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Where History Meets the Chesapeake
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By Ann Cameron Siegal
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Maryland.com
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 | | Ann Cameron Siegal | | Galesville, Maryland - waterside living on the West River |
In the 350-year-old waterfront village of Galesville, Maryland, people joke that theirs is a community of 600 residents with three last names. Still, defying the usual assumptions that small communities with deep historical roots are closed societies, congenial and casual Galesville is where "homegrowns" enthusiastically welcome the "come-heres".
The trick to being welcomed in Galesville is simple -- love what you see and be willing to help preserve it. Finding a home in Galesville is tougher, because many families have remained for generations and tips on properties up for sale are often passed by word of mouth.
Galesville, founded in 1652 and known for a century as Brownton Plantation, occupies a narrow peninsula on the West River in Anne Arundel County, just south of Annapolis. At first glance, this is the riverside community people dream about - a summer place where a never-ending parade of boats and soaring osprey fill the scene; a winter place where an unfathomable stillness envelops all, and a year-round place where children and pets are known by name.
Dig deeper and you discover much more - a diverse community rich in history, a place where a strong work ethic and volunteer spirit are valued.
At one time in this 660-acre village, a handful of large self-sufficient families owned big chunks of land. It was a place of farmers, watermen and boat builders.
Businesses more than a century old still thrive under family names including Dixon, Smith, Woodfield and Hartge. Hartge's Yacht Yard, with a pedigree going back to 1879, is the oldest such business on the Chesapeake Bay.
Jack Smith, 78, the "homegrown" former president of the Heritage Society, said, "This was a real blue-collar community."
At the age of 6, he learned about community participation when family and friends set out to save the local elementary school. "I'll never forget how they fought for that," he said.
Today, Smith's volunteer efforts include raising oysters off his dock to help replenish the Chesapeake Bay population.
Pleasure and business in the early days were water-oriented. From the late 1800s to the 1930s the steamboat Emma Giles made regular trips from Baltimore, bringing shoes and clothing, taking agricultural products to market and ferrying vacationers to the local dance hall.
"She made the biggest wave when she pulled out, so all us squirts would run down and jump in the water," Smith said.
 | | Ann Cameron Siegal | | The bulletin board at the West River Market is a good source of local news. |
Sailboat racing, now a major local sport, came to town in the 1930s. The West River Sailing Club, internationally known for producing top-quality helmsmen, started in 1930 under the name OODYC (Our Own Damn Yacht Club) -- a "so there" to the sailing clubs from fancier places.
More than 12 percent of the town's population went into the military in World War II. Home front volunteers, led by the Smith family, published 100 editions of "The Home Town News" to keep in touch with the four Dixons, five Hartges, five Smiths and 42 other local servicemen overseas. All but one returned.
Along with prayers, news of marriages and kudos to volunteers in the war effort, newsletter gems included "Louise Hulse's cow died."
The newsletters and the hundreds of letters received from those serving in the military are compiled in two volumnes which give a real glimpse into the daily lives of Galesville's residents from 1944 to 1946.
In response to a published poll about the 1944 presidential election, a soldier wrote: "The Galesville Home News leaning one way and the New York Times the other, about evens things up, doesn't it?"
These publications are among historical papers, photos and artifacts on display at the recently opened Galesville Heritage Museum. (Weekends from 1-4, April through November)
In many ways, the 21st century has been kept at bay in Galesville. There are no chain stores. While electricity arrived in 1929, public sewers did not come until 1995. Residents still rely on well water.
There is also no home mail delivery -- pickup is at the village post office. It is in the lobby of that building, as well as on the porch of the West River Market, where much community news is exchanged these days. Who is traveling, who is remodeling, what was that siren last night?
Today, while most newcomers are attracted by the boating opportunities offered by a protected harbor with no bridges to hamper movement, they are quickly drawn into community service.
The former head of the local citizens association, Peter Oleson, settled in Galesville just six years ago. "I've never felt discriminated against or excluded," said Oleson, a technology consultant who traded a five-acre property and horses in Fairfax County for a waterfront view.
Oleson's house is next to the often-crowded parking lot of a popular waterside restaurant that once was the wharf used by the Emma Giles. Industrial-type businesses are dispersed throughout the community, but living adjacent to a busy boat repair facility, a lumberyard or a fish house is not the negative it might be elsewhere. The importance of these places in the village's history outweighs the nuisance factor, residents say.
"Galesville likes what it has in commercial businesses -- no more, no less," said Peter Bell, who became a full-time resident nine years ago after retiring from the corporate world.
Laura Dixon, an artist who lives with her husband, Wells Dixon, on the property where his grandparents operated an oyster house 100 years ago said, "Some have described Galesville as a "diamond in the rough, but that misses the point. Galesville is a diamond, and it's the rough that makes it that way."
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Updated from original article printed in the
Washington Post on June 22, 2002.
Other Stories by Ann Cameron Siegal
On Kent Island, Pride and History Run Deep
Word Spreads About Gem on Shore
More...
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