William Paca designed much of his own Georgian mansion, the William Paca House, once known as Carvel Hall, between 1763 and 1765. This is the home of Founding Father William Paca, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and a three‑term Governor of Maryland. The house itself was built between 1763 and 1765, its architecture largely designed by Paca himself.
Imagine the hands that planned these façades while you study the brick and symmetry that remain. Behind the house lies a walled, two‑acre garden — 8,100 square metres — restored to its original state and including a charming two‑story summer house you can pick out among the plantings. You’re standing where change and restoration meet: in the 19th century the one‑story office and kitchen pavilions and their hyphens were altered when the property became part of the Carvel Hall Hotel, enlarged by a second story on the hyphens and west wing.
Those Victorian interventions have since been reversed so the building today approximates its original outward appearance, inside and out. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971, and in 1780 Paca sold it to Thomas Jenings, Maryland’s attorney general. Beyond it waits the two-story summer house, tucked among the garden's restored plantings.