Bonaparte graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1871 and lived in Grays Hall during his freshman year.

He was also the founding president of the Signet Society, a literary and art recognition final club at Harvard.

[7] It lies east of the Harford Road (Maryland Route 147) in an area called Glen Arm.

The house was not electrified since Bonaparte refused to have electricity or telegraph lines installed due to a dislike of technology, verified by his use of a horse-drawn coach until he died in the early 1920s.

Bonaparte was a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners from 1902 to 1904, chairman of the National Civil Service Reform League in 1904, and appointed a trustee of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

In 1908, Bonaparte established a Bureau of Investigation (BOI) within the Department of Justice, under the direction of the Attorney General himself.

In the 1912 United States presidential election, Bonaparte supported the Bull Moose party of Theodore Roosevelt.

[12] Bonaparte died in Bella Vista at age 70 and is interred at southwest Baltimore's landmark Loudon Park Cemetery.

The site was replaced by a poured concrete mansion, but a large carriage house, dating back to 1896, is still on the estate.