Hampton National Historic Site

"Nice NPS park that's tucked away in a quiet neighborhood. Was told the Ridgely House was lived in by 7 generations and at one point they owned over 2500 acres of property. The family was in the iron trade and once the Emancipation took place, the slaves were freed and the family lost all their money. Forced to sell property to avoid bankruptcy, eventually most of the land was sold. The house has beautiful gardens and nice landscaping you can walk around. The mansion, while free to go inside, requires tickets you can get at the visitor center (max of 15 people per tour). Bathrooms are available near the mansion. People were walking dogs on the property."

"Very cute little park preserving the grounds of a large estate, most significantly the mansion and some farm buildings. Nice small visitor center with friendly staff and modern restrooms. The mansion you can't enter (or even peek in the windows) unless on their sparsely scheduled guided tours. Nevertheless it is FREE with some nice signage explaining things and definitely worth a one hour visit to walk the grounds."

"Mansion tours are Thursday through Sunday, at 10 am and 3 pm - you have to buy tickets at the Visitor Center, which is open Thursday through Sunday, 9 am to 4 pm. If you also visit the farm across the road, the entire walk would take you about 45 mins - it’s a pretty short distance, but it was absolutely stunning in fall during golden hour! You can pick up a map with brief history of the estate by the visitor center. There are two small parking lots. Open sunrise to sunset"

"Amazing history of the Ridgely Family around 1800. The amazing part for me was them having an Orangery for growing orange trees in the winter, an ice cream storage underground in the summer, and their own creamery. I guess that's what you do when you're rich!!"

"All staff members were very helpful and friendly. They were also able to answer any questions that I had. The reason I docked them a star is because the subject matter wasn't that interesting and the visitor station was somewhat lacking in information displays and did not have any sort of video on loop like most NPS sites do. The restrooms were nice and clean in the visitor center. I will say though the virtual tour on the large display in the visitor station is awesome! It has some great technology with excellent photos that allows you to browse the 2nd floor of the mansion. The 2nd floor of the mansion is otherwise off limits and is not offered as part of the tour."