 It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio's "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura" (The Four Books of Architecture) (1570).The house was designed by the architect William Buckland in 1773–1774 for wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland.It was modeled on the design of the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy, as depicted in Book II, Chapter XIV of Palladio's work.