Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

The House

Historic House Collection

Julian Wood Glass Jr. furnished the dining room with pieces that pieces that had been in the house for generations as well as objects that he purchased for his ancestral home.
 

Pictured in text

This large portrait of Miss Elizabeth Taylor c. 1781 by George Romney (1734-1802) is one of manyl impressive paintings in the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection.

 

QuickFact

When assembled, the three-part Hepplewhite walnut dining table can seat 28! The table was made for Glen Burnie in the late eighteenth century and has always been in the house.

Part of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley complex, the Glen Burnie Historic House sits on land that Winchester founder James Wood surveyed, claimed, and then settled in 1735. The oldest portions of the house that greets visitors today were built by Wood’s son Robert in 1794 and 1797. By the 1950’s the 254-acre Glen Burnie property came to be wholly owned by Wood descendant Julian Wood Glass Jr. (1910–1992). Glass preserved and renovated his ancestral home from 1958 to 1959. Then, over the rest of his life, he transformed the house into an opulent country retreat surrounded by six acres of formal gardens and furnished with one of the most remarkable private collections of decorative arts ever assembled in the Shenandoah Valley.

The house is now closed until 2014 for a comprehensive preservation project. During the project, the most informative, unique, and refined objects from the collection in the house will be rotated into the Museum galleries.

The house’s collection contains Valley objects that are original to the earliest Wood and Glass families. Examples include a tall case clock of around 1795 by Goldsmith Chandlee (1751–1821), and the largest single collection of portraits by artist Edward Caledon Bruce (1825–1900).

In addition to these and other objects that he inherited, Glass purchased paintings, fine furniture, and decorative objects for the house. These acquired objects include furniture by Philadelphia and Massachusetts makers, and paintings by such artists as Lionel Constable (1828–1887), Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668), Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860), and George Romney (1734–1802).

A comprehensive, 250-page catalog detailing the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection is available in the Museum Store and online.

  • The gardens surrounding the historic house will remain open during the preservation project. The gardens will be open from March 1 through October 31 in 2012 and will be open from April through October in 2013 and beyond.