A Tribute to Orlando Ridout V
(Above and below) Architectural historian Orlando Ridout V works on recording the framing plan for the Slave Quarters at Decatur House.
Described by a colleague as “an archaeologist who did work above the ground,” Orlando Ridout V served for nearly four decades as a pillar of the Maryland Historical Trust, working tirelessly to increase public understanding of architectural resources, particularly vernacular architecture, in the Chesapeake Bay region.
In 2012 the White House Historical Association invited leading experts in the study of vernacular architecture to examine the historic fabric of the Slave Quarters at Decatur House. Orlando Ridout V joined the investigation and provided us the benefit of his experience and knowledge of vernacular architecture in the region. The association is grateful and most appreciative of Mr. Ridout’s contributions to our mission and his great generosity as a scholar.
Through his work as Chief of Research, Survey and Registration for the Maryland Historical Trust, with the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties, as a teacher and consultant, and as director of numerous research efforts on documentation and imaging of historic properties, and his publications he contributed greatly to an understanding of historic architectural resources and their relationship to the local culture of 18th century Maryland.
In 2012 he and his father Orlando Ridout IV, who served as Maryland’s first historic preservation officer from 1966 to 1976, were awarded the Calvert Prize, Maryland Historical Trust’s highest award for historic preservation. In the same year he received both the Marjorie Murray Bridgman Award from the Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, Inc., and the Vernacular Architecture Forum’s Henry Glassie Award for lifetime achievement.
