The Cloisters was bequeathed to the City of Baltimore by its original owners, Sumner A. Parker (1881-1946) and G. Dudrea Parker (1883-1972). Both Mr. and Mrs. Parker were Baltimore natives and graduated from the Johns Hopkins University. After their marriage in 1905, the Parkers traveled throughout Europe and the United States collecting art works and artifacts which they kept at The Cloisters and in their home at 913 St. Paul Street. The Parkers frequently opened both homes as museums for the public.
Mr. Parker was president of Armstrong and Parker Company. Located where Lake Clifton High School now stands, the company made ornamental ironwork, such as balconies and gates. Some of this ironwork can still be seen at The Cloisters and around the city. The Parkers had three children: Sumner A. Parker, Jr. (who died in infancy), F. Jameson Parker (1909-1971), and Katherine S. Parker (1914-1978).
The Cloisters is located on a 60-acre estate in Lutherville, Maryland. The Parkers designed The Cloisters themselves, basing their design on the late medieval French and English architecture they saw during their travels. Construction took several years and the house was completed in 1932. The Cloisters takes its name from the cloistered, or covered, walkway surrounding the garden located next to the Gallery.
The Cloisters has a unique blend of architectural elements and styles. The massive walls and stones of the roof are all of native Butler stone, some of which was quarried on the estate. The interior beams are of oak, walnut and chestnut, selected from trees grown on the estate and hand-hewn by Mr. Wylie Ingram, a woodworker and craftsman originally from North Carolina.
Most of the decorative ironwork was designed by Mr. Parker and executed in his ironworks, including the railing of the four-story spiral stairtower. The carved stone doorways in the Gallery and the Chapel are Italian Renaissance. The Gallery garden doors and the windows in the Chapel and the Solarium are from the Glen Ellen mansion, once located near the Loch Raven reservoir.
The original estate windmill was a studio for Mr. Parker. After it was destroyed by fire in 1940, it was replaced by the one now standing. This served as quarters for the groundskeeper and pumped water for the swimming pool.
Note: the photo serving as a header graphic to this web site was taken of the surrounding woods on the Cloisters patio, when we went for the open house.
