Homewood was offered as a wedding gift in 1800 by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll Jr. It was situated on a 140 acres (57 ha) estate in northern Baltimore, first known as "Merryman's Lott", which Carroll purchased in 1794. Construction began in 1801 and had mostly finished by 1808. It took five years to build and cost $40,000, four times the budgeted expense. Carroll Senior bought the house from his son in 1824 and managed the "most improvident waste" until his son's death the next year. The house then passed to Charles Carroll III, who lived there until he inherited the family estate, Doughoregan Manor, from his grandfather.[3]

The house was the birthplace of John Lee Carroll in 1830, second son of Charles III, who would become Governor of Maryland.However, his father sold Homewood in 1839 to Samuel Wyman, a Baltimore merchant, who lived there with his family until 1865. During the Wyman family's tenure, Wyman's son William commissioned Richard Upjohn to build an Italianate mansion on the grounds, named "Homewood Villa." The Villa was demolished by Johns Hopkins University in 1954. On Samuel Wyman's death the property was divided between his sons, and the house became a boys' school. In 1902 the property was reassembled and given to Johns Hopkins University.[3]

In 1916 the mansion became the University Faculty Club. In 1936 Homewood was converted to administrative offices. Johns Hopkins University now operates Homewood Museum, which opened to the public in 1987, and its late Georgian style architecture, with its red brick and white marble, serves as the inspiration for the campus' architecture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homewood_Museum