member of Baltimore Heritage, check out: baltimoreherit...

[@ginalee7876]

Wow, that was alot of information, much of which I did not know. Always an adventure listening to these stories. Thanks 😁

[@michaelrogers9809]

This is wonderful! Thank you so much for this. I'm a direct descendant of Nicholas Rogers, and I'd always known that Druid Hill was his estate. This is the best explanation of the history of the property I've heard.

[@lizjoyw]

I believe not 100% sure but I’m trying to work on my family tree and I think Nicholas and Eleanor Rodgers were my 7th great grandparents and George Buchanan and Eleanor my 6th great grandparents,,, it’s been hard figuring it all out because so many of them have the same names! But this is so cool if it is since I’ve been to Druid Hill park so many times!

[@carolbair2160]

I remember on the lawn in front of the mansion seeing elephants do tricks

[@stevehasler8922]

I had never heard that this spit of land was once named, "Hab Nab At A Venture". It's an interesting phrase, though, in that it is comprised of two archaic English expressions that kind of mean the same thing. "Hab nab" was the shorthand for "by hab or nab" which meant, "win or lose" or "by chance." And, "at a venture" could be translated in modern American English to, "on a whim" or "by happenstance" or maybe, "a wild hare." So, together, Hab Nab At A Venture could be modernized to something like, 'Lucky Luck" or "Crazy Bet." Anyway, I can easily romanticize a back story involving this tract of land being acquired thanks to a big gambling win or crazy investment paying off. Which is what makes history fun, right?

[@tselliott14545]

Tremendous job - as always. I enjoy your research & history. Sadly, I have never been inside the structure, but also wish part of the terrace would be returned to open air. $500k sell price in late 1860's??!! Wow. That's a huge ammount. With an inflation rate of 2% per year, that equates to over $16 million!!!

[@kathrynblom9563]

Thanks--so interesting!

[@soyoonakim]

Always so interesting to watch. Thanks for the video. Loved the outro about the wedding hall.

[@d.l.l.6578]

These are lovely, interesting histories. Since they’re going closer to ten minutes, maybe they should be called 10 minute histories, instead of five minute.

[@mikebull7775]

Nice!

[@history775]

Interesting video