All Historic Buildings

Built in 1838, the Chipman Center is the oldest standing African-American church on Delmarva. It occupies the site of a former open meadow where slaves gathered for worship services conducted by Methodist circuit riders. In 1837 five local freedmen began holding services in a small red-pine slab building on the property of William Williams. Funds were raised to purchase the Read more...

In 1795, Major Levin Handy took out a deed for 357 acres of the original 700 acre land patent called “Pembertons Good Will.” The house Handy began in 1795-96 was an ambitious Federal-style structure, outdistancing most buildings in the area in size and fine detail. When Handy died, the unfinished house was eventually sold to Dr. John Huston, Salisbury’s first surgeon, who Read more...

Sturgis One Room School Museum, formerly known as Sturgis School, is the only African American One Room School in Worcester County retaining its original integrity. It is a small structure built about 100 years ago on Brantley Road on land that was purchased by William Sturgis in 1888. Sturgis One Room School operated as a school for 37 years. Grades 1 Read more...

From 1828-1850 the Nassawango Iron Furnace was in its heyday. Many workers – miners, sawyers, colliers, molders, draymen, and bargemen – labored to make iron. Furnace Town (also called Nescongo or Nasseongo) was a company town, built by the Maryland Iron Company. About 300 people lived and worked here. There were blacksmiths, broom makers, wainwrights, wheelwrights, bakers, cobblers, coopers, and Read more...

Built in 1832 for Isaac Covington and his family, this gable-fronted, Federal-style house was saved from demolition in 1981 and now swerves as a Town museum of local history. In the early 19th century, this house was the home of Robert J. Henry, who was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Berlin. In the 1890s and early 20th century it was Read more...

A 1740s merchant-planter’s home overlooking Assateage Island and scenic Sinepuxent Bay. Rackliffe House was constructed in the 1740s by Captain Charles Rackliffe, the merchant-planter grandson of one of the earliest English immigrants to Maryland’s seaside. The large two-story, three-bay Manor House features Flemish bond brickwork with random glazed headers, a steeply pitched gabled roof with kicked eaves, and large windows. Read more...

The Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum, located on the board walk at the inlet, inspires and supports the interpretation and appreciation of the cultural and natural history of Ocean City, Maryland, the Worcester County coastal region, and equally, the historical role performed by the United States Life-Saving Service, and preserves with subsequent mandate the 1891 structure that once served as Read more...

Explore the tiny workshop where “Nature’s Counterfeiters” brought wood to life and help it take flight. The Ward Brothers, Lemuel T. and Stephen, are the icons of the wildfowl carving community.  Born in the last decade of the 19th century, the tradition of carving ducks was passed down to them from their father.  The brothers were raised and spent their Read more...

For Littleton Dennis Teackle, and his wife Elizabeth, building their five-part home began in the spring of 1802 and was finished 17 years later in 1819.  The Neo-Classical, 10,000 square-foot American villa style house exhibits a grandiose plan that includes formal spaces with decorative plaster finishes, an indoor bath, steam operated kitchen equipment (then unheard of modern conveniences in their Read more...