Built by Jacob Tome around 1859, the grand solid granite mansion was the largest home in the town, according to the Maryland Historical Trust. In the 1870s, the Port Deposit banker, investor, and philanthropist, remodeled it in the grand Second Empire Style. The renovated structure included elaborate wrought iron balconies, a mansard roof, and a substantial tower, which housed the bank and Mr. Tome’s Office, the Maryland Historical Trust noted.
Tome lived here until his death in 1898. And fifty years after his death, the mansion gave way to the wrecking ball. That was in August 1948, and the community was making room for a swimming pool operated by the Port Deposit Lions Club. The process of “razing of the palatial, three-story granite block home” was underway the Cecil Democrat reported in its issue of Aug. 14, 1948.
The paper assured readers that Jacob Tome’s name would “far outlive the magnificent granite home that he built in Port Deposit.
While the Tome Mansion was lost in 1948, the Town of Port Deposit’s historic district has a strong inventory of historic structures. Two Tome structures remaining from this era are Tome’s carriage house and gas house.
For additional photos of the Tome Mansion, see this album on Facebook