The Liriodendon: The House That Love Built

A solitary walk on Bel Air's famous and oft-trodden Ma and Pa Trail almost always calls me to the staggeringly steep trudge up the slope that leads to the house sitting in a woodland scene reminiscent of a fairy tale. And following another strenuous slog up the picturesque garden path steps that border a delightfully pretty ice house, the Liriodendron's portico comes into breathtaking view.

The Liriodendron, standing lordly in the woods of Bel Air, still whispers from its wooded path, babbling fountain and garden hideaways of the passion that inspired its creation. Known throughout town as the "house that love built," the Liriodendron (so named because of the tulip poplars that lined the drive to the house) was the summer hideaway of Dr. Howard A. Kelly, the pioneering surgeon who founded Johns Hopkins Hospital, and his beloved wife, Laetitia.

Although the good Dr. Kelly adored his summer sojourns filled with camping, hunting and collecting forest specimens in Canada, he adored his Laetitia even more. When his native Prussian bride expressed her homesickness, Dr. Kelly paid $12,000 for 196 acres on the western edge of Bel Air in 1898, and he designed the mansion in tribute to the Palladian villas for which Laetitia longed.

Together, Howard and Laetitia Kelly lived and loved the summers away at the Liriodendron until they died six hours apart, neither ever knowing the other was dying, in January 1943. The Liriodendron lives on, with its stunning Georgian Revival architecture and the countless couples who exchange their vows on the wisteria-covered front porch, as a testament of the Kellys' love and devotion.