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Queen Anne's County Tour, May 3, 2025

Traveling over the Chesapeake Bay, you land on Kent Island in Queen Anne's County, the Gateway to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Queen Anne's County records one of the earliest English settlements in Maryland when William Claiborne arrived on Kent Island in 1628. The Kent Island Parish was established in 1630, as the earliest Anglican Church in Maryland.  Four churches later, Historic Christ Church of Stevensville was built in 1880. Today, this property has been designated as the Special Project for the Queen Anne's County Tour, and all proceeds from this tour will be dedicated to this project. 

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Towns were slow to build on the Eastern Shore in the 1600’s due to the cultivation of tobacco, established on large plantations along the river systems to facilitate ocean going vessels trading with England.   The water transportation routes delayed the development of towns inland.  By 1706, the European population of the region had reached 3,000 and the “Good Queen Anne’s” name was bestowed to create Queen Anne’s Town, (now Queenstown) where a surviving Court House was completed in 1708.  Queen Anne’s County grew to become prosperous at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  The county contributed men, and supplies, including flour from the Wye Mill, (the final site on the Queen Anne’s County Tour) to the patriotic causes of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.   The Queen Anne’s County Tour begins Stevensville, a small historic town located just over the bridge and to your left,  Stevensville was be-quested by the Stevens brothers in 1850.  The town retains many historic original structures managed by the Kent Island Historic Society.

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Stevensville Bank, Tour Headquarters

Please make your first stop the Stevensville Bank, built between 1903 and 1907, located on Main Street, where you can purchase tickets and get your tour book.   Within walking distance are the first four tour sites that include: the Bank, the Train Depot, the Cray House and Historic Christ Church.  The Town of Stevensville grew to be an early railroad town in 1902 when the Queen Anne’s County Railroad built the Stevensville Train Depot as the western terminus from Queenstown, transferring passengers, seafood, produce, clothing, iron products, newspaper and the U.S. Mail.  The system ran from Lewes, Delaware through Centreville, to Stevensville for 60 miles.  A beautifully restored Caboose from the Queen Anne’s County rail line is at the Train Depot and open for the tour.  The Cray House, located next to  the Train Depot, offers an example of an unusual post and plank construction method, built in 1809. The house is typical of the early homes on the Eastern Shore. The south portion of the house was added around 1842 by Mary E. Carville Legg and after a series of owners, it was sold at public auction in 1914 to Nora Cray,  who deeded the property to the Kent Island Heritage Society in 1976. This house is on the National Register of Historic Places.   Historic Christ Church, of Stevensville,  built in 1880, is the fourth church to be built by the Anglican Parish.   The building, an example of Queen Anne ecclesiastical style architecture, is a modestly scaled frame church and adjacent bell tower, with a lofty brick 13th century style Victorian chimney, known as a lancet.  The Christ Church Bell Tower is in need of restoration and will be receiving the proceeds from the tour as the Special Project.

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Leaving Stevensville, the next stop is the Stoopley Gibson House, a grand, three-story Georgian brick home dating back to 1787 with the ownership of Francis Bright.  A video from the National Park Service can be seen here: Stoopley Gibson House. Particularly striking is the original all header bond brickwork on the south facade, a feature typical of period homes in Annapolis, and the two-story,  north facing veranda looking out over the water.  This property also offers the story of Henry Massey, a fugitive slave, who bravely escaped in 1854.  The tour then offers a respite with at visit to the Mark Cascia Vineyards a unique family-run waterfront winery located on Kent Island on the Chesapeake Bay. You are invited to tour the vineyards and enjoy the winery and event facility where handcrafted red and white wines, as well as dessert wines, are available.  The private home is not open for the tour.

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Several African American communities began to establish villages in Queen Anne’s County, including the community in the Grasonville area, that would become Bryan’s Church.  A commemorative booklet of African American Churches notes Bryan, established on 1800,  to be “the second oldest African American Methodist Church in the United Methodist Peninsula-Delaware conference.” Oral history suggests there was a meeting house in the area, used by the Black community, prior to the founding of Bryan’s Church, to assist freed citizens in adjusting to daily life.  The church offers a rich history in to the 20th  Century including a African American School African American school located across from the church that was  replaced in the 1920s by a Rosenwald School, now known as the Grasonville Community Center. 

 

The women of Bryan’s Church, will be preparing a Fried Chicken LUNCH with two sides for $15.00. A reservation is recommended. Please call 410-827-7905 (home) or 410-739-5030 (cell). Box lunches will be distributed on the tour at Bryan’s Church with room to be seated. ​

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​​​​​​​​​The second half of the Queen Anne’s County Tour will find you east on Route 50/302 to Queenstown and Wye Mills and includes: 2 lovely gardens; 2 very interesting historic houses; and the Wye Mill, the oldest continuously operating waterpower grain mill in the United States.    The Schaffer Gardens or ‘Daydreamers Garden,’ located in a wooded area on the Miles River, is the inspiration of resident artist Gail Schaffer who has designed, built, and fabricated a splendid collection of outdoor sculpture in a setting of gardens that provides for a creative and peaceful experience. The works included welded structures, joined with  recognizable found objects juxtaposed with wood and metal.  The artist describes the work as PAR (Primitive, Abstract and mostly Rusty).  Additional contemporary pieces by well known artists, including Bill Worrell, have been purchased and installed to augment the collection.  The Governor Grason Memorial and Woodland Gardens are located on the homestead of Governor William Grason on the Wye River.  Governor Grason’s gravesite is enclosed in a wrought iron fence, with a Memorial posted.   Governor Grason was the first governor of Maryland to be elected by popular vote, on October 03, 1838, and served a full term until 1842.  The Woodlands Gardens have been built by the current homeowners since they purchased the property in  2012.  Their work showcases a huge sweep of native shrubs, grasses and breathtaking flower gardens, including spring blooming roses, iris and peonies.  The landscape is punctuated with  an imaginative stretch of flower beds and mature plant groupings that wind to the river with artfully created paths.  A State Champion Swamp White Oak, 300 years old is on the site and was living there when Governor Grason was in residence.

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The Grossman House,  known as Five Oaks Farm, was built by Edward Bryan who inherited the  property in 1866 from his father, Valentine Bryan.  The house is a historic two and one half story Italianate style  and showcases a side gable, side-hall, double-pile design. The property is situated on the Wye River and Greenwood Creek and includes  several outbuildings, representative of agricultural domestic life in the latter part of the 1800’s.  The Neeley Family Home (formerly the Galloway House) was built in 1760’s  in what is now Easton, Talbot County, as a prime example of English gentry prosperity, and gifted to William and Henrietta Chamberlain, to celebrate their marriage. 

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The Neeley family moved the two story Georgian brick house to the current site by truck and barge in 2019.  The Neeley Family then undertook the task of meticulously restoring the original, double- pile portion of the home and constructing two wings to replace the 1840’s kitchen addition that could not be saved.  The family has stripped the house down to the floor boards and scraped paint for original color samples to restore the house with historic accuracy and  original materials while updating the systems so that the house is accurate to 1760 and functions in the 21st Century.

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The Queen Anne’s County Tour ends at The Wye Mill in Wye Mills, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The Wye Mill has been grinding grain since 1682, and supplied flour to George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War.  Prominent colonial owners of the Mill included Richard Bennett III, Edward Lloyd III and IV (owners of Wye House) and Colonel William Hemsley, who served in the Continental Congress and owned nearby Cloverfields. In 1918 Winthrop Blakeslee was able to produce 50 barrels of fine white flour, daily with his new Midget Marvel Mill, which crushed grain between rollers rather than grinding it. Guests will see the milling of grain and many inventions, tools and supplies used through the years.  Refreshments will be served by Friends of Wye Mill.

1783 Forest Drive, Suite 243

Annapolis, MD 21401

443-534-8981

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