The long eastern Chesapeake coastline stretching from Cecil County at the mouth of the Susquehanna River south to the Atlantic Ocean inlet at Worcester County is collectively known as the Eastern Shore. This region encompasses nine Maryland counties—Cecil, Kent...
Known as Creswell’s Ferry until 1812, Port Deposit is located on the narrow flood plain between the Susquehanna River and steeply rising granite cliffs. Plans for a booming settlement to serve as the terminus of the Susquehanna Canal, chartered in 1783...
Charlestown was established by the Maryland General Assembly in 1742 as a port town to facilitate trade within the region. It is situated on the North East River at the head of the Chesapeake Bay and was among the few places where large ships could...
The Cecil County seat was moved from Charlestown to Elkton in 1787 to bring the center of government to a growing port town. Situated on the Elk River and the major land routes between Philadelphia and Baltimore, Elkton enjoyed early success in...
Located near the mouth of the Bay, Chesapeake City is largely a product of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, built to create a more direct route between the Delaware River and the...
Chestertown was established as New Town in 1706, one of six sites then designated as colonial ports of entry and the seat of the Eastern Shore’s first county. Significant growth began after 1730 when the town grid was laid out. Renamed...
Centreville was first developed as the county seat during the late eighteenth century due to its proximity to the colonial road from Chestertown to Queenstown and Kent Island and to its ease of accessibility to navigable waterways. Since that time,...
After the formation of Queen Anne’s County removed land to the north, a new more centrally located seat for Talbot County was created in 1710. Another legislative act in 1788 incorporated the settlement with the name Easton, and a federal judiciary act...
St. Michaels was established in 1778 as a speculative venture by the Liverpool merchant firm of Gildart and Gowith, under the direction of factor James Braddock, who laid out a grid of fifty-eight lots. The plan encompassed St. Mary’s Square, the...
Little survives from Oxford’s early dominance as a port town from the 1660s through the 1760s, when it was second only to Annapolis and the designated port of entry on the Eastern Shore. The still-active ferry from Oxford to Bellevue across the Tred Avon...
In 2010 the last remaining house on Holland Island off the coast of southern Dorchester County was subsumed by the Chesapeake Bay. The former residents left long ago in 1918 when erosion and rising water levels...
In 1684 the Maryland Assembly voted to establish a town on the south side of the Choptank River to facilitate the tobacco trade in Dorchester County, making Cambridge one of the oldest colonial cities in Maryland. Gradually the emphasis on...
The establishment of Princess Anne was authorized by the Maryland General Assembly in 1733, in response to local citizens eager to form a commercial center at the head of the Manokin River. The town began with 25 acres of David Brown’s...
With its deep-water river port and railroad connections, Pocomoke City developed in the late nineteenth century into a thriving economic center for Worcester County and the lower Delmarva Peninsula. A small settlement in earlier decades, it was...
Throughout its history, Snow Hill, located alongside the Pocomoke River that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay, has enjoyed a relative prosperity manifested in its architectural cityscape. First recognized by Native Americans for its wealth of natural...
Maryland’s primary seaside resort sits on a barrier island lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sinepuxent Bay that until the late nineteenth century was largely deserted. Ocean City’s first hotel opened in 1875, spurring early growth facilitated by...
Baltimore is known as a quirky, gritty place through its most famous popular cultural works such as the writings of iconoclastic journalist H. L. Mencken, the oeuvre of proudly transgressive filmmaker John Waters, and the groundbreaking television series ...
The region defined here as central Maryland offers a study in geographic contrasts, from the rocky hills along the Susquehanna, Patapsco, and Patuxent rivers to rolling Piedmont farmland to the flat coastal plain of the western shore of the Upper Chesapeake...
Central to the development of Howard County and emblematic of its distinctive architectural traditions is Ellicott City, Maryland’s first and most successful mill town. Founded in 1772 by the Ellicott brothers as Ellicott’s Mills, it became the...
Middle River was a vital manufacturing center during World War II due to the expansion of the pioneering Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company, which founded its operations here in 1928. With the outbreak of war in Europe, Middle River rapidly became a...
The unincorporated town of Dundalk sits just southeast of the city of Baltimore, adjacent to the massive Bethlehem Steel works at Sparrows Point. Prior to World War I, it was a small settlement mainly known for the McShane Bell Foundry established in 1856....
Catonsville’s development was enabled by the Ellicott Brothers construction of Frederick Road in 1787, providing access from their mills to Baltimore harbor. Charles Carroll was among those who owned land midway between; realizing the potential for...
As a quintessential linear nineteenth-century agricultural village, Uniontown maintains an excellent state of preservation. Its development coincides with the 1808 completion of the Baltimore-Hagerstown Turnpike that forms its Main Street, with taverns...
Union Bridge is an industrial and commercial center for the area that began in the late eighteenth century as a market village established by English Quaker and German settlers to include a sawmill, nail factory, general store, and a few log houses....
Linwood is an agricultural village developed during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, largely by the Englar family, descendants of Phillip Englar, a German Swiss immigrant who came to Maryland via Pennsylvania in 1764. Taking advantage of the...
Located at the head of the Chesapeake Bay and its confluence with the Susquehanna River, Havre de Grace was an important port town dating to 1695. It was then that the Maryland General Assembly granted permission to establish a ferry...
Montgomery and Prince George’s counties now form the Maryland suburbs adjoining Washington. In many ways, they followed parallel paths; both largely agricultural until the twentieth century, dependent from early settlement on tobacco cultivation, later...
Encompassing Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett counties, western Maryland is distinguished by the peaks and valleys of the Appalachian Plateau, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Piedmont foothills. Nearly a century passed from the time of Maryland’s...
Since its establishment in 1745, Frederick has been one of Maryland’s most important towns. It rose from western outpost to inland market center and county seat within a few short years, settled largely by German and Scots-Irish immigrants. Its...
Lying at the base of South Mountain is Burkittsville, a quintessential nineteenth-century western Maryland crossroads town. It was created in the early nineteenth century, providing needed services for the local agricultural community, and even today...
