Founded in the 1730s and known in the Colonial period as "Moore's Morning Choice",[5] it was one of the earliest forced-labor farms in Howard County, Maryland.

[7] The property was then successively owned and maintained as the Belmont Conference Center, by the Smithsonian Institution, the American Chemical Society, and Howard Community College.

[4] The tract, called Moore's Morning Choice, sat on a ridge above Elkridge Landing with views of the lower Patapsco River Valley.

[10] About 1735, this land and an adjoining tract called Rockburn[11] were purchased by Caleb Dorsey (1710–1772), of Hockley-in-the-Hole on the Severn River, an early industrialist and farmer.

[17] Edward later gave the property to his daughter, Priscilla, the wife of Alexander Contee Hanson,[6] a United States senator.

[19] An original reproduction portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1794 or 1795 hung in the mansion for a century and was sold in 1913 by the Hanson family to a New York collector for $15,000 to $20,000.

The Society is a non-profit literary organization devoted to the study, preservation, and publication of the works of English poet John Clare.

[4] On September 30, 2010, Howard Community College announced that it could no longer afford to maintain and operate the Belmont Estate, due to the effects of the economic recession.

[28] The government of Howard County, whose loan terms included the right of first refusal,[4] conducted from September 2011 to May 2012 a detailed study of the feasibility of purchasing and operating the property for public purposes.

[31] In a radio interview on June 29, 2012, Kenneth Ulman said that the Belmont Estate would complement other Howard County nature attractions, including the Howard County Conservancy, located in Woodstock, Maryland, on a 300-year-old, 232-acre farm; and the James and Anne Robinson Nature Center, located in Columbia, Maryland, on 18 acres of land adjacent to the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area.