All Museums & Historic Sites

Location: 101 S Division St, Ocean City, MD 21842 Site Background: The Henry Hotel has stood at the corner of S. Division St. and Baltimore Avenue in downtown Ocean City, MD since 1916. In 1926 Mr. Charles Henry and his wife Emma, an African American couple living in Berlin, purchased the building creating a property that catered to ‘the better Read more...

Whitehaven Schoolhouse was first constructed in 1886 to meet the demand of the growing community. By 1908, an addition to the school was made, adding an additional room and a porch. However, with the rise of bus transportation of children to schools, Whitehaven Schoolhouse was closed in 1935 and acquired by the Whitehaven Methodist Church in 1937, from which point Read more...

The Costen House was built by Pocomoke City’s first mayor, Dr. Isaac Costen, in the 1870s when he came to live in Pocomoke (at the time Newton) after the American Civil War. In the late 20th century, when the Costen House was set to be demolished, a museum was funded by the Spirit of Newtown Committee and the house was Read more...

Originally founded in 1925 on Salisbury’s Main Street as Kahelas Israel Congregation, Beth Israel is the only conservative congregation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. At the time, only nine Jewish families were present in the Salisbury area and the number of families remain few. Despite this and several migrations from building to building, the synagogue has survived as a safe Read more...

Ancestors of members of this church worshipped during slavery in the balcony of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. In 1841, they organized a separate congregation and worshipped at that site until 1860. By 1861, the members purchased land and built a school and a church, the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1884, the Delaware Conference of the Episcopal Church granted Read more...

Entertainment in the form of motion pictures was obtainable in local theaters in the principal towns, although seating was segregated between the main auditorium and the balcony for white and black ticket holders. The Mar- Va Theater in Pocomoke City, built in 1927 and redecorated 10 years later, survives with a separate staircase, ticket booth, bathroom, and concession stand in Read more...

The Judy Johnson Memorial sits outside of the Snow Hill Library and was raised in the summer of 2021. William Julius “Judy” Johnson (1899-1989), was an American professional third baseman and manager who’s career in Negro League baseball spanned 17 seasons, from 1921 to 1937. Born in Snow Hill, he was slight of build and never developed as a power Read more...

Isaiah Fassett was born into slavery in 1844. When he was 19, his owner Sarah Bruff received $300 from the U.S. Army to release him from bondage so he could enlist in Company, D, 9th United States Colored Troops. The regiment served in several battles in Virginia and was one of the first to occupy Richmond at the end of Read more...

Our interpretive sign for the Crisfield Protests of 1961 sits outside of Shiloh United Methodist Church on 4th Street in Crisfield and honors a group of Freedom Riders that led a sit-in in Crisfield. On Christmas Eve in 1961, 10 interracial members of the Civic Interest Group in Baltimore traveled to Crisfield, the home of Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes, Read more...

Mt. Zion One-room Schoolhouse was originally built around 1859 in Mt. Zion (near Whitton), this schoolhouse was operated until 1931. From that point, the building sat until Dr. Paul Cooper, Superintendent of Schools, had the building moved to Snow Hill in 1959 in an effort to preserve the schoolhouse for future generations. At the time, the structure was in a Read more...