Ruscombe History
The Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Center was founded here in 1984 by Executive Director Zohara Meyerhoff Hieronimus.
Piscataway Nation Lands
Ruscombe is situated atop the highest geographical point in the City of Baltimore, on ancestral lands of the indigenous peoples called Paskestikweya (Piscataway is the English translation). Paskestikweya history extends their stewardship of this land over 24,000 years, and their nation still cares for the land today.
1860s Tyson estates
By the mid 1860s, this land was part of the James Woods Tyson estate. James Woods Tyson was a descendant of the wealthy abolitionist and philanthropic family that traced back to the Colonial era. His ancestor Elisha Tyson a well-known abolitionist and Quaker philanthropist active in helping Black people escape slavery on the Underground Railroad between Maryland and Pennsylvania. His descendant Isaac Tyson made a fortune in mining chromite, and Isaac’s sons Jesse and James Tyson built their large estates in northwest Baltimore. Jesse Tyson’s home, Cylburn, is now protected by the Friends of the Cylburn Arboretum, Ruscombe’s neighbor. Younger son James Woods Tyson built his family home in the 1860s on the adjoining property and called it “Ruscombe”. In 1887 a portion of his estate was sold to Francis J. LeMoyne of Chicago. The original “Ruscombe” fell into disrepair in the 20th century, and was sadly neglected for years. Recently, this James Woods Tyson mansion has been restored by Azola & Associates and is today known as the Stone Mansion located at 4901 Springarden Avenue.
The James Wood Tyson family home (the original Ruscombe mansion) in 1886-87
1887 LeMoyne Ellicott Era
Madeleine LeMoyne Ellicott
Francis LeMoyne came into possession of this parcel in 1903. Brother of prominent suffragist Madeleine LeMoyne Ellicott, Francis transferred the property to his sister Madeleine and her husband, Charles E. Ellicott, and together they built their home that we today call the Ruscombe Mansion. Located originally at the address 2405 Ruscombe Lane, the mansion was designed in 1903 by Ellicott and Emmart.
The original owners of what we today call the Ruscombe Mansion were suffragist Madeleine LeMoyne Ellicott and her husband, engineer Charles E. Ellicott. Mrs. Ellicott (as she preferred to be called) was the founder of the League of Women Voters in Maryland, and was an influential social justice advocate, helping improve conditions for women working in factories, protecting women and girls caught in the judicial system, and creating recreational centers and playgrounds for city youth. She worked directly with Carrie Chapman Catt to pass the 19th Amendment. She is in the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame. Mrs. Ellicott lived in the Mansion until her death in 1945.
Read more about this inspiring change-maker.
The Name “Ruscombe”
The name Ruscombe comes from a town in England where the proponent of religious liberty William Penn had his final home. According to the English town’s website, “the name “Ruscombe” seems to have evolved from “Rothescamp”. The ending is from the Latin “campus”: an open, unenclosed field. “Rothes” may be from an Anglo-Saxon personal name (such as Hroth), the Celtic word “rhos” (Latin “rus”) for undrained moorland (with rushes), or the Teutonic “Royd/Roth”, meaning land cleared of trees.” The first mention of the UK town of Ruscombe is in 1091 in the foundation charter of the cathedral of Old Sarum (Salisbury in Wiltshire).
The Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Center chose the name “Ruscombe” from its original address, which was 2405 Ruscombe Lane. It’s a little confusing now with two Ruscombe Mansions, but at the time we adopted the name, the original James Woods Tyson home was in ruins, long before the splendid renovation it enjoys today.
1968 Savitria and AUM School led by Bob Hieronimus
In the mid 1960s the Mansion was owned by Freda Scher and her husband who used it as a rental property. Legend has it at one point the house was rented to someone related to the popular folk-pop group, The Mamas & the Papas who had the kitchen painted black. In 1968 Freda Scher offered the building to her niece Phyllis and her friends who were forming a community of mystics and students pursuing alternative lifestyles and ancient wisdom teachings from world religions. This group of about 12 earnest young seekers were gathering to learn meditation at the “Apocalypse” mural in the student union building at Johns Hopkins. Led by artist Bob Hieronimus, the group moved into the Mansion at 2405 Ruscombe Lane, and created a peaceful living commune called “Savitria” for “House of the Sun.”
At Savitria, they raised goats, learned vegetarian cooking, and started a school. Several of them were teachers in the Baltimore school system and they structured their esoteric school with a rigorous curriculum that would eventually obtain state accreditation. For ten years, the AUM Esoteric Study Center taught thousands of students about yoga, astrology, tarot, kabbalah, Jungian psychology, existentialism, and more, and awarded certificates in religious metaphysics, occult sciences and the mystical arts. They met weekly to offer the Light meditation, which is available online here.
1978 Coldspring Community develops
Hill House
The Hill House (4803 Yellowwood) was built in the 1940s in the Dutch Colonial style. This building was picked up and physically moved down the street to its current location during the development of the Coldspring Newtown. The previous occupants were a Dr. Hill and his family.
Both the Mansion and the Hill House were preserved during the construction of the Coldspring Newtown condominium community built in the late 1970s. As construction for Coldspring Newtown re-routed the access roads, the new address for the Ruscombe Mansion and Hill House became 4801 and 4803 Yellowwood Ave. The original architectural plans for the Coldspring Newtown, created by famed architect and urban planner, Moshe Safdie, included demolition of the Mansion, and in its place, a high-rise apartment complex. Bob Hieronimus appealed to his friend Mayor William Donald Schaefer, who agreed that the Ruscombe Community was providing healing benefits for the neighborhood, and intervened to change the plans and save the Mansion.
1984 launched as Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Care Center by Zohara Meyerhoff Hieronimus, D.H.L.
By the end of the 1970s, Zohara Meyerhoff was an active volunteer and student at the AUM school, and together with Bob Hieronimus, she oversaw the transitional years between the Savitria commune and the founding of the health care center. In 1972 the New Morning School of Waldorf was founded here and in 1978 the East/West Foundation was located in our buildings.
In the early 1980s, Zohara and Bob Hieronimus traveled the East Coast in search of healing solutions for Zoh’s Crohn’s Disease, and after learning the best alternative therapies for her, she returned to Baltimore in 1984 with the vision to establish a healing center. She wanted to make it easier for others to find quality holistic healing options in one central location, and dedicated herself to founding the Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Center. She identified and recruited the best in homeopathy, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic and nutrition and together a group of 12 created another intentional community, this time focused on the service of healing.
Since 1984, under Zoh’s leadership, Ruscombe has pioneered excellence in providing individual and family holistic healing options through direct services, expanding to over two dozen providers and services in private practice, and influencing some of the region’s top medical providers to add their own holistic programs.
Zohara Meyerhoff Hieronimus, DHL
Today
With programs in vegetarian cooking, meditation, kabbalah, and yoga, in addition to the direct services for individuals and families, Ruscombe Community has been a thriving center for wellness for over 40 years, and an intentional center for light and meditation for over 60 years.
The non-profit organization Ruscombe Community, Inc. was established in 2023 as a 501(c)(3) by a group of supporters intent on carrying this mission into the next 60 years. The decades of healing and service have created a uniquely healing energy throughout the historic mansion and its peaceful surroundings, and the Ruscombe Community is dedicated to its preservation for future generations.