Hampton National Historic Site Plans Free Holiday Open House Dec. 5
Hampton National Historic Site in Towson, Maryland, holds a free holiday open house on Dec. 5, 2026. Here are the schedule, shuttle, parking and tour details.
The National Park Service will open the mansion at Hampton National Historic Site in Towson, Maryland, for its yearly Holidays at Hampton open house on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026. Admission and parking are free. Visitors can walk through two floors of the mansion dressed for Christmas as it was celebrated in different periods, from the Early Republic to the Twentieth Century, and hear holiday music performed through the day. The park announced the event in a news release on Nov. 4.
What is planned for Dec. 5
The park has split the day into three main areas, each with its own hours:
- Mansion open house, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors move through the house at their own pace. Park rangers and volunteers will tell stories about the house, and the ConneXions Academy choir and Fort McHenry Guard musicians are scheduled to perform seasonal songs.
- Orangery activities, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. An NPS volunteer will help visitors make an ornament inspired by Hampton. Historic Hampton, Inc., a partner group of the park, will serve cider and cookies.
- Visitor Contact Station, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The gift shop at the Hampton Visitor Center will be open for holiday shopping.
The theme of the day is how people marked the holiday season during the American Revolution, and how the struggle for freedom carried on at Hampton from its Revolutionary beginnings through the Reconstruction Era. Staff will also talk about the holiday customs of the people who lived and worked on the property.
Decorations stay up into January
Visitors who cannot come on Dec. 5 still have time to see the decorated rooms. According to the park, the holiday displays will be in the mansion from Dec. 3, 2026, through Jan. 10, 2027. Guided tours of the mansion run throughout the season, but they require a reservation. The park points visitors to Recreation.gov to book and check details.
Getting there: shuttle and parking
Parking at the historic site itself is limited, so the park is running a free shuttle for the event from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It leaves from the parking lot of Towson United Methodist Church at 501 Hampton Lane. The shuttle makes three stops:
- The church parking lot
- The Mansion/Orangery Upper Lot
- The Visitor Contact Station
For accessibility, a lift in the mansion gives access to the first floor. The release does not describe access to the upper floor.
Why the event matters for visitors
The open house gives visitors a free way to see Hampton at its most festive. It also offers a look at a difficult part of the site’s history. The park preserves what is left of a plantation that once covered 25,000 acres. Today the 63-acre site includes a Georgian mansion, quarters where enslaved families once lived, and farm outbuildings, along with formal gardens, meadows and several exotic specimen trees.
The site also has a notable place in preservation history. Hampton was established in 1948 and, according to the park, was the first National Park Service unit preserved for its architectural merit. Its creation helped lead to the founding of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
What to do before you go
If you plan to attend on Dec. 5, the shuttle from the church lot is the simplest option, given the limited parking at the site. If you want a guided mansion tour at any point during the season, reserve a spot on Recreation.gov ahead of time. The park says further event and tour details are on its website, nps.gov/hamp. The release does not say whether the open house will go ahead in bad weather, so visitors may want to check the park’s site or social media pages before setting out.
Source: National Park Service
