St Michaels Maryland MD Attractions - St. Michaels Maryland Business Assocation

1 - St. Mary's Square. The Square was a feature of the original plan of St. Michaels developed by James Braddock in 1778. Braddock was a factor (agent) for the English firm of Gildart & Gawith, who arrived in Talbot County about 1774. In 1778, he purchased 127 acres at an auction of the real estate of Captain Philip Wetheral. Braddock laid out approximately 20 acres of this land into streets and lots (mostly 60 x 120 feet), calling his town "St. Michaels" after the parish and river of that name. Braddock died in 1782 and the original plat of the town, which had never been recorded, was lost.

The St. Michaels of today is based on a reconstruction of Braddock's plan as revealed by the deeds for his original land sales and by a survey made in 1804-1806 in accordance with an Act of the Legislature which officially created the Town of St. Michaels.

It is said that a "public market house" was built on the Square around 1805, and that guns and cannons used in the Battle of St. Michaels during the War of 1812 were stored within it. The "Mechanics' Bell" now located on the Square was rung daily at 7 a.m., 12 noon, and 5 p.m., and measured the working day for the carpenters in the nearby shipyards.

Across from the bell stands the former Methodist Church, built in 1839. Its use as a church was discontinued in 1871. The building stands on the site of the first Methodist Church in St. Michaels, and the first constructed in Talbot County, on land donated to the Methodists by James Braddock in 1781. Between then and now, the building has served variously as a schoolhouse and as a storehouse for muskrat skins! The building is presently the Masonic Hall.

The large Revolutionary War cannon on the Square was brought here from Sewell's Point, Va. The smaller one (nearer the bell) is said to have been used to defend St. Michaels against the British on the night of August 10, 1813.

2 - St. Michaels Museum at St. Mary's Square. The main building was moved to its present location in 1964 from its original site on present-day Mill Street (or Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Road). It was built as a dwelling by Jeremiah Sewell (a waterman with five children) in 1865. The frame consists of huge timbers salvaged from a steam saw-and-grist mill built by Samuel Harrison in 1819.

The Teetotum building at the back (c. 1860) was moved from Willow Street, Joined to the main building by what is called "The Hyphen," and now serves as a general display area. It formerly served as a magistrate's office, a town lock-up, a saddlery shop, a mortuary, and lastly as a barber shop. It is called "Teetotum" because of its resemblance to the toy top known by that name.

The museum is open May through October on Saturdays and Sundays. Other days by arrangement. Donations accepted.

3 - The Cannonball House. During the War of 1812, during the Battle of St. Michaels, a cannonball penetrated the roof of this house, rolled across the attic floor and bounced down the staircase, frightening the occupant, a Mrs. Merchant, who was carrying her infant daughter downstairs. A brick house, it was built in 1805 by William Merchant, a shipwright. A closed brick curtain separated the kitchen wing from the main part of the house. Lovely herringbone chair rails, pine mantels, and a curved arch in the lower hall are original. William Merchant died intestate, and the house was sold by John Dorgin, trustee, in 1831, for the sum of $ 1,000. The house is still privately owned.

4 - The Cottage was the home of the Robert D. Lambdins from 1840 to 1905. Lambdin and his sons were shipwrights who built large Bay craft such as schooners, pungies, and bugeyes as well as the popular working and racing canoes. His shipyard was located partly on land rented from the town at the foot of Mulberry Street. The house is constructed of hickory, mortised and pegged, and has an unusual fireplace and mantel in the main room.

5 - The Amelia Welby House is built of brick, now covered with mahogany siding. Dating from the late 1700s, the house was probably the home of Captain Philip Wetheral, who was operating a blacksmith shop and shipyard here at the time of his death in 1774. It was Wetheral's property, bought by James Braddock in 1778, that became the nucleus of the future town of St. Michaels.

Amelia Welby, called by some the first Poet Laureate of Maryland, and who was warmly praised by her contemporary Edgar Allen Poe, is said to have been born in this house.

6 - The Cannons. The two cannons positioned in Church Creek Park are replicas of the two given the town of St. Michaels in 1813 by Jacob Gibson as a peace offering after his mischievous prank. The cannons were given by the National Park Service to replace the originals, which are believed to be at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. The originals were confiscated by Federal troops from the Arsenal in Easton at the beginning of "The War between the States." The replicas are fired on special occasions by the present-day "St. Michaels Blues," a volunteer group named after the Town Militia during the War of 1812. The cannons were dedicated in 1975.

7 - The Tarr House. This c. 1800-1810, one-and-a-half story, Flemish-bond brick house is supported by a raised common brick foundation. The frame addition dates from the second quarter of the 19th century. The building, containing much of the original flooring and beams, has fireplaces supported by two arched chimney-stack supports in the cellar. The large chimney contains separate flues for two fireplaces on the first floor and a bedroom fireplace on the second. A frame addition was built around 1870 by Benjamin Blades for a Captain Josiah Thomas, then the owner, from flood debris picked up in the Chesapeake Bay. The Tarr House today is a Bed & Breakfast.

8 - The Bruff-Mansfleld House. Wheelwright and joiner John Bruff purchased the land for this house in 1778 from James Braddock, founder of St. Michaels. There are two fireplaces, unusual handmade paneling, and hand-hewn floor joists showing marks of the broad axe. The flooring is pegged with wooden dowels. The property remained in the same family from 1778 until the mid-1900s.

9 - Hell's Crossing. This intersection earned its nickname long ago from the fights which often broke out among the watermen returning to their boats after a night "on the town"!

10 - Small Frame House. This house, built between 1800 and 1810, is one of the last 10 relatively unmodified survivors of many almost identical dwellings which once lined the streets of old St. Michaels. Inhabited by workers in the shipyards, a house and lot of this type sold for about $200.

11 - Haddaway's Shipyard. This house stands on a lot which once extended to the water. Thomas L. Haddaway operated a shipyard here in the late 1700s-and it has been used for that purpose ever since! The house, which has been remodeled recently, was one of the typical story-and-a-half cottages of the boatyard workers.

12 - The Dr. Dodson House. The oldest section of this house was built as a tavern by Joseph or Samuel Harrison in 1799 or 1800. The house was doubled in size by Judge William H. Bruff in 1872. It was bought by Dr. Robert A. Dodson in 1878; he used it as a residence and office. The first post office in St. Michaels, established in 1802, is said to have occupied the small rear wing of the building. The house has its original fireplaces, doors and flooring. The Dr. Dodson House today is a Bed & Breakfast.

13 - The Snuggery. This house was formerly located nearer the water, on the site of the large mansard-roofed house next door, popularly known as the Shannahan House. It was moved to its present location in 1870 by Henry Clay Dodson and was given a complete Victorian renovation. The house is unusual in that it is one of the very few remaining log houses in St. Michaels. Its date of construction is uncertain, but the lot from which it was moved was leased to Robert Dodson in 1784, and tax records show that a Robert Dodson had a log house on the lot in 1798. Beneath the modern siding there are said to be black walnut logs 16 to 19 inches thick The Victorian interior features marbled mantels and period woodwork.

14 - The Shannahan House. This house was designed and built by Henry Clay Dodson in 1873. It was bought by Norman M. Shannahan in 1911 and remained in the Shannahan family until 1987. The size of the house and its unique mansard roof set the Shannahan House apart from the other houses of St. Michaels. The interior, finished with Victorian millwork, is largely unaltered. Originally with a basement kitchen, a dumbwaiter still serves between what is now the cellar and the first floor.

15 - The Footbridge. Built on the site of many earlier bridges, today's bridge joins Navy Point to Cherry Street It has been variously known as "Sweetheart Bridge" and "Lovers' Bridge." It is the only remaining bridge of three that at one time connected the town with outlying areas around the harbor.

16 - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Dedicated to the preservation of the Bay's maritime history, the waterside museum on Navy Point consists of 26 buildings on approximately 17 acres of land. There are floating exhibits including a skipjack, a bugeye, and a "buy" boat a boat-building and repair shop; an aquarium; and waterfowling and "History of the Bay" exhibits. A "Steamboat" building (16a) is the newest addition. The Hooper's Strait lighthouse, which dominates the area, was moved into the museum grounds in 1966. In 1979 the lighthouse became 100 years old. Come visit us!

17 - Navy Point. This area was originally part of U.S. Navy Purser (War of 1812) Samuel Hambleton's "Perry Cabin Farm." "Navy Point" and "Perry Cabin" were names given by Hambleton, who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie and had a high regard for his commander Commodore Matthew Perry, and for the U.S. Navy. "The Point" was divided into lots in 1849. Soon after that, the first of the three houses located on today's Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum grounds was built.

The western-most building, the Higgins House (17a), named for its last occupants, was built around 1856. In 1884 this two-story frame house was acquired by the Dodson family.

Next to it is the Dodson House (17b), a three-story brick structure built as a story-and-a-half house around 1851 by Thomas Dyott. In 1886, it was raised to three stories by Richard Dodson, who intended to use it as a hotel. This was never done and it continued as a residence of the Dodson family for many years.

The Eagle House (17c), nearest the roadway, is on the site of a steam saw and grist mill which had to be rebuilt twice due to fire and explosions. A wharf in front was the landing for the steamboat OLIVE, a Dodson enterprise. The building site was acquired in 1893 by the Dodsons and the house was built on it, duplicating a house on their nearby farm land. The house is named for the eagle located on the roof-added at the beginning of this century. The eagle is the pilot-house ornament from the OLIVE.

All of these buildings currently house the offices of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

18 - Union United Methodist Church. Built in 1895, this Gothic Revival structure, supplemented by a Church Hall built in 1968, is one of the outstanding buildings in the northeast section of St. Michaels. The pristine Victorian interior, except for replacement of most of the pews, has the original colored glass windows, bronze chandeliers with milk glass globes, and a pipe organ. The land on which the church stands was bought by the church from the heirs of Samuel Hambleton (of Perry Cabin) for $150 in 1894.

19 - Freedom's Friend Lodge. As evidenced by a datestone on the right-front corner, this two-story, rectangular, frame lodge building was constructed in 1883 for the Freeman's Friend Lodge Number 1024 of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. There are very few 19th-century black Lodge buildings remaining in Maryland, and this structure may be the oldest in the State. The Lodge was chartered in 1867 and the land acquired in the same year for $350, having been split off as a lot from "Canton Farm" in 1855. The price paid for the lot and the wording of a deed of 1865 help to confirm the tradition that there was an earlier building on the site.

20 - The St. Michaels Branch library was established in June 1981. Seven years later it moved to its present location. It is part of the Talbot County Free Library system and, through that part of the Maryland Interlibrary Loan Organization (MILO). It is manned entirely by volunteers, many of whom have been working for it since it opened. An ever-increasing corps of helpers has extended the library hours so that it is now open from 10 to 6 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays; and from 10 to 8 on Thursdays. The greater part of its financing comes from local donations. The library features programs for children as well as a well-balanced collection of books for adults and young people.

21 - Town Hall Mail. In 1870, the "Masonic Company of Talbot County" was incorporated "to erect a building to contain a Masonic Lodge Room and a Town Hall to be used as a place of Public Meeting. . ." In 1872, the Lodge sold the property to local business man John C. Harper. Under a series of owners the meeting room was variously used as a bowling alley, movie house, and storage loft; while the first floor has housed a hardware store, barber shop, printing office, and variety store.

22 - St. Luke's Methodist Church, formerly Sardis Chapel, was constructed in 1871, the third Methodist Church building in St. Michaels. The ornamentation and trim on the steeple reflect the Victorian period during which it was built Worship services are held on the second floor, while Sunday School classes are conducted on the first floor in rooms which contain many antique church benches.

23 - Wrightson House, also known as the Bruff House, is the first house from the corner on Thompson St. or "Bruffs Alley." It stands on land sold to John Wrightson by john Thompson for 12 pounds in 1791. The house has handsome original handcarved mantels and matching cupboards, probably the work of John Bruff. Other examples of the work by John Bruff can be found in the Bruff-Mansfield House (built by John) and in the Col. Joseph Kemp House.

24 - Col. Joseph Kemp House. A Georgian-style house built in 1805 by Col. Joseph Kemp, a Revolutionary soldier and hero of the War of 1812. Kemp actively participated in the Battle of St. Michaels, commanding a cavalry patrol along San Domingo Creek. The doorways of the house, staircases, and mantels are of mahogany and are in their original condition. Gen. Robert E. Lee spent two nights in the house as a guest of the then owners Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Sparks. The Kemp House is now an inn.

25 - The Crepe Myrtle House. Located on part of a tract called "Chance," originally Patented to Arthur Emory in 1673 and resurveyed for Edward Elliott in 1725, this house, built between 1845 and 1853, probably by William W. Bruff presents to the street the broadest aspect of its story-and-a-half construction, with dormer windows. The house has had many alterations but retains various examples of the original, including beams and timbers, an enclosed stairway, second-story wide pine flooring, and other woodwork features. It has recently been modernized in sensitive restoration and renovation.

26 - San Domingo Creek. Believed to have been named for the Caribbean Island of San Domingo, this body of water is locally known as "Back Creek." The headwaters begin near the end of Grace St. This creek was the site of Jacob Gibson's prank on the Town of St. Michaels during the War of 1812. One can read about this escapade in a booklet entitled 'The Town That Fooled the British' (available at the St. Mary's Square Museum) written by St. Michaels resident Gilbert Byron. Visitors can see replicas of Gibson's cannon near the harbor in Church Cove Park (known to natives as "Muskrat Park").

27 - Berkeley Hall. This house was built by Matthew and Elizabeth Spencer around 1840. The name was given to the house by Dr. John Miller, who resided here after 1847. It remained in the family until sold by his two maiden daughters in 1936. Dr. Miller, a physician, developed East Chew Avenue and Marengo Street before the area was included in the Town of St. Michaels. The house contains a mahogany staircase, original ornate plaster moldings, "cross" doors, and a milk-glass chandelier in the large first-floor living room.

28 - The Old Inn. A red brick building constructed by Wrightson and Elizabeth Jones in 1816 on land purchased from Samuel Tennant for $250, it is set on part of a tract called "The Polygon." It has a cellar, unusual in St. Michaels, which still has a large fireplace where cooking was done. Wrightson Jones was a shipbuilder during the War of 1812, his yard being at Beverly on San Domingo Creek. Known as the Williams House in 1877, the St. Michaels Comet advertised the inn as having "entertainment for man or beast" The Old Inn was also the St. Michaels Bank for a number of years.

29 - Mount Pleasant. This white brick former residence was built by James Dooris. He purchased the land in 1806, from a prominent planter, William Sears, who had previously purchased it from Christ Episcopal Church in 1802. The central part is of the original construction. The building is now the Maryland National Bank.

30 - Christ Episcopal Church. Built of Port Deposit stone, the present church was erected in 1878. It has a fine timber ceiling, handsome stained-glass windows, and is in perfect symmetry. A side porch has been added. Three preceding Episcopal churches stood on this site.

The first is believed to have been built in 1677 by Edward Elliot. Located between a cove of the Miles River and San Domingo Creek to the southwest the church provided easy access for worshippers who came by boat. The cove was gradually filled in, and the new land is now called Church Cove Park (known to natives as "Muskrat Park").

The second church was built around 1710, and the third about 1810. The third church served to house troops during the Battle of St. Michaels in the War of 1812. During the 1878 construction of the present edifice 65 years after the battle, several muskets were discovered under the flooring, believed to have been left there by troops bivouacked in the church.

During the 1878 reconstruction, the church was extended over part of the graveyard.

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St. Michaels Maryland Business Association
PO Box 1221 | St. Michaels, Maryland (MD) 21663
Toll Free: 1-800-808-SMBA (7622) | Local 1-410-745-0411 |
Email: info@stmichaelsmd.org Website: www.stmichaelsmd.org