The original property was improved in the late 1850s on what was the ancestral homestead of John Eager Howard with a large Italian country estate mansion.
It was the birthplace of John Eager Howard, a three term Maryland governor, prior a member of the Continental Congress, a Colonel in the Revolutionary War and later a vice-presidential candidate.
Ethel was the daughter of Jacob Epstein, founder of Baltimore Bargain Basement, which was the fourth largest wholesale business in the nation.
Its exterior front portico was redone with six columns and balustrade to resemble George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon.
The library was paneled in dark native pine to replicate of the Sutton Scarsdale Room from Derbyshire, England from 1724 to 1727, exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.