Most Expensive MD House For Sale At $24M Tied To History, Seafood

ANNAPOLIS, MD — The most expensive house for sale in Maryland — a former monastery first built as a private home by an industrialist who made a fortune in munitions sales during World War I — is listed for $24.9 million, according to Realtor.com.

The property is owned by Phillips Seafood restaurant chain founder Steve Phillips and his wife, Maxine Davis Phillips, the Baltimore Sun reported.

According to Realtor.com's listing, the estate was last sold in April 2002 for $2.5 million.

In May 2012, the mansion in Broadneck called the Friary on the Severn, was listed for $32 million by the Phillips family, Patch then reported. The 35,000-square-foot home includes seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, and sits on a 23-acre, waterfront property.

The owners in 2012 told CBS Baltimore they wanted to sell the home because there were simply too many bedrooms now that the kids have moved out.

David DeSantis with the Washington, D.C., office of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty is the listing agent.

His office's description of the estate says the land, originally patented in 1660 by William Hopkins exchanged hands many times before the Hammond family of Annapolis retained it. Between 1827 and 1920 the land surrounding was divided into smaller tracts and sold.

Meanwhile, The Friary property was held between 1858 and 1920 by Samuel Lucas. It was said that because of a tunnel system on the grounds the site was a stop on the Underground Railroad to help enslaved people escape to freedom in Northern states. There is evidence of tunnels today, Sotheby's said.

Arnold historian Alberta Stornetta previously told Patch the original owner of the home was a man who made his millions in World War I munitions. It was then purchased by the Catholic Church and occupied by the Capuchin Friary.

In the 1970s, a local entrepreneur owned the estate and hosted Halloween parties there, she said.

"The rumor was always that the original owner liked to store his money in gold in the wine cellars," Stornetta said. "For Halloween one year, we got to go down there in the tunnels, in the secret places."

The location was also once the site of community meetings. There was a chapel on the property that was later converted to a formal dining room.

• Address: 1604 Winchester Rd, Annapolis, Maryland
• Price: $24,900,000
• Square Feet: 35435
• Bedrooms: 7
• Bathrooms: 8 Full and 5 Half Baths
• Built: 1922
• Features: Set on 23 private acres overlooking a gracious bend of the Severn River, just minutes from downtown Annapolis and less than an hour from the nation's capital, lies one of the most distinctive estates offered for sale on the East Coast. Of stunning architectural beauty, this unusual home, modeled after the James River Plantations, is the result of a mammoth and complex renovation that brought it back to its classic Georgian style yet with an acknowledgment of the owners' contemporary tastes and interests. Formerly a Capuchin monastery, this stately brick structure offers modern amenities for comfortable family living yet easily accommodates elegant grand scale entertainment and private events. The attention to detail and emphasis on proportions and craftsmanship are unparalleled. Featuring spectacular 270 degree river views, the extraordinary estate contains a total of seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and eleven fireplaces, formal dining room and formal parlor, commercial size gourmet kitchen, oversized ballroom, conservatory, family room, library, music room, indoor spa, game room, wine cellar, catering kitchen, work shop, a secret vault, nine car garage, roof garden, pool pavilion, 60-foot infinity edge pool, tennis court and direct access by funicular to a 6 slip private dock with boat lift. Additional structures on the property accommodate a three bedroom, two bath-guest/staff house, an Asian tea house and mechanical facilities. To explore the property without leaving your home, be sure to view the HD Video Tour.

This listing originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.