Later Stewards
After Nelly, Ridgeway passed through a succession of families who preserved, altered, subdivided, and reinterpreted the estate.
Ridgeway’s story continued beyond the founding generation, through inheritance by the Bullitt family, later ownership by the Kaelins, the first major restoration under Maud and Aubrey Cossar, and the colorful Humphrey years.
These transitions show that preservation is rarely the work of a single household. Some owners protected continuity, others modernized the property, and others made landscape or decorative changes that altered the house’s presentation while keeping it alive as a residence. Even subdivision, which reduced the estate over time, forms part of Ridgeway’s history.
The Humphreys brought their own wit and character to Ridgeway. Stories of tea parties, paintings brought from earlier houses, and Churchill Humphrey’s trap-door escapes demonstrate the house was capable of absorbing eccentric personalities without losing its identity.
Ridgeway had already lived several lives before the Birkheads ever stepped inside. That continuity across changing owners is one reason the house feels layered rather than frozen. Its history is cumulative, composed of many custodians and many kinds of care.