Baltimore County was a sparsely inhabited wilderness when Reverend Thomas Cradock and his wife Catherine established Trentham in 1747, beginning a line of multiple generations who lived on the estate until 1971. Its stone buildings, walls, and gates reflect the lives of the Cradock family and others who lived and worked there and contribute to understanding Baltimore County's history. As development transformed the landscape from rural to suburban, many large farms and estates shrank or disappeared. The several-hundred-acre property once included a tavern, doctor's shop, farm buildings, and an orchard, and after its incorporation into the Queen Anne Village complex, Trentham and its surviving outbuildings became among the first landmarks designated by the Baltimore County Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978. Some stone and frame buildings that survived into the 21st century, including a tenant house and spring house, were later lost through demolition and development.