Dr. Thomas Chew Hopkins (1808-1876) bought this land from Charles C. Brown in 1838 and built this large brick home for him and his wife, Priscilla. He is believed to have been a cousin of the famous Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) of Baltimore. Thomas was a graduate of the University of Maryland and a member of the Maryland Legislature in 1842-1843 and 1865-1866. He used to convene meetings of the Medical Society of Harford County in this house. Thomas and Priscilla raised nine children here, many of whom became prominent in local history. They included Henry Harrison Hopkins (1841-1895), William Worthington Hopkins, M.D. (1836-1911), and John Thomas Chew Hopkins (1843-1922).

Their son, Henry Hopkins, built a house for his own family at 226 North Union Avenue across the street from his parents while Dr. William Worthington Hopkins and his wife, Cassandra, made their home here. Dr. William had received a medical degree at the University of Maryland and spent 25 years practicing medicine in Havre de Grace. William and Cassandra Hopkins belonged to St. John’s Church, where their daughter, Elizabeth Worthington Hopkins, married Lyman Tiffany Perry of New York in 1906.

Around 1927, Dr. Guy Hewitt Dennis (1890-1940) and Mary Rozalya Brown Dennis (1895-1992) bought the house and began some extensive repairs. It had been neglected for some time and the windows had been knocked out. In addition, the basement had a spring in the middle of the floor which they had to fill in. At that time, they also added the three-story carriage house with rental units that still stands behind the main house. Dr. Guy H. Dennis was a veterinarian who took care of circus animals when the Downie Brothers Circus or the Wheeler Circus wintered in Havre de Grace on the west side of town and also tended small animals in the basement.

Dr. Guy H. and Mary Rozalya Dennis divorced during the early 1930s and Rozalya took over the house, converting it into apartments, known as the “Dennis Apartments.” She also added a sunporch—she has spoken (in a Harford County Living History interview) of an old house called the “Lewis House” south of town on Route 40 that burned down and how she went there herself and retrieved some of its bricks that she used to build the sunporch. She also turned the basement, which had been the original kitchen, into the office.

One of their sons was Dr. Guy Graham Dennis (1913-2008) who learned a lot about horses and animals through his father. In 1940 he signed up in the Army and served in WWII. Upon his return he became a handicapper of horses and gambled regularly at the nearby Graw Racetrack. He also followed his mother into the real estate business. She had begun buying large houses in town and converting them into apartments during the post-war era and he did the same. During the races at The Graw, they sometimes had as many as 30 people sleeping all around this house, at $2 per night. The guests ate at the Mid-City Inn, next door, where they served meals at all times. At one point Beatrice Nunnally operated a beauty salon here.

In 1977, Rozalya Dennis Carlson opened this home to the Annual Candlelight Tour. Ancestral china including Asiatic pheasant and old blue were displayed and a grandfather’s clock stood in the wide foyer on the first floor. Many collectibles and inherited items were displayed in the parlor graced by a floor-to-ceiling pier glass mirror. A fine French walnut buffet, a walnut secretary and a dining table from the historic Stump family graced the dining room. Also on display were some paintings by Rozalya Carlson’s mother, the late Maude Shure Brown.

In 1988, Dr. Guy Graham Dennis became the owner of the house. He was the father of Martha Rozalya Dennis, Grace Roberta Madeleine Dennis, and Hugh Graham Dennis. In 2005, at the age of 90, Dr. Guy Graham Dennis was recognized by Harford County as a Harford County Living Treasure. When Guy died in 2008, the Dennis Apartments became the property of his daughter, Martha Rozalya Dennis, who is still the owner of Dennis Apartments.

County Records
Built 1938. Apartments, 5929 sq ft, 1200 sq ft basement, 3 stories, 9 bathrooms, 9,000 sq ft lot. Combined with the carriage house at 460 Green Street.