Prospect Hall is a historic mansion, built beginning around 1787 on what was known at the time as "Red Hill", the highest elevation in the area of Frederick, Maryland. A major Frederick County landowner and colonial civic leader, Daniel Dulaney, built the original home on the property, which is southwest of the city of Frederick, although the current mansion known as Prospect Hall was probably not completed until 1810. This white, three story structure, designed in a Greek revival style with additional Federal elements, has hosted visitors from Presidents George Washington to Harry Truman. It was originally located on the Jefferson Pike, which led from Jefferson Street southwest out of Frederick to the town of Jefferson, Maryland, but after reconstruction and rerouting of local roads in the 1970s was situated on the adjacent facing Butterfly Lane and Himes Avenue. The mansion was the site of General George G. Meade's takeover of command of the Army of the Potomac of the Union Army from General Joseph Hooker immediately before the Battle of Gettysburg, under last-minute orders from President Abraham Lincoln. Hooker had been defeated by General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville, in Virginia, a few weeks earlier. A messenger had been sent out from Washington with the new orders but the courier had difficulty finding the command headquarters in the night. A large rectangular carved granite boulder from the Gettysburg battlefield engraved with details of the historical event was placed on the northeast corner of the property near the entrance driveway. The site is listed on the "Maryland Civil War Trails" program with internet website, illustrated site plaque marker and listed on an accompanying printed brochure. During the middle 20th Century, the historic mansion was owned and occupied by U.S. Representative Himes. It was later the site and campus of Saint John's Literary Institution from 1958-1959 until January 2013, at which time the school moved to Buckeystown, MD. St. John's had been founded in 1828-1829 in eastern downtown Frederick, on Second Street, in buildings from 1829 to 1925 and rebuilt in that year until the late 1950s, when the move to Prospect Hall occurred and the Second Street location was turned over to the lower grades of St. John's Elementary School. In 2007, student Aaron Middeke and Academic Dean Marc Minsker produced a 25-minute documentary on the historic location titled "A History of Prospect Hall." A DVD of this documentary is catalogued in the Maryland Room at C. Burr Arts Library in downtown Frederick. Since the school moved in 2013, the site has been redeveloped with thirteen apartment buildings built on the property. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
