The Cloisters

Story

The Cloisters, also known as Cloisters Castle, is a historic home located at Lutherville, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It was built about 1930 and is a -story house that is highly picturesque and irregular in elevation and plan that features a multiplicity of architectural ornament. It is built of large, random-sized blocks of a native gray and gold colored rock known as "Butler stone" and features a flagstone roof, with details principally of sandstone, wood from the site, plaster, and wrought iron. The main façade is dominated by two asymmetrically placed, projecting sections topped by massive half-timbered gables which were originally part of a Medieval house in Domrémy, France. It also features a massive stone octagonal stair tower, which contains a stone and wrought-iron spiral staircase and is crowned by a crenellated parapet and a small, round, stone-roofed structure from which one can exit onto the roof of the main tower. The house's roof is constructed of overlapping flagstones secured by iron pins, the only roof of this kind in America.The property is owned by Baltimore City, despite being located in Baltimore County. The city ran a children's museum in the building until 1996, at which time it moved the museum to the Inner Harbor area and renamed it "Port Discovery". The Cloisters is currently operated as a rental facility.