In 1871, John Work Garrett, President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, acquired Montebello, an 18th-century estate with sweeping views south towards Baltimore Harbor. By 1881 Garrett had built a large iron and glass greenhouse on the 371-acre property. Whittredge gives us a glimpse of the new structure at bottom right. It is no accident that as the mythic American frontier began to close, residents of crowded cities sought some sort of relationship with the gradually disappearing countryside. Widely available plate glass enabled wealthy residents to add conservatories to their grounds, filling them with exotic plants brought by steamship from around the globe. The structure in the far distance is the Bayview Asylum, a late 18th-century healthcare institution, later absorbed by the Johns Hopkins Medical Center.