Just north of Lappans Crossroads on Route 65, settled among a group of farm buildings and far from the road, is a massive, three-story stone structure with two wings of about the same size. In 1800, Colonel Frisby Tilghman (1773-1847), a member of a prominent eastern shore family, began assembling vast holdings of land in this area through marriage. He later purchased 200 acres of an adjoining parcel of land called Widow’s Mite. It was Colonel Tilghman who built the home that was to evolve into the mansion that dominates the estate he named Rockland.
Rockland faces east and has two wings: a four-bay south wing with a formal entrance beneath a narrow, columned porch; and, set back, a three-bay north wing with a central entrance. Another door enters its north face. Well back and to the rear of the house is a stone summer kitchen with a huge cooking fireplace, and still further is a stone springhouse with an overhanging gable. A massive post-and-beam frame barn and an assortment of other accessory structures complete the scene.
