You Can Watch Ghost Hunters Online

If you missed John Wilkes Booth and the Dr. Samuel Mudd House on Ghost Hunters last night (Wednesday, August 26) or if you'd like to watch the episode again, you can watch the show online via the Ghost Hunters website via the link below. When you get to the site click on "Full Episode: I Am Not Guilty" in the upper right hand corner of the web page.

It's wonderful to see assassination and Booth family expert Micheal W. Kauffman on the show. Mike is the author of American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies which is a must read for anyone interested in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

http://www.syfy.com/ghosthunters

If the link doesn't work, try copying it and pasting it into your browser window and hitting enter.

Enjoy the show!

Look For Us On Facebook

Don't forget you can become a "fan" of Spirits of Tudor Hall on Facebook.

If you have any questions on how to do so, please contact us at spirits-of-tudor-hall@msn.com.

John Wilkes Booth on Ghost Hunters, August 26, 2009

According to the Ghost Hunters website, John Wilkes Booth and the Samuel Mudd house will be featured on the show on Wednesday evening, August 26, 2009. The show airs at 9:00 p.m. EDT (8:00 p.m. CDT) on the Syfy channel.

John Wilkes Booth stopped at Dr. Mudd's house to have his injured leg treated while he was attempting to escape after the assassination on President Abraham Lincoln.

Here's a link to the Ghost Hunters website. If the link doesn't work, try copying it and pasting it into your browser window and hitting enter.

http://www.syfy.com/ghosthunters/

Work Progressing on New Roof

Left click on any of the photos for a better view.

As shown in the above photo, as of Thursday morning, August 6, 2009, the old roofing has been removed from the four surfaces at the very front of the house and a new insulating, waterproofing layer has been applied.

Closer view of two of the roof surfaces at the front of the house as they appeared Wednesday morning, August 5, 2009.

The photo above as well as those that follow were taken Wednesday, August 5, and illustrate some of the the oldest roofing material (ca. 1852) coming down.

The above photo is a good illustration of the underside of the old roofing.

Last piece of roofing about to come down from this portion of the roof.

Ca. 1852 lumber that hasn't seen daylight in at least 157 years! The crew said none of the wood in this photo would need to be replaced.

This roof surface did not remain open to the sunlight for long. It was soon covered in insulating/waterproofing/weatherproofing material as seen in the photo at the top of this post.

The underside of much of the original roofing remains in relatively good condition.

The top layer of paint/sealant is a rubbery light green material. Below it is a layer of darker green paint.

More photos will be added as work on the roof progresses. Keep an eye on the blog for updates.

Wayne Schaumburg Conducts Tours at Green Mount Cemetery

On July 20, 2009, Baltimore historian Wayne Schaumburg was featured in an article in a newspaper published by Johns Hopkins University called the JHU Gazette.

Mr. Schaumburg leads tours of Green Mount Cemetery which include a visit to the Booth family plot. Dinah Faber has taken a couple of non-credit Baltimore history classes with Mr. Schaumburg and has also participated in one of his tours of Green Mount, and she highly recommends both his classes and his tours.

You can read the article online on the Gazette's website: http://gazette.jhu.edu. Scroll down to the "People" section for a link to the article.

You can visit Mr. Schaumburg's website at: http://home.earthlink.net/~wschaumburg

If the links don't work, try copying them and pasting them into your browser window and hitting enter.

New Chimney Nearly Done

A dedicated crew from Decker Contracting, Inc., of Elkton, Maryland, has been hard at work the past two weeks on a new chimney for Tudor Hall.

The chimney, which was nearing completion when these photos were taken on July 30, 2009, is being built to resemble the original chimney. A big "Thank You" goes out to Victor Miller, a dedicated member of the Harford County Historic Preservation Commission, who worked hard to make this happen.

This is a closeup of the chimney as it looked in 1865 when the first known photo of Tudor Hall was taken.

If you left click on this photo to access an enlargement, you'll see that there is one space left to be filled on the outside rim of the chimney.


The last brick on the outside rim is going into place in this photo. Hurray!

It's been a good year for berries in Harford County. There are several varieties ripening at Tudor Hall. The ripe berry in this photo was consumed by the photographer right after this photo was taken, and the photographer says it was DELICIOUS!


There's at least one apple tree growing behind Tudor Hall. Junius Brutus Booth Sr. planted an apple orchard and had a cider press on the farm.

Left click on this photo for a better view. Children from the surrounding neighborhoods are frequent visitors to the grounds at Tudor Hall. It's wonderful to hear their excited voices and to see them having so much fun.

Photos by Dinah Faber, July 30, 2009.

"Brick Brigade" Transfers Old Chimney Bricks to Historical Society of Harford County

The "Brick Brigade" from left to right and front to back include:
Kathleen King, Mike Brown, Sally Cassilly, Dinah Faber, Ben Knight,
and Maryanna Skowronski.

The old brick chimney at Tudor Hall was recently removed so a new chimney can be built by Decker Contracting of Elkton, Maryland. The workmen carefully removed as many whole bricks as possible using hammers to tap them loose. The bricks were brought down from the roof and carefully stowed in a couple of big boxes awaiting transfer to the basement of the Historical Society of Harford County where they will be stored, analyzed, and eventually used for fund raising projects to benefit Tudor Hall and the Booth Research Center of the Historical Society.

Mike Brown and Sally Cassilly were already hard at work by the time the other volunteers arrived on Saturday morning, July 25, 2009. Mike is a tour guide for Spirits of Tudor Hall, and Sally was a frequent guest of Howard and Dorothy Fox when the Foxes lived at Tudor Hall.

One of the boxes containing the old bricks appears in the center of this photo along with Ben Knight, Kathleen King, and Sally Cassilly engaged in the arduous task of hauling bricks.


The task of loading the bricks went much more quickly than expected; and, before long, the boxes were nearly empty. Mike Brown and Ben Knight pitch in.

Maryanna Skowronski, director of the Historical Society of Harford County, hard at work emptying the second box.


After the bricks were loaded, everyone drove to the Historical Society of Harford County located at 143 Main Street in downtown Bel Air where the bricks were unloaded by Sally Cassilly and Ben Knight and the rest of the hardy volunteers.


Kathleen King worked on her hands and knees at times to stow the bricks in an out-of-the-way spot in the basement (also known as the dungeon) of the historical society. Spirits of Tudor Hall cannot thank Kathleen, Sally, Mike, Ben, Maryanna, and Dinah enough for taking quick action on short notice to "save" the bricks. We also wish to thank volunteers Sonja Marshall and Jill Redding for coming out to help as well. Sorry we just missed you at Tudor Hall!