Locals refer to the manor house at Tally Ho Farms in Monkton as “Miss Ellie’s house.”
As a child living in Washington, D.C., during the legislative sessions and in Oakington, near Havre de Grace in Harford, Eleanor Tydings Russell, 76, daughter of the late Sen. Millard Tydings, had long dreamed about living in Maryland’s horse country.
Thirty-five years ago, she realized that dream when she and her then-husband John Shapiro, owner of the Laurel Race Track, purchased Tally Ho Farms.
For more than three decades, they hosted numerous parties, events, soirees and gatherings centered around horse racing, fox hunting and dog breeding.
“The parties we had! We entertained a lot, endless parties, and we held my daughter’s wedding there,” Russell said
Ketch Secor, a longtime neighbor and friend, grew up with the Shapiro children.
“There were dogs running around, kids running around, horses running around all day,” Secor said.
“We would play tennis and go swimming in a pool that had a bubble over it in winter. Mr. Shapiro was like a father/mentor figure, so it wasn’t unusual for young people to be sitting in the living room talking to him, which added to the place’s prominence. When Mr. Shapiro spoke and gave advice, you listened. It wasn’t just some old farm. It was a place for fun, play and casual socializing.”
Russell took particular pride in the home’s topiary and other gardens and farm’s rolling greens.
“They were beautiful. The topiary gardens were inspired by Ladew, and the house and our parties were often written up in magazines,” Russell said of the 189-acre property that once had been the original hunting grounds for the Piscataway Indians.
The property, which had been passed down for generations within the Hutchins family tree, offers stunning views and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“We were like the fourth or fifth owners, the first outside the Hutchins family when we bought it,” Russell said.
Currently for sale for nearly $4 million, the original portion of the nine-bedroom, 3.5-bath home is a Flemish bond brick Georgian built by Jarret Hutchins between 1815 and 1830.
“Over the years, many additions have been built onto the house,” she said.
Inside the home are Tuscan columns, grand fireplaces, fine moldings, white marble window sills, mahogany doors with crystal knobs, a finished attic and basement, and four-car garage.
“I had furnished the home with exquisite antiques,” said Russell, a longtime master of the Maryland fox hunt.
“We have an easement on the property allowing for fox and other hunts that take place annually.”
Heidi Krauss, the Realtor handling the sale, described Tally Ho as “one of the defining properties in Monkton’s long and storied equestrian culture.”
