The house referred to today as Mary’s Hope was constructed in 1893 as a wedding gift from John Grey Hopkins Lilburn to his bride, Annie Elizabeth Thomas. Mr. Lilburn, a successful planter, saw miller and waterman had purchased the farm, which was called Pleasant Valley and was originally a part of Cross Manor, from his mother’s estate in 1890. The entire property measured nearly 300 acres. Mr. Lilburn was a respected member of the community, and was elected as a County Commissioner in 1899, becoming Commissioner President in 1901. Miss Thomas, who was the Principal of St. Mary’s Female Seminary, today known as St. Mary’s College of Maryland, was from a very respected and well-educated Maryland family. Her great grandfather, James Thomas had been Governor of Maryland from 1833 to 1836, and her brother, James W. Thomas, was famous for authoring the book, The Chronicles of Colonial Maryland. Originally published in 1900, the book was considered at the time, the best researched effort on colonial Maryland history.

The name Mary’s Hope came from an earlier reference to a portion of the property that had been willed by a previous owner, John Angel, to his daughter Mary in 1736. In 1893, Mary’s Hope had become part of the Pleasant Valley Farm that was now under the ownership of the Lilburn’s. When Lilburn’s parent’s died, he became one-fourth heir to Pleasant Valley farm. Mr. Lilburn borrowed $4,500, bought out the other heirs, and built this current structure at a cost of $6,500. By 1910, the house had both running water throughout and a working sewerage system. Before dying in 1918, Mr. Lilburn’s holdings exceeded 2,000 acres in parcels dotted throughout the state.

In 1984, the owner, William E. “Bill” Raley, when beginning renovations to the structure, discovered a tongue in groove pine board hidden away in the old porch roof. The board contained on it penciled names and phrases written by the men who were constructing the home. The time capsule that Augustine McClanahan and John Haman left behind documented that they were the builders and announced that they would dine and sup tonight at the wedding of John Lilburn and Annie Thomas. The date was July 23, 1893. The framed board hangs in the hall and can be viewed as you descend the stairway.