Towns

Barclay

Established in 1931
Barclay, Maryland is located in northern Queen Anne’s county with a total population of around 150 citizens. The community was founded in 1873 under the name Merrikton, renamed ‘Barclay’ in 1890, and officially incorporated as the Town of Barclay in 1931.  According to Wikipedia, “Almost 1% of the population openly admitted that they were space-faring creatures from Mars during a parade on March 17, 1992”. This information has not yet been verified by the town office, which boasts one employee, a joint clerk/treasurer, who works with the town commissioners to fulfill the town’s operations.

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Betterton

Established in 1906
Located at the mouth of the Sassafras River on the upper Chesapeake Bay, the Town of Betterton has stood since its establishment as a fishing village in the 1700’s. With ample bay access and over 300 feet of sandy beach access, Betterton maintains its notoriety as a beachfront town. The Betterton Historic District contains a variety of Victorian resort homes and buildings, many of which were built to accommodate steamboat passengers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Notable buildings within the district include the hotels and boarding homes which catered to the steamboat passengers, several churches, and summer cottages, dating from the golden age of the passenger steamboats on the Chesapeake Bay. Betterton was also a crucial point of shipment for produce to and from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wilmington. Thus, Betterton was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The mid-century establishment of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge drastically changed the livelihood of Betterton; its former accessibility due to the prevalence of steamboat travel was greatly diminished by the ease of traversing the Bay via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Today, the beach provides public access to the Chesapeake Bay and several restaurants and shops have helped to revive the historic downtown.

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Cambridge

Established in 1793
Settled initially in 1684 by English colonists, Cambridge, located in Dorchester County, is one of the oldest colonial cities in Maryland. Along the Choptank River, this area was already occupied by the Choptank Indians, and quickly developed for agriculture by settlers. While the rural areas surrounding the city facilitated tobacco and later mixed use farming, the city of Cambridge originally served as a trading center. The development of the city continued as a center of commerce as well as a prominent location during the civil rights movement.

The location and position of Cambridge as well as its natural resources made it suitable as a port, and more recently a center for commerce and development. The building of the Hyatt Regency on the Choptank River contributed many new jobs and once hosted President George W. Bush.  In 1990, the Cambridge historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Four Maryland Governors (Charles Goldsborough, Phillips Lee Goldsborough, Emerson C. Harrington, and Henry Lloyd) have lived in Cambridge, as well as Bea Arthur of Golden Girls fame, who was voted “most witty” in her class at Cambridge High School. Other notable residents and natives of Cambridge include Harriet Tubman, escaped slave and activist for the Underground Railroad, and Annie Oakley, sharpshooter.

Cambridge is still home to many fishing boats, docked along the river, and has a national reputation for seafood production and as a prime fishing locale. In order to protect its rural heritage, Cambridge has also underwent a major downtown revitalization process created by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. In 2003, this hard work began to pay off as Cambridge was named a Maryland Main Street Community.

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Centerville

Established in 1794
Centreville, the county seat of Queen Anne’s County, was incorporated as a town in 1794, following a 1782 act that authorized removal of the Queen Anne’s County courthouse from Queenstown for placement in a more central location. In addition to the ideal location for countywide access, the footprint of Centreville also boasted prime access to the Corsica River.

The history of Centreville is still prevalent and visible today in its architecture and structures; the main streets of Centreville are easily distinguished by their ornate Victorian homes with wraparound porches as well as many 19^th century row homes and public buildings. The town of Centreville is currently the largest town in Queen Anne’s County, with a population around 3,000 citizens. The Centreville Historic District, collectively, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

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Chesapeake City

Established in 1849
Chesapeake City was named and established in 1839, ten years after the first Chesapeake & Delaware Canal was hand-dug and ship traffic through the busy channel increased to this location of goods and services trade for the commercial community of shippers. The town spanned the canal and included the northern and southern banks for commerce, trade and residences.

Changes in the canal and the bridge altered the nature of Chesapeake City several times over the years, including a widening of the canal that allowed ships to pass by Chesapeake City without stopping. Further, a 1942 incident in which a ship destroyed the bridge connecting the north and south banks left a ferry as the only means to traverse the canal for 7 years. In 1949, when a new bridge was built with enough height for ships to pass through unharmed, it further deteriorated the town’s economy as the bridge was so tall that travelers no longer had to enter the town in order to cross the canal.

Today, Chesapeake City continues to be the only Maryland town that sits on a working commercial canal. Besides a portion of the south bank that was cleared for a widening of the canal in the 1960s. Most of the south bank is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the town itself is full of historic structures in the form of bed and breakfasts, restaurants, quaint shops, and marinas.

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Church Creek

Established in 1867
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Crisfield

Established in 1872
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Delmar

Established in 1888
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East New Market

Established in 1832
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Eldorado

Established in 1947
In 1776, Cecil County saw the need to gather and arm militia because it was believed that war with England was inevitable; as a result, the Elk, Susquehanna, and Bohemia battalions were established. Due to Cecil county’s prime location, it was a very important region for the English Navy too, so on August 27th 1777, over three-hundred ships with over fifteen-thousand British troops (all led by General Howe) landed on Elk River. They marched on to Elkton Maryland and made camp there. According to sources, at that point there were more soldiers than there were citizens in the entire county. However, before the soldiers arrived, the people were able to hide their valuables, cattle, and horses in the surrounding forests so that the soldiers couldn’t confiscate them.

Now, get ready for a cool story: Knowing that the British were indeed traveling up the Chesapeake Bay, George Washington rode to Cecil County to observe the situation, and while he was there, he stayed at Head of Elk in an inn owned by Jacob Hollingsworth on the night of August 25th. Two days later, on the 27th after Washington departed; General Howe stayed in the same inn, slept in the same room, and was waited on by the same servant! The British general stayed there for a few days planning the British strategy, and gathering supplies, before moving on to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.

During the war of 1812, English Admiral Cockburn blockaded the bay, and went up Elk River with a large group of sailors. Our militia met them at Welch Point, but they didn’t have any cannons, so they fired muskets at the English ships. Instead of landing, the British moved on to Frenchtown and destroyed it. From there, they went to Elkton, but were defied by Fort Defiance, so they sailed on to Havre de Grace and burned most of the homes to the ground.

In the coming years, the steam boat and the railroad increased trade in the area, and passengers and goods were transported to distant cities in less time than anyone thought possible. Then in 1900, the town made history again when the first horse-less carriage made its appearance in Elkton. A few people ran, a horse freaked out, and nobody liked the smell of the exhaust; but the car was there to stay. Soon the fire engines weren’t pulled by horses, the post office had their own vehicle to deliver mail with, and gasoline was only a few cents a gallon.

Sources List:

http://www.elkton.org/about/index.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkton,_Maryland#History

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Federalsburg

Established in 1823
Before the European settlers came in 1682, the very first residents of what is now Federalsburg were the Nanticoke Indians. When William and James Wright made the crossing from England along with one of William Penn’s colonies, they settled on the Marshyhope Creek which is now the headwater of the Northwest Fork of the Nanticoke River. Much later, in 1789 after the county boundaries were formed, a store was built in the very spot where traffic crossed the river on the Northwest Fork Bridge. This was the start of a small village which owed its growth greatly to the bridge; so much so that the town was called the “Northwest Fork Bridge” or simply “The Bridge” until politics had a hand in re-naming the place.

On the Delmarva Peninsula, the Federalist Party was very strong, and a meeting was held at “The Bridge.” There were parades, military drills, and prominent speakers who tried to raise enthusiasm and patriotism for the party. From all this pageantry, the folks in the town got all fired up and renamed their town Federalsburg (much to the mortification of the loyalists).

Federalsburg’s economy relied mainly on shipbuilding. The forests of white oak were the perfect source of building supplies, and the only problem was that the river wasn’t deep enough at Federalsburg for the newly finished ships. This problem was solved by laying keels at deeper points along the river, and then from there the ships were launched, loaded, and set to sail as trading vessels. However, around the time of the Civil War, the shipbuilding industry stopped and other industries took over.

The next business to boom was logging. Saw mills at the northernmost point of the town converted trees to logs, then floated them upstream to the mills, which in turn sent the lumber downriver to Baltimore. The other economic industries in the area were wool, yarn, and wheat.

After the Civil War, daily trips by stagecoach were scheduled to and from Federalsburg to the other towns in the area and eventually a railroad opened on October 12th 1868. This was a major breakthrough for Federalsburg as the railroad had refrigerated cars which were able to transport perishable produce from Federalsburg’s many orchards and gardens to distant cities.

Nowadays, Federalsburg’s economy is driven by agriculture, but the town is being discovered and there has been an influx of development, expansion, and new residents. Even with all this growth the, “old-fashioned traditions and hospitality prevail.” And Federalsburg is still “known as the ‘heart; of the heart of the Eastern Shore.”

Sources List:

http://www.federalsburg.org/history.html

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Galena

Established in 1858
In 1763, a town was established at what is now the intersection of Maryland Routes 213 and 290; it was called Downs’ Cross Roads, in honor of a local tavern owner named William Downs, but the name was eventually changed to “Georgetown Cross Roads.”

In 1813, a vein of silver was discovered during a mining operation very close to the town, but, the owner quickly shut the operation down because he was afraid that the British troops who were fighting the War of 1812 might capture the mine. Even though the episode was short-lived, the community was renamed “Galena” after the kind of silver found in the mine.

Today, the little town of Galena is famous for the dogwoods that line its streets, and the cherry trees which have been added in recent years. The town is home to an auction house, antique stores, and restaurants, as well as a friendly population of just over five-hundred. Community get-togethers in Galena are not to be missed; the fire company holds all-you-can-eat breakfasts, and oyster and ham suppers. During the summer, the Lions Club hosts fried chicken dinners, while the churches organize other dinners and fun family activities.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Galena/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Galena&page=home

http://www.galenamd.com/

http://www.city-data.com/city/Galena-Maryland.html

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Goldsboro

Established in 1906
Way back in the year 1867, when the Delaware and Chesapeake Railroad was finished, there was a town called ‘Oldtown,’ because it was located on ‘Oldtown Lane.’ By 1870, the town was renamed ‘Goldsborough’ after Dr. G.W. Goldsborough who was a well-known landowner in the area. As the railroad in the town was joined by new roads, more businesses were brought into the region and until halfway through the 20th century, canning was Goldsboro’s major industry. During this period, Goldsboro was referred to as, “The Hub of the Universe” and had a large sign declaring it as such. The sign isn’t there anymore, but the two-hundred and sixteen locals say the name still applies in reference to the diversity and amount of traffic along the three state highways which run through the town.

Today, that industry has left Goldsboro, and now an excavation and concrete business has given the town some much-needed activity; there is also a convenience store by the highway junction, a hardware store, and a feed mill.

Today, people come to Goldsboro to see ‘Castle Hall’ a historic building which was constructed in the 1770s by Thomas Hardcastle. This was also the location of the first Castle Hall School, but today the land is a farm and the mansion is actually a private residence. Tourists also come to Goldsborofor the small town charm of a ‘village on the road to ‘smart growth,” there are also county, state, and private recreation facilities which make Goldsboro the perfect place to tour the region by canoe or by hiking.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Goldsboro/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Goldsboro&page=home

http://www.city-data.com/city/Goldsboro-Maryland.html

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Hebron

Established in 1931
The town of Hebron actually owes it’s origins in part to the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic Railroad. In 1890, when the rail line was in the process of extending towards the West from Salisbury, the engineers hit a country road about six miles out where there was a home and a single store. The builders of the railroad decided it would be the perfect spot for a shipping point and dubbed it ‘Hebron.’ Only five years later a lumber plant was built there and a small village began to grow.

The rail line collected goods and passengers for miles around the town of Hebron before transporting them to the West and North. Because of its close proximity to waterways and the town of Salisbury, Hebron acquired factories, canneries, industrial plants, and also attracted workers. In the 1920s Hebron had grown to become a flourishing little town of over one-thousand people and had developed a successful commercial quarter. Located around the town were truck farms, packing houses, poultry enterprises, and dairy farms of national repute which only added to Hebron’s success. However, when the 20th century came to a close, so did Hebron’s industrial presence, and today it is mainly a residential community with a small commercial center that services it’s residents and the surrounding agricultural community.

Sources List:

http://www.city-data.com/city/Hebron-Maryland.html

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Hebron/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Hebron&page=home

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Hillsboro

Established in 1853
Even though the Tuckahoe Bridge at Hillsboro was mentioned in 1706, the town did not really develop until 1784 when Elizabeth Downes laid out building lots for the community. Three homes from the original subdivision still stand today and include the William Smith house (1793-1800), the John Corrie house (1785-1790), and the Elizabeth Downes house (1784-1787).

From the 1800s to the 1900s the town functioned as a tiny regional commercial hub. In the 1920s, it boasted two grocery stores, a few hardware stores, a car dealership, a hotel, drugstore, move theatre, and a soda shop. But when cars began replacing railroads, the town became more of a residential community, and has stayed the same way ever since. Because over half the town is located within one-thousand feet of the river, the community is subject to developmental restrictions by the Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Legislation. The current one-hundred and fifty-eight residents of Hillsboro are perfectly happy with this as it means there won’t be any big changes in their town for  the foreseeable future. So they continue to have their ‘good old-fashioned’ community get-togethers along with annual yard sales and community picnics which are sponsored annually by the town.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Hillsboro/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Hillsboro&page=home

http://www.city-data.com/city/Hillsboro-Maryland.html

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Mardela Springs

Established in 1906
In 1664, English settlers were drawn to the future location of Mardela Springs by an abundance of good farmland, natural springs, and Barren Creek which ends at the Nanticoke River. In 1704, tobacco farmers were already bringing their crops to an inspection warehouse before exporting them down the creek; at the time, the warehouse shared the river with a few saw and grist mills. During the late seventeen-hundreds, more people moved in and a town was built very close to some of the area’s natural springs; this made the town a very convenient pit stop for those journeying to Princess Anne and Quantico.

The area became a popular tourist destination for people from Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia because they would come from all over to ‘take the waters.’ In the later half of the 1800s, a few enterprising townsmen began bottling the spring water and shipping it up and down the East Coast. By this point, the town had gone though many name changes but in 1893, it finally decided on Mardela (Maryland and Delaware) Springs.

At the time, Mardela Springs’ economy revolved mostly around farming, shipbuilding, canning and the railroad. Almost all the farms in the surrounding region were family run and very small. In the 1800s, very few slaves were kept (only about one in every five households had them) so as a result, a very large free black settlement was founded nearby. Today, Mardela’s economy revolves around fishing, hunting, and farming.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/MardelaSprings/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=MardelaSprings&page=home

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Millington

Established in 1890
The town of Millington can trace its beginnings back to a man named Daniel Massey who received a large land grant located at the top of the Chester River in 1754. During that time, the settlement was known as ‘London Bridge.’

In the next ten years, a Quaker named Thomas Gilpin arrived and founded a community which was later chartered by the General Assembly as the town of ‘Bridgetown.’ In 1819, the name was changed to ‘Head of Chester’ which sources say was to aid travelers in finding the town. After awhile, the town decided travelers could fend for themselves, because they changed the name again to honor a leading citizen named Richard Millington. Apparently, he built the very first home there and his land actually extended into the town at the time.

Nowadays, Millington is a tiny eastern shore town that is very pedestrian friendly with a self-contained rural charm. Its economy mainly revolves around local business establishments but it’s location near Route 301 keeps it from feeling isolated. The tiny population of four-hundred and eighty-two, ‘enjoys a traditional rural style of living, a slow pace, and a sense of long-term stability.’ One resident was quick to add that Millington is a place of ‘safety and security, peace and quiet, unity and caring and diversity.”

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Millington/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Millington&page=home

http://www.millingtonmd.us/history.htm

http://www.city-data.com/city/Millington-Maryland.html

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North East

Established in 1849
It seems as though Captain John Smith visited the future locations of most Maryland towns at some point while he was traveling up the Chesapeake Bay, and North East was no exception. However, once John Smith sailed by, the North East region didn’t see any more Europeans until they started coming out of the woodwork in the late 1600s. Despite the protests of nearby Indian tribes, colonists from England moved into the region from across the ocean by ship, more settlers moved slowly down from Pennsylvania and Delaware, while even more came up from Virginia; so it was no time at all before the place was populated mostly by Europeans.

In the year 1711, a mill stood at the junction between the Big and Little North East Creeks, and five years later there was a second mill at the North East river waterfall. In 1735, a few British businessmen founded an iron works very near North East and called it the Principio Company, but after awhile it was being called the North East Forge.
Now, before we get ahead of ourselves; back in 1706, the North Elk Parish was founded, and Queen Anne of England decided to give money for missionary work overseas. From that fund, the church in North East received a silver paten and chalice made in London, a huge bible that was printed in England, along with a big Book of Common Prayers. According to sources it is thought that in ‘appreciation for these gifts’ the church was renamed to ‘St. Mary Anne’s Church. Unfortunately, a fire later destroyed the church, but it was re-built in 1743 and still stands today. Fun Fact: visitors can still see the original cornerstone of the church which was carved with the initials of the rector and his vestry in 1742.

Today, North East is located at the top of the Chesapeake Bay only fifty miles from Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is easily reached and ready to grow with a current population of less than two-thousand people. A few attractions include the historic main street with lots of antique and collectable shops as well as many restaurants. Tourists might also want to check out the ancient cemetery around the old church which still contains the graves of a few Susquehannock Indians who lived in the 1600s (during the time when John Smith was sailing around). The town also invites tourists to enjoy the nearby river as well as North East’s small town charm.

Sources List:

http://www.northeastchamber.org/about.htm

http://www.northeastchamber.org/visit.htm

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Ocean City

Established in 1880
The people who first visited Ocean City’s famous beaches were probably Algonquian Indian tribes before settlers arrived. When the Europeans made their appearance in 1524, a man Giovanni da Verrazano arrived to survey the entire east coast of North America. Once the seventeenth century rolled around, colonists from England had settled in Virginia and were slowly making their way north, settling land as they went, especially in the land around what is now Ocean City.

Ocean City remained relatively isolated however, because it was a barrier island and the town remained a ‘sleepy fishing village’ until in 1875 when the Atlantic Hotel was founded and began serving guests. Then a railroad was built the next year which crossed Sinepuxent Bay to the island and the Ocean City resort town was established.

In 1878, the ‘U.S Life-Saving Service,’ a precursor to the U.S Coast Guard, founded a station there to rescue shipwreck victims in stormy weather. A second station which was built there now houses a museum which guests can still visit today.

Fun Fact: In the early 1900s, the very first boardwalk was built, but what was weird about it was that the boardwalk wasn’t permanent; it was taken apart each winter and reassembled during the spring!

In August 1933, a huge storm blew through the area and tore a new channel from the Sinepuxent Bay to the ocean. The inhabitants of the city saw an opportunity there and engineers were brought in to make the channel permanent. Today, Ocean City’s relatively new harbor has become ‘one of the east coast’s premier sport fishing destinations- “the White Marlin Capital of the World.”

Midway through the twentieth century, the railroads were becoming obsolete and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built in 1952. The bridge made direct access to D.C and Baltimore from the Eastern Shore a piece of cake, (relatively speaking of course, today’s traffic can be horrendous) and with the tunnel to the Virginia Tidewater area, Ocean City became a favorite vacation destination.

Today, visitors are welcomed to OC by the ten miles of pristine white sandy beaches, (no palm trees though) three miles of boardwalk (for exercise after you’ve had the famous boardwalk fries), and more than 21,000 apartments and 10,000 hotel rooms (if you want to stay there permanently).

Sources List:

http://www.beach-net.com/ochistory.html

http://ococean.com/explore-oc/oc-history

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Perryville

Established in 1882
In 1608, explorer/adventurer, John Smith, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and continued up the Susquehanna River; undoubtedly passing right by what is now present- day Perryville. In 1622, a man named Edward Palmer was granted the land to build a colony on and the region was soon settled. However, it underwent several name changes before it was incorporated in 1882; first, it was called ‘Lower Ferry” in 1695, then ‘Susquehanna’ in the 1700s, and finally ‘Perryville’ after the wife of John Bateman, Mary Perry, (say that name five times fast).

When the Revolutionary War began, the town was used as a staging area for the Continental Army, and a colonel named John Rogers worked the ferry along with the town’s tavern. Travelers from all over stayed in the tavern after coming off the ferry, including George Washington while on his way to meet Cornwallis. Later on, in the 1800s, Perryville became a hub for the Baltimore Railroad, but during the Civil War, the line was destroyed, so in order to get supplies and Union soldiers to the city of Annapolis, the army reestablished the ferry on the Susquehanna River. Then in the 1900s, with the development of the interstate highway system, the ferry became obsolete and Perryville became a ‘highway town.’ The town and the ferry shrunk while some of the land was bought out by a railroad, and that old tavern was left to deteriorate. In 1956, the tavern was purchased by the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities, and an organization called the ‘Friends of Rogers Tavern’ attempted to restore it. Unfortunately, it was purchased again in 1993 and the organization disbanded; so today, the town is looking for alternate ways to preserve it.

Nowadays, Perryville offers visitors a ‘trip through the roots of America,’ as well as historically important locations and buildings. Visitors can still go see the partially restored tavern where George Washington and his officers stayed the night, as well as the river John Smith sailed up more than four-hundred years ago.

Sources List:

http://www.perryvillemd.org/

http://www.city-data.com/city/Perryville-Maryland.html

http://www.perryvillemd.org/about.html

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Pocomoke City

Established in 1865
Along the Pocomoke River during the 1600s, a New England fur trader established a tiny, yet profitable trading post; presumably doing business with any Indians in the area as well as anyone coming up or down the river. Now, fast-forward seventy years and ‘POOF!’ a Colonel named William Stevens has built a small ferry landing on the same spot. Soon after, a small village sprouted up around the landing and called itself unsurprisingly ‘Stevens’ Landing.’ For some reason, in 1865, the townspeople decided to call the city ‘New Town’ when the time came for it to be incorporated; but thirteen years later, they decided to rename their town ‘Pocomoke City’ after the river’s Indian name which translates to “black water.” The river was prime location for the village because back then, rivers were THE method of transportation if you wanted to get anywhere fast. Today, the people of Pocomoke use the river mainly for recreation or to enjoy the ‘unspoiled’ waterway. A few other attractions include the Winter Quarters Municipal Golf Course, boat ramps, and a two mile long exercise trail. There are also several historic locations scattered around the town, a few of which include the Sturgis Museum, the Mar-Va Theatre which is currently being restored, the Sturgis One-Room School Museum, and the Costen House. Nowadays, the town’s location at the intersection of routes 113 and 13, makes Pocomoke City ‘the business center for the surrounding area.’ Pocomoke City’s ninety-eight acre industrial park is home to Benelli, Beretta USA, Bel-Art, AquaMar, Mid-Atlantic Foods, and even Ricca Chemical Co. Also called ‘The Friendliest Town on the Eastern Shore,’ Pocomoke City has a very nice shopping district close to the river in its downtown quarter, and offers quaint historic homes or apartments for those looking to settle in the area.

Sources List:
http://www.cityofpocomoke.com/ https://www.pocomoke.com/Home_Page.html http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/PocomokeCity/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=PocomokeCity&page=home

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Preston

Established in 1892
During colonial times, there was a town called Linchester not too far from what is now Preston, Maryland. In 1670, a colonel named James Murray constructed a grist mill there; and soon after, a few homes, a post office, and a store cropped up around it. In 1797, a Methodist chapel was built and the area was soon called ‘Snow Hill.’ The post office was moved there in 1845, but there was ‘postal confusion’ between the two towns called Snow Hill, even though one was located in Worcester County. Eleven years later the people of Snow Hill (the one in Caroline county) renamed their town Preston after Alexander Preston, a lawyer from Baltimore who performed very well in a trial in Easton. In 1890, the Baltimore Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad ran a line from a steamboat landing in Claiborne to Ocean City which sparked major economic growth in the town of Preston. Before the rail line, any transportation of goods had to be done by steamboat on the Choptank River; but now, there were passenger trains and freight trains coming and going from Preston and the town started to grow. According to sources, in 1908, the state of Maryland packed five-twelfths of all the tomatoes canned in the U.S. and one-tenth of that came from Caroline County directly from the B.C.&A. rail line. During this period, canneries, manufacturers, blacksmiths, restaurants, and stores were very profitable businesses, at one point there were nearly sixteen canneries within just seven miles of Preston. In 1910, Preston was the ‘first town of its size to have electric street lights installed and completely pave it’s sidewalks by 1914. Halfway through the twentieth century however, the railroad and canneries were nowhere to be found; and over the last few decades, the town of Preston has drastically changed. Today, old and historic homes have been removed from the surrounding farmland and now sit next to new homes in residential communities. Some of their inhabitants commute to larger cities for work, but most of Preston’s workforce are employed as watermen and farmers, or run their own businesses in town. Preston has become known as “The Biggest Little Town in the USA” and attracts visitors with its annual Preston Carnival hosted by the Preston Volunteer Fire Department.

Sources List:

http://www.prestonmaryland.us/about/about.html

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Preston/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Preston&page=home, http://www.city-data.com/city/Preston-Maryland.html

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Queen Anne

Established in 1953
A long time ago, (in the 1850s) in a land far far away, (Maryland’s Eastern Shore) a man named Jacob Morgan bought a large two-hundred and twenty-five acre farm; little did he know that his quiet family home would eventually grow to become the town of Queen Anne. At first, the town’s center was just a small, one-and-a-half story building, but in 1864 Morgan constructed a much larger house which the locals soon referred to as ‘the mansion house’ and the surrounding area was dubbed Morgansville. At this point, the Pennsylvania Railroad had a line running to Greensboro and later to Ridgely and Hillsboro across Tuckahoe Creek; so in 1878, the railroad company bought land for the station across the river in Queen Anne’s County and called it Queen Anne in about 1882. As with all small towns, adding a railroad stimulates lots of growth so the town became known as Queen Anne after the station, and grew to become a commercial center for the M.D. &V Railroad. Tuckahoe Creek, which winds through Queen Anne to the larger Choptank River, was used by boats to transport grain to the railroad and Queen Anne soon became a hub for transporting goods.

Today, Queen Anne is considerably smaller; only one-hundred and sixty-seven people call the town home. But the little town is also very unique, half of it is in Queen Anne’s County, while another half is located in Talbot County, and a third portion borders Caroline County!

Sources List:
http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/QueenAnne/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=QueenAnne&page=home, http://www.city-data.com/city/Queen-Anne-Maryland.html

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Ridgely

Established in 1896
The town of Ridgely was founded on May 13th in 1867 by the Maryland and Baltimore Land Association in a grain field previously owned by Reverend Greenbury Ridgely and Thomas Bell. The reason the town was founded was that after the Civil War, northern railroads could finally continue expanding, and investors were searching for new sources of suppliers and markets for growing urban demand. From its beginnings, Ridgely was very different from other country towns, for one thing, it was completely planned before even one home was built; it didn’t just grow up on its own because it was planned to be a city. Early in 1867, the town’s proprietors hired a Civil Engineer named J.J. Sickler to design the layout of Ridgely. When the plans were finished, four buildings were constructed, one of which was a railroad station, and two were private homes. One of these residences was built by James K. Saulsbury, and today it is known as the Ridgely House where the town offices are now located. Ridgely had everything going for it, and all things considered it should have been an extremely prosperous town. Its location couldn’t have been better; there was the Choptank River to the south and a large rail road line to the north. The town had been designed with a bustling riverfront with shipyards and docks; its streets were to be lined with stores, and there were supposed to be boulevards and even parks. But ‘the city was doomed to failure.’ In the first year alone, the Land Association overextended and went bankrupt, the newly built homes were auctioned off to the highest bidder, and the town was left with a grand total of four buildings; a store/home, a hotel, another residence, and a railroad station. However, after the Land Association’s bankruptcy, the town of Ridgely began to grow as an industrial and rural commercial center on the Delaware and Maryland Railroad line. Once Ridgely began to grow on its own, it did prosper, but it never became a city. Ridgely’s industrial operations and commercial center worked to process local crops such as strawberries, huckleberries, blackberries, and vegetables. Unfortunately, Ridgely suffered another blow when transportation shifted from railroads to highways and personal cars in the 1950s. Because of this, the small town’s processing plants and factories could not compete with the larger national and regional corporations. However, Ridgely did ‘find a niche’ as the “Strawberry Capital of the World’ and every year in May, there is the Annual Strawberry Festival and Parade at Martin Sutton Park which is located in the very center of Ridgely. The festival includes rides, games, food, music, awards, and prizes. The parade itself runs down Ridgely’s Central Avenue which residents claim is the widest main street in Maryland. Another aspect of Ridgely besides the Strawberry Festival that attracts visitors from all over is the quaint architecture of the town. Ridgely has wide streets that are pedestrian friendly ‘lined with stately Victorian homes’ in period architecture which displays the effort put in the town by Ridgely’s planners and civil engineers when the city was being designed and built in the 1860s. Today, there are over fifteen-hundred residents who are glad to commute a few hours into D.C or Baltimore in favor of living in Ridgely’s rural community.

Sources List:

http://www.ridgelymd.org/html_docs/history.html

http://www.city-data.com/city/Ridgely-Maryland.html

http://delmarvatowncrier.com/archives/ridgely-strawberry-festival-and-parade/

http://www.ridgelylions.org/club/?page_id=190

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Rock Hall

Established in 1908
Rock Hall is a small yet quaint town of about two-thousand three-hundred people on the west coast of the Eastern Shore in Kent County Maryland. Rock Hall is over three-hundred years old, but it has grown and changed considerably in the last three centuries. Fun Fact: It was originally called “Rock Hall Crossroads” after a large mansion constructed of white sandstone, but the name was later shortened to just “Rock Hall.”

In 1707, the town was founded as a tobacco port situated directly on the Chesapeake Bay, and as time went on, it evolved into a crabbing and fishing port. However, some believe that several of the homes were founded much earlier as water routes were the fastest and safest method of travel during that time, so Rock Hall would have been the perfect place for travelers to join overland routes to New York and Philadelphia. In its early years, Rock Hall saw famous people pass through, men such as James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington all traveled through Rock Hall many times.

Today, the fishing and crabbing lifestyle is still alive in the community of Rock Hall, but most of the boating done there is for recreation such as pleasure boaters, tourists, and sport fishermen. Because of Rock Hall’s close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay, visitors and locals can live in Rock Hall, yet cruise across the Chesapeake to the West Shore and visit the larger towns of Annapolis and Baltimore or sail down to the town of St. Michaels.

Just a few of the attractions that Rock Hall has to offer its visitors which revolve around it’s location on the water; are sailing, hunting, crabbing, fishing, camping, bird watching, wildlife refuge tours and bay cruises.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/RockHall/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=RockHall&page=home

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=2762

http://www.rockhallmd.com/thingstodo2.php

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Saint Michael's

Established in 1804
The town of Saint Michaels dates back to the mid 1600s, when the town served as a trading port for trappers and tobacco farmers. Its close proximity to the river provided convenient and easy access to quick transportation, communication and shipping. The town was named Saint Michaels after the Christ Episcopal Church of St. Michael Archangel parish which was founded in 1677.

The historic heart of Saint Michaels, the St Mary’s Square, was created in 1778 when a man named James Braddock bought twenty acres and deeded fifty-eight lots. One of the most intriguing qualities of Saint Michaels is that unlike other 18th century towns which were laid out in a grid formation, Saint Michaels is laid out around the central square. The historical homes and buildings still exist to this day and a few date as far back as the late 1800s to the late 1700s.

The town is probably most famous for having the first successful ‘blackout’ against the British during the War of 1812. The inhabitants of Saint Michaels had been warned that British ships had entered the river and were approaching to attack the port when someone had a brilliant idea. Why not douse every light in the town, and hang lanterns way up in the trees so that the British would target the lights with their cannon-fire and miss the town completely? The plan was enacted and when the British ships arrived to annihilate the town, they aimed too high at the lanterns and missed the town altogether. The only casualty of the attack was a single home which was hit by one errant cannon ball. Ever since the building has been known as the ‘Cannonball House,’ and Saint Michaels went down in the history books as ‘The Town That Fooled the British.’
During the 1800s and well into the 1900s, Saint Michaels’ economy revolved solely around seafood processing and ship-building, it was only during the last thirty years that the economy has shifted to include tourism. Today, visitors come to Saint Michaels for the shops, the town’s proximity to the Chesapeake Bay, to take tours, or just to relax and take in the scenery.

Sources List:

http://stmichaelsmd.org/pages/History/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Michaels,_Maryland

http://stmichaelsmd.org/

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Secretary

Established in 1900
The town of Secretary is a sleepy little community on the Eastern Shore of Maryland not too far from Cambridge. It has a population of just over four-hundred and eighty and most of the people are employed as watermen. Fun Fact: the town is so small that it has no traffic lights.

The town of Secretary was named after Secretary Creek which in turn was named in honor of Henry Sewell who worked as the secretary for the colony under Governor Charles Calvert. The town is home to eighteen rented slips, two seafood businesses, and a country store. There is also a boat dock with a launch ramp, a bank, post office, and one fire department. The famous Suicide Bridge Restaurant is also in the area and is located just two miles from Secretary’s town limits.

One of the biggest attractions Secretary, Maryland has to offer is a three day long event called the Warwick Riverfest. The riverfest is actually a muscular dystrophy fundraiser held by the North Dorchester Jaycees during Labor Day weekend. A few highlights of the fest include a parade through town, music, games, contests, arts and crafts, and a homemade boat competition on Secretary Creek. This event usually draws several hundred visitors from out-of-town.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Secretary/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Secretary&page=home

http://www.city-data.com/city/Secretary-Maryland.html

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=2779

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Snow Hill

Established in 1812
The town of Snow Hill was founded by English settlers way back in the year 1686 who named it after a district in London. The settlement was established on the banks of the Pocomoke River and as the waterway supported more commerce and trading in the area, Snow Hill grew steadily larger. Since it was also located in prime farming country, the town was big on agriculture. It was so successful that William and Mary of England designated Snow Hill as a Royal Port in 1694, and in 1742, when county delineations were being decided, Snow Hill was named the county seat of government.

When the Revolutionary War came around, Snow Hill supported colonists in Massachusetts, and during the War of 1812, the town hid local records from the Redcoats, and when the Civil War was being fought, the town was actually split down the middle between Sothern and Northern sympathies.

Snow Hill continued to be a successful port town even as schooners were replaced by steamboats which ferried passengers and provisions to the Western Shore. In response, more people wanted to live in the Snow Hill community permanently, so stores, schools, churches, smiths, and lumber companies all moved in. Back then, it was really trading, not farming, that supported Snow Hill’s economy unlike today. The river was an important factor in the town’s ability to import and export goods, so it also became a place where rich farmers, bankers, and captains showed off their wealth by building large homes and mansions.

At that time, nothing could have been better in Snow Hill, business was booming, people were moving in, and profit was being made, but it all took a turn for the worst when a massive fire in 1893 completely demolished Snow Hill’s original downtown area and destroyed most of the records of the county and town that were held in the courthouse. A few historic buildings and public structures survived which include some that actually pre-date the Revolutionary War.

Today, Snow Hill is still surrounded by agricultural land which became the main supporter of the town’s economy. The Pocomoke River, which once served as a highway for the town when water travel was the fastest method of transportation, serves it in a different capacity; now the Pocomoke is used mainly for recreational boaters and fishermen. In the rebuilt downtown section, museums, shops, and galleries, cater to visitors and locals alike, but the river remains the town’s main attraction.

Sources List:

http://www.snowhillmd.com/moveHere/townHistory.cfm

http://www.snowhillmd.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Hill,_Maryland

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-476468-snow_hill_md_vacations-i

http://www.lowershore.net/towns/snowhill/history.htm

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Templeville

Established in 1865
Templeville, Maryland is a very tiny country town along Route 302 that lies smack-dab between two Maryland counties. In one section of the town, the buildings on the north side of the road are in Queen Anne’s County and the ones on the south side are actually in Caroline County. As of the 2000 census, the town’s population was only 80 and today it still has less than 100 residents.

There isn’t much information available on the history of Templeville, for awhile it was known oddly as ‘Bullock Town’ but changed it’s name to Templeville in 1847. The name ‘Templeville’ is thought to have been taken from the Temple family who used to live in the town, the most notable member of which was Governor Temple of Delaware. One of the most interesting features of the town is a very old cemetery just outside of the community where a few members of the Temple family are still buried; one stone in the plot actually dates back to the 1700s.

Sources List:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templeville,_Maryland

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Templeville/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Templeville&page=home

http://www.americantowns.com/md/templeville-information

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=267289

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Vienna

Established in 1833
Vienna, Maryland has one of the most interesting histories of all the small towns on the Eastern Shore. The region was first written about by Captain John Smith as he sailed up the Chesapeake Bay exploring the inlets and rivers of Maryland in 1608. In 1664 the entire ten-thousand acre tract of land that Smith had explored was granted to Lord Baltimore by Charles Calvert and called ‘Nanticoke Manor.’

At first, the quiet little town of Vienna was just a village on the bank of the Nanticoke River and was known quite simply as “the town on Nanticoke River.” On July 11, 1706, the town was officially named Vienna, and grew to become a thriving port town, which received most of its revenue from its large harbor which was big enough to accommodate ships from England carrying supplies and goods. In 1762, a warehouse for tobacco was built and Vienna functioned as a bustling trade center; only six years later, Vienna was competing with a new port town called Baltimore.

The importance of Vienna became apparent in the Revolutionary War as British troops attacked the city five different times, stealing provisions and ships because the town was giving supplies to the Continental Army. In the War of 1812, Vienna was attacked by British troops again and the people attempted to protect themselves by building a stone wall from the ballast loads of ships anchored in the harbor. Parts of this wall actually survive to this day and can still be seen from the Custom House.

Vienna was again mentioned in the history books during the Civil War, when Blockade Runners from the South sailed up the Nanticoke River, and sympathizers in Vienna gave the rebels food and provisions. Vienna didn’t change very much after that, but the town made the news again in 2005 when a team from Salisbury University was hired to separate legend from fact and find the sites where Captain John Smith landed almost four-hundred years ago. In the end, the team was able to verify that Captain John Smith himself actually tootled around what is now Emperors’ Landing in Vienna.

Today, visitors are drawn to Vienna, Maryland to “share in the experience of life on the Nanticoke.” Some of the attractions include an annual Shad Festival which attracts almost a thousand people, and every year at Christmas, sixteen hundred candles are lit on the streets for the ‘Lumanaria’ which is not to be missed. Right now, the town is going through a massive revitalization program which includes a new wastewater treatment plant and water system, new street surfaces, storm drains, sidewalks, a river walk, and new curbs to attract new residents and businesses. But thorough all this, the inhabitants of Vienna are working to preserve the unique architecture of the buildings and the character of their town.

The University of Salisbury’s Findings:

http://franklin.salisbury.edu/esrgc/pdf/js_final.pdf

Sources List:

http://www.viennamd.org/legacy.html

http://www.viennamd.org/bstump.html

http://www.whereisvienna.com/vienna-maryland/

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Vienna/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Vienna&page=home

http://www.city-data.com/city/Vienna-Maryland.html

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Willards

Established in 1906
Willards, Maryland is a small landlocked town located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland just twenty minutes away from Ocean City, and just fifteen minutes east of Salisbury off U.S. Route 50. It’s pretty tiny with a population of just nine-hundred and sixty-eight. Truth be told, there isn’t much information on the internet about the town of Willards, and what is available only covers its current demographics and a little history. According to sources, it all started way back in 1895 when a man named Ebenezer Davis founded the town of Willards in Wicomico County, Maryland. How and why he picked the name or even the town’s locality wasn’t clear, but you can’t argue with the location, it’s just twenty minutes from the Atlantic Ocean!

There was slightly more information on the structures and buildings in the town, however; and according to the article, Willards was put on the map because of a rail line that passed through the town on its way to Ocean City. The railway station was soon followed by a church, a basket factory, and a steam saw mill. But even with all these revenue opportunities, Willards didn’t expand very much over the next several years and instead progressed slowly but surely as a bank, a fire station, and a school house were added. Willards stepped up the pace a little in 1976 when a brand new sewer and water system were installed and by the close of the 20th Century, the town’s population had already reached nine-hundred. Now, there are two banks, a post office, an insurance office complex, a modern lumber factory, as well as a community center.
Today, Willards’ economy and source of revenue relies mainly on the poultry and agriculture industries; and since it is located in the heart of the Eastern Shore’s famous farmland and dense woods, it has also become a sportsman’s paradise.

Sources List:

http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/Willards/..%5Cindex.cfm?townname=Willards&page=home

http://www.city-data.com/city/Willards-Maryland.html

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