Historic St Mary's City

Peninsula Power! Shaped by the Chesapeake Bay and its mighty tributaries, the Patuxent and Potomac Rivers, the St. Mary’s peninsula has fostered a traditional lifestyle anchored in the natural bounty of the Tidewater. Today, Maryland’s oldest county blends a vibrant economy—it’s the state’s fastest growing region in terms of technology-related jobs—with its rural past, giving the area a unique character as well as a high quality of life.

Location! Location! Location! St. Mary’s County is a short drive south of Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Annapolis, so it’s just right for a family daytrip or a weekend adventure. And, because it’s located on the western shore of the Chesapeake, there’s no Bay Bridge hassle!

Welcome to our New World! For 375 years, from the day when 140 hardy adventurers first stepped ashore, St. Mary's County has been welcoming travelers. You’ll discover sites brimming with colonial and maritime history starting with St. Clement’s Island and its nearby mainland museum. Together, they tell the tale of that first landing.  You’ll find inspiration in this story as you move on to Historic St. Mary’s City, just as the settlers did. Here, they established Maryland’s first capital and experimented early  with the tenants of democracy and concepts of religious freedom. Not far from this 17^th-century “city” stands the grand lady of 18^th -century  Maryland, Sotterley Plantation, with its glorious gardens, breathtaking river views and significant buildings ranging from the modest slave cabin to the sprawling manor house with its Mount Vernon-style porch.

Piney Point Lighthouse

Make Mine Maritime! We seem to be a nation of lighthouse buffs and St. Mary’s boasts four.  Among them is diminutive Piney Point Lighthouse, the oldest light on the Potomac. The adjacent museum holds wooden boats that once plied the waters of the Chesapeake. The newest lighthouse also belongs to St. Mary’s. The original Blackistone Lighthouse burned in the 1950s, but has just been lovingly reconstructed on St. Clement’s Island by the descendents of those who once kept watch there. Low-lying St. George Island retains the flavor of a community of watermen with its beach grass and tall pines. It’s a great place for bicycling or camping. This is home to the colorful funky Chesapeake Bay Field Lab which spreads the “Save the Bay” gospel via excursions on the Lab’s own skipjack, the Dee of St. Mary’s.  

It’s got the Right Stuff!   The county’s strategic Bay location has given it a rich military history stretching back to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. But it was the Civil War that left an indelible mark on this area. Point Lookout State Park has a poignant and little known history as a prison camp for Confederate soldiers. Thousands suffered and died here under the most abject of conditions and their remains are interred at the Confederate Soldiers’ Monument just outside the park’s gate. It was World War II that really rousted this sleepy little backwater out of its centuries-old rhythm of time and tide.  The U.S. Navy came calling in 1940 and brought with it a surge in population and a new way of life. The Patuxent Naval Air Museum illuminates this area’s military importance as the center for aviation technology and testing. This is where the nation’s first astronauts learned to fly high above the Bay as “Right Stuff” fighter pilots. Today, visitors can fly in some of the few authentic U.S. Navy flight simulators available to the public.

Leonardtown on Breton Bay

Eat, shop, and…kayak? Historic Leonardtown on Breton Bay boasts a new waterfront park and an old town square. The park has transient boat tie-ups and a kayak launch, and there are great places to eat and shop around the square and throughout the town. Start at the in-town galleries then venture out along the “Barnwood to Beach Glass Trail” of artists’ studios and out-of-the way farms where you’ll meet friendly folks inspired by the history and landscapes that surround them. In this county of gentle and sometimes humorous contrasts, a drive along the back roads will turn up both bucolic Amish farms with quilts and eggs for sale, and big-time motor sports venues. Maryland International Raceway even sets aside an area for buggy parking.  

Our World is your Oyster!  This friendly little county also offers over fifty fabulous festivals each year including summer music at the Potomac Jazz and Seafood Festival and the seven-week River Concert Series at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The fall is chock-full of fun too. Enjoy the Riverside Winefest, the  Farm-life Festival, and of course, the Oyster Festival where the fastest oyster shuckers in the U.S. compete for the national title. You’ll find oysters any way you like them—on the half shell, deep fried, grilled, in a stew, and by the quart to take back home with you.

Visit now and again in 2009, when St. Mary’s kicks off a year of celebrations for  Maryland’s 375^th birthday. Maryland begins here! You should too!

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