Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

The House

Glen Burnie House

Julian Wood Glass Jr. furnished the dining room with pieces that had been in the house for generations as well as objects that he purchased for his ancestral home.
 

Pictured in text

This large portrait of Miss Elizabeth Taylor c. 1781 by George Romney (1734-1802) is one of manyl impressive paintings in the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection.

 

QuickFact

When assembled, the three-part Hepplewhite walnut dining table can seat 28! The table was made for Glen Burnie in the late eighteenth century and has always been in the house.

Part of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley complex, the Glen Burnie House sits on land that Winchester founder James Wood surveyed, claimed, and then settled in 1735. The oldest portions of the house that greets visitors today were built by Wood’s son Robert in 1794 and 1797. By the 1950’s the 254-acre Glen Burnie property came to be wholly owned by Wood descendant Julian Wood Glass Jr. (1910–1992). Glass preserved and renovated his ancestral home from 1958 to 1959. Then, over the rest of his life, he transformed the house into an opulent country retreat surrounded by six acres of formal gardens and furnished with one of the most remarkable private collections of decorative arts ever assembled in the Shenandoah Valley.

The house is now closed for a preservation project until 2014. Some objects removed from the house are destined for conservation and others for climate-controlled storage at the MSV. Moveable Feasts: Entertaining at Glen Burnie, will be the first exhibition drawn from the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection of fine and decorative arts; others will follow. This special exhibition will be presented in the Founders Gallery (previously the Changing Exhibitions Gallery) and many of the Valley objects from the collection in the house will be placed on view in the decorative arts rooms of the Shenandoah Valley Gallery.

The site's gardens will be open (April through October) throughout the house preservation project. A miniature of the Glen Burnie House is the focal point of the Garden Visitor Center. This amazing replica shows the historic house exactly as it was furnished by Julian Wood Glass Jr.

A comprehensive, 250-page catalog detailing the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection is available in the Museum Store and online.

  • The gardens surrounding the house will remain open during the preservation project. The gardens will be open from April 2 through October 31 in 2013.