Life Around Tudor Hall

John Wilkes Booth wrote a letter to his friend T. William O'Laughlen on June 18, 1855, describing his activities near Tudor Hall. I find it fascinating—it's a snapshot of the times, social life, and mindset of John as a teenager while living at Tudor Hall. I found this letter in Right or Wrong, God Judge Me—The Writings of John Wilkes Booth, edited by John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper.

My Dear Friend,
I have been so taken up with pastimes and various amusements that I can scarcely find time to sleep, and it is something new to me, being a very late riser[...] The first week in June I was taken up by a Fair [...] I spent more time than money on it [...] for I was there night and day and you must not think I was blowing when I say I cut quite a dash. I saw pretty girls home from the Fair at ten o'clock at night, some at a distance of four or five miles [...] I have visited the Travelers home, or home sweet home [...] The day after tomorrow I am invited to a strawberry eating and I promise you I will do my duty, and from then until teusday I will do nothing but gun, ride, and sleep and eat [...] Then comes the grand affair. A Pick nick party to be held on the rocks of Deer crick. Thirty-seven coupples to attend [...] it is also an old saying that a Lawyer can lie like the Devil. I think they are like the devil also in making women content. The devil tempted mother Eve with an apple. I dont know wether Lawyers use apples or no, but they all tempt the ladies [...] for they have the means of revenge. hurah. I have wrote a long letter at last. try to answer it with one having as meny words and I am satisfied. My Dear fellow I would finish this paper but my pen is so d—n bad, and by not writing for so long a time, I have forgotten how, but I will try and add I am your Faithful Friend, J. Wilkes Booth.

Kevin Bacon's Booths Drama Project At Showtime Taps Writer

In September 2008, Kevin Bacon set up at Showtime The Booths, a drama about Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth and his brother. Three years and a regime change at the pay cable network later, there is movement on the project. Oscar-nominated writer Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) has been tapped to write the potential series, which Bacon is still executive producing.

The Booths focuses on Confederate Booth and his brothers, Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr., and chronicles their years leading up to the April 14, 1865 assassination of Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. The brothers, sons of British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes, were all stage performers. In addition to The Booths, Bacon also is executive producing a single-camera comedy at HBO based on Clint McCown's book The Member-Guest with an eye to star. Nyswaner most recently co-wrote with Phil Dorling the feature comedy Predisposed, which is now filming with Jesse Eisenberg and Tracy Morgan starring and Dorling directing.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/kevin-bacons-booths-drama-project-at-showtime-taps-writer/

The Birth of Tudor Hall

All but two of the Booth children were born in the log cabin nestled in the Maryland countryside which eventually became Tudor Hall. Let's go back to the beginning of how this grand residence came to be. I'll let someone who was there tell the story. The Booth family chronicler Asia Booth Clarke described the Booth home in her memoir The Elder and the Younger Booth, published in 1882:

In the summer of 1822, while the yellow-fever was raging in Baltimore, Mr. Booth purchased a farm twenty-five miles from that city, lying in Harford County, Maryland. This place became his constant resort when free from the excitement of his profession, and was the birthplace of his children. It was always known as "The Farm," but was in reality a dense forest, called the "Big Woods," which served as a free hunting-ground on moonlight nights when the whole place was rendered musical by the baying of the hounds and the call of sportsman....The rough coach road to the farm was made picturesque and delightful in the summer by the massive trees which arched it....From the road a crooked, narrow pathway wound to the Booth dwelling....This was a log-cabin, plastered and whitewashed on the exterior; the small square window-frames, and broad, plain shutters....painted red. Four rooms besides the loft, the kitchen, and the Old Dominion chimney, made a picturesque and comfortable abode, standing in a clearing encompassed by huge oak, black walnut, beech, and tulip trees.

The cabin in its primal state, unpainted and unplastered, had been removed to its present locality across several fields. This proceeding caused great wonderment among the villagers, as every available man, ox, and horse had been effected on account of a spring of delicious water which Mr. booth had discovered under the thickest trees.

What a great description! When I visit Tudor Hall, I look around the property and picture in my mind the great undertaking of moving the cabin—wow. Shortly before his death, Junius Brutus Booth began building the gothic revival house named Tudor Hall. At the time, the Booth family also had a town house in Baltimore where they usually spent the winter. The town house no longer exists. We're very fortunate to be able to visit this great piece of history called Tudor Hall today. If you have not visited it, I encourage you to do so. It brings history alive.

Edwin Booth: Such heart-breaking loveliness

After the famous actor Edwin Booth's death, he was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts (the rest of his family, including his infamous brother, were buried in Baltimore). Poet Thomas Bailey Aldrich served as a pallbearer for the funeral, and wrote of the experience to fellow writer William Winter on June 12, 1893.


Just as Edwin was laid in the grave, among the fragrant pine-boughs which lined it, and softened its cruelty, the sun went down. I never saw anything of such heart-breaking loveliness as this scene. There in the tender afterglow two or three hundred men and women stood silent with bowed heads. A single bird, in a nest hidden somewhere near by twittered from time to time. The soft June air, blowing across the upland, brought with it the scent of syringa blossoms from the slope below. Overhead and among the trees the twilight was gathering. "Good night, sweet Prince!" I said, under my breath.

Aldrich admitted in his account of the experience that he would have fell to the grass-covered ground and cried — "if there had not been a crowd of people."

Two years earlier, a new portrait of Booth was put on display. Aldrich was moved enough by the image to write a poem about it:


That face which no man ever saw
And from his memory banished quite,
With eyes in which are Hamlet's awe
And Cardinal Richelieu's subtle light
Looks from this frame. A master's hand
Has set the master-player here,
In the fair temple that he planned
Not for himself. To us most dear
This image of him!" It was thus
He looked; such pallor touched his cheek;
With that same grace he greeted us —
Nay, 't is the man, could it but speak!"
Sad words that shall be said some day —
Far fall the day! O cruel Time,
Whose breath sweeps mortal things away,
Spare long this image of his prime,
That others standing in the place
Where, save as ghosts, we come no more,
May know what sweet majestic face
The gentle Prince of Players wore!

A Sister's Memory

The next time you visit Tudor Hall, take a look around the property. Asia Booth—who named the grand cottage Tudor Hall—had many adventures with her brother John Wilkes there. I'll let Asia tell you about one of them. In her book John Wilkes Booth: A Sister's Memoir, Asia wrote:

In the woods he (John) would throw himself face downward and nestle his nose close into the earth, taking long sniffs of the "earth's healthy breath," he called it. He declared this process of inhaling wholesome odors and rich scents delightful, but could never induce me to try. He called it "burrowing," and he loved to nibble at sweet roots and twigs, so that I called him a rabbit. He was ardently fond of outdoor life, but was never a sportsman nor an angler. He was a lover of botany and geology, and many of the specimens in my now limited collection are of his obtaining and selection. He was very tender of flowers, and of insects and butterflies. Lightning bugs he considered as " bearers of sacred torches," and would go out of his way to avoid injuring them. He once, after nights of endeavor, caught a katy-did just to show me what the little nuisance was like. I wanted it eagerly for my collection.

"No you don't, you bloodthirsty female," he said, putting the creature in his breast. "Katy shall be free to sing tonight out in the sycamores." Then kissing the small thing, he said, "Oh you small devil. How you can banish sleep, quiet, and good temper! Katy, you fiend, how many nights you have kept me awake cursing your existence!" With that he walked over to the trees, and laid the little night brawler safely among the leaves, to tune her pipes for night once more.

I love this story of brother and sister. As they were playing on the property of Tudor Hall, you can hear John already developing his dramatic flair. Great stuff!

Tudor Hall Featured in "Nite Lite Photo Of The Day" - May 31, 2011

Tudor Hall was featured on "Nite Lite Photo Of The Day" section of Fran Lane 101.9 Lite Fm's (adult contemporary radio station in Baltimore, MD) website on May 31, 2011. A Big Thanks!

Click on the image below to read article.

Changes Coming to Spirits of Tudor Hall and the Junius B. Booth Society

Effective June 1, 2011, Dinah Faber will resign as Coordinator for Spirits of Tudor Hall and President of the Junius B. Booth Society due to ill health. Dinah has been working with our Spirits volunteers to make her departure as seamless as possible. (Easier said than done!) Dinah wishes to thank the very capable Spirits of Tudor Hall volunteers who make it possible for Tudor Hall to be open to the public on a regular basis.

The Junius B. Booth Society and Spirits of Tudor Hall will work more closely than ever in the months ahead, and one of their main priorities will be to oversee the blending of the two entities into one. The Junius B. Booth Society will continue to operate as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization and to recruit and train volunteers both far and near to work in support of the JBBS in general. Spirits of Tudor Hall will continue to recruit and train volunteers both locally and across the country and beyond (made possible by the digital age) to work in support of our activities at Tudor Hall, including opening this historic home to the public on a regular basis. 

Current JBBS Board and Key Spirits of Tudor Hall Volunteers
As of June 1, 2011: 

Mike Brown, President JBBS & Spirits of Tudor Hall Tour Guide 

Jill Redding, Vice President JBBS & Volunteer Coordinator Spirits of Tudor Hall 

Kim Edwards, Co-Treasurer JBBS & Reservations Manager Spirits of Tudor Hall 

Elwin Penski, Founder, Secretary, and Co-Treasurer JBBS

Kris Thomson, Lead Tour Guide & Spirits of Tudor Hall Representative to the JBBS board 

Tom Fink, Editor, Booth History Spotlight and Blog Master, Spirits of Tudor Hall Blog