Built around the the1860s, Bell Manor is a fine property on a high hill overlooking the Susquehanna and the old Village of Conowingo. The center of the large tract is the Bell Mansion, which the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland now own. This historic estate has seen many uses over the generations.
The Philadelphia Electric Convalescent Home in Conowingo — Now Bell Manor.
James C. Bell, a wealthy New York banker and shipper, started purchasing property in the Conowingo area around 1857. Over a few years, he acquired about 1,000 acres in the 8th election district. Around the 1860s, he built his retirement home in this remote corner of Cecil County.
Following Bell’s sudden death in May 1897, the family started selling off parts of the property. The Conowingo Land Company acquired the largest portion in 1902. It eventually became the property of the Susquehanna Power Company.
As contractors struggled to erect the Dam, the power company used it as a hotel or residence for executives and senior managers at the massive project on the Susquehanna River.
However, once the work was completed, the company converted the mansion into a convalescent or rest home in 1929. Philadelphia Newspapers frequently mention families visiting recuperating patients at Bell Manor, sometimes referring to it as the “Conowingo Convalescent Home.” According to one source, the facility closed in 1952.
In 1961, the Bell Manor House was included in the purchase of 300 acres from the Philadelphia Electric Company by the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, adding to the existing 300 acres already owned by the Girl Scouts at Camp Conowingo.
The Elkton & Middletown Railroad didn’t go far, and it didn’t go fast. But after Sid Bledsoe shared a 1960 photo showing a boxcar on the track, we decided to check out the old right-of-way to see if there were any surviving artifacts from the short line.
1960s photo shows a boxcar on the E & M Railroad. In the 1960s, the spur was used to haul goods to Elkton Supply. (Source: Sid Bledsoe)
Originally discussed in the 1870s, the plan was to serve as a cutoff between the main line in Elkton and the Delaware Railroad in Middletown. But plans lingered until 1894, and by December of that year, the road had been built from the main line to the Big Elk Creek, a distance of about 1/3 of a mile. The corporation spent about $75,000 on its right-of-way.
This short section of track served an industrial area along Big Elk Creek, with spurs into Singerly Pulp and Paper and the Scott Fertilizer.1
Although the route had been acquired south of the creek in the general direction of Chesapeake City, the company never extended construction beyond the creek. It was consolidated into the PB&W Railroad in 1916.
Walking this short line in 2015 with Sid Bledsoe, the grading is still obvious, and a few old rails remain in place. The tracks’ use for delivery to Elkton Supply (now American Home and Hardware) was discontinued in the 1970s.
The High Line (Autumn 2002) has a detailed article on the Elkton and Middletown Railroad Company by John Hall.
For additional photos of the E & M Railroad, see this album on Facebook.
A revised survey of the E & M shows the plan for the lne in Elkton (Source: Cecil County Land Records.
Endnotes
KENMORE – In 1977, the Singerly Fire Company opened a fire station at Singerly and Providence roads, and in the early planning, the Company referred to it as the Providence Station. That caused a majority of the residents in the area to petition the county commissioners, asking that the area at the corner be known as Kenmore rather than having it referred to as Providence Coroner, Providence, Andora, or Fair Hill. Thus, on Feb. 28, 1977, the commissioners officially designed this community as Kenmore.
The Kenmore name had been around for decades. In the 1920s, the northeastern corner of the County needed a modern high school to relieve overcrowding at Elkton and supplement the small one-room primary schools in the area. With the Board of Education developing plans for a facility, the Kenmore Papermill in Providence donated land at the corner of Providence and Singerly roads. The company mule barns had been located on this parcel, as mules were used to haul pulp from Elkton to Providence.
Members of the Kenmore Elementary School’s sixth grade wait at the Elkton Railroad Station for a train to New York City, where they had a full day of sightseeing planned in April 1965 (Source: Cecil Democrat, April 1965)
With plans coming together, 200 residents petitioned the Board of Education to change the name to Kenmore School since the company donated the land. In March 1924, the Board agreed, naming it Kenmore High School, the Cecil Democrat reported. The contract for the structure was awarded to H. Clay Phillips & Son of Middletown, Del.
The Kenmore School opened in February 1925, and the first class of seniors graduated in June 1925. The commencement was held at the Rock Presbyterian Church. Hazel Emma Ott gave the salutatory, Anna Menagh Castner read an essay, and Corrine Alphonza Patchell gave the valedictory. The Rev John P. Otis gave the address to the seven graduates, their families, and guests. The graduates were Corrine Alphonza Patchell, John Emory Mackey, Helen Beatrice Patchell, Hazel Emma Ott, Anna Mary Stewart, Anna Menagh Castner, and Sara Elizabeth Hathaway.
In 1939, Kenmore’s enrollment was changed to include pupils in first through 11th grades. An addition to the Kenmore School was constructed beginning May 11, 1954, and was opened in January 1955. This new addition was dedicated on March 27, 1955. In 1958, the school’s name was changed to Kenmore Elementary School for first through sixth grades, as the upper grades started attending Elkton High School.
When a funeral procession from Wilmington, Delaware, crossed over the Perryville and Havre de Grace Bridge in early spring 1923, the new owners, the Maryland State Roads Commission, charged $4.45 for the hearse and five automobiles to cross the span. On the return of the hearse and cars, the toll taker collected another $3.95 from the mourners.
James J. Doherty, Wilmington Undertaker (News Journal, March 17, 1923)
This caused James J. Doherty, the Delaware undertaker, to seek a refund from the State Roads Commission. Funeral Director Doherty asserted that an act of the 1867 legislature ordered that no turnpike, bridge, or ferry company should collect tolls upon carriages, other vehicles, or horses going to or returning from a funeral. The lawmakers added that if someone violated this rule, the fine was between fifty and one hundred dollars.
John N. Mackall, Chairman of the State Roads Commission, wrote to Attorney General Alexander Armstrong, seeking guidance on the matter. Armstrong provided an opinion, writing that when the statute was passed, toll roads, bridges, and ferries were owned by individuals or corporations. Moreover, the legislature did not intend for the state to be prosecuted for charging a funeral.1
The double-decker bridge at Havre de Grace, probably in the early 1920s. (Baltimore Sun, Jan 6, 1941)
When the legislature passed an act in 1922 permitting the acquisition of the Havre de Grace and Perryville Bridge, the new act contained no exception for funerals, so that took precedence over the 1867 statute. The State Roads Commission could charge whatever toll they determined. and the state wouldn’t fine itself, so the Commission didn’t have to return the money.
As a practical matter, the attorney general continued that while the act prescribed maximum limits for charges, it imposed no minimum restriction. Since it had been the policy of the state since 1867 to require these toll routes to refrain from making charges to funeral processions, the opinion noted that in the spirit of the earlier provision, which had met with public approval for so long be observed until there was further legislation on the subject.
Endnotes
Alexander Armstrong, “State Roads Commission, Funeral Procession Crossing Havre de Grace and Perryville Bridge Not Entitled to Toll, Exemption,” Report and Official Opinions of Attorney General, (Annapolis: AttorneyGeneral’s Office, 1923), 308-310.[↩]
When Pan American Flight 214 Crashed in Elkton, news media outlets rushed to get a flash out on the story first. In line with demonstrating the effectiveness of the AP at covering rapidly unfolding events, the global wire service had a weekly newsletter where editors spotlighted AP breaking news coverage, and it focused on the accident.
For the Dec. 4-10, 1963, issue, the AP Log wrote, “The speed and thoroughness with which the Associated Press” moved into and surrounded “a spot-break major news story through member cooperation, stringer sources, and staff mobilization . . . was demonstrated dramatically” on three fronts, giving the wire service a 24-minute head start.
Within moments of the Sunday crash, two radio members — WSER, Elkton, and WASA, Havre de Grace — telephoned Baltimore AP while the Wilmington Morning News called the Philadelphia Bureau. With a head start, their stringer sources in the area covered developments until Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington staffers arrived.
Jim Hungate telephoned from WSER in Elkton first. (WSER, a daytime station on 1550 AM had just gone on the air three months earlier. “That was followed almost immediately by another call from Lee Robbins of WASA.
In Philadelphia, at almost the exact moment, Night Editor George Esper got the same information on a tieline from Harry Themal of the Wilmington Morning News, quickly supplemented by relay of that newspaper’s story, take by take.”
“Philadelphia newsman Stan Benjamin and photograph Bill Ingraham were the first to reach the rain-drenched disaster scene, reinforced shortly afterward by newsman George Bown and photographer Bill Smith from Baltimore, reporter Larry Osisu from Washington and news photo editor Bill Achatz from Philadelphia.”
“Most AP coverage was filed by Baltimore, where Night Editor Lou Panos quarterbacked the early hours of the operation. When the Wilmington Morning News was first with identification of the airline, which Philadelphia quickly inserted into Baltmore’s running story, the New York Bureau checked out the exact casualty total and went to work on the passenger list. Even before this, New York had filed some descriptive information on the accident, obtained by reporter Junius Friffin on a volunteered call from an eye witness, Arnold Turkheimer of the Bronx. In Philadelphia, staff James V. Lamb went to the airport for the story of relatives and friends of passengers awaiting the arrival of the plane.”
In addition, broadcast outlets rushed to northeastern Maryland. One of the newsreel producers covering the tragedy was Universal International. Here’s the link to their footage
The plain concrete block building in the rear of the old county jail on North Street in Elkton was built in the middle of World War II. Elkton needed a building to serve as a center for Boy Scout activities, so troop leaders looked around and located some unused county land just off North Street.
The command center in the event of a nuclear attack was located in the basement of this building in the back of the old jail. The photo is from 2103
Representatives of the Kiwanis Club asked permission to erect a one-story structure with a basement on the county-owned space. The commissioners agreed and the Scout headquarters was dedicated on Oct. 10, 1943.
In 1957, as the Cold War heated up, the county needed a headquarters for its new Civil Defense agency, which had responsibility for coordination operations in the event of a nuclear attack. So the building was handed over to the disaster agency as the basement provided the best option for a control center.
It was used in the 1970s as a live-in/work-out facility for inmates who worked during the day. This helped relieve the badly overcrowded jail, and later it provided office space for Cecil County’s Purchasing Dept.
Having gone from the Scout building to the headquarters for Civil Defense, the building was demolished in 2013 after the county sold the property to the North Street Senior Residences, an apartment complex for seniors.
The new Elkton Scout Building was dedicated in 1964 (Source: Cecil Democrat, Oct. 1943)
ELKTON, November 10, 2023—On a somber, gray, rainy day, hundreds of people gathered at the Newark Avenue firehouse to pay their final respects to Chief Frank W. Muller, Jr. The 68-year-old emergency services leader, who dedicated his entire adult life to serving the community, passed away on November 7, 2023.
Following the service, the funeral procession made its way to Gilpin Manor Cemetery with the 1921 American La France Fire Engine from North East carrying the casket. “Old 38” was joined by a long procession of emergency vehicles escorting the cortege to Gilpin Manor Cemetery. There, with full fire department honors, he was laid to rest.
On the final ride to the cemetery, North East’s American La France passed under the crossed ladders.
The route to Gilpin Manor took the procession past the courthouse and his former fire station in the center of Elkton. As the motorcade eased beneath the crossed ladders of aerial units from Perryville and Rising, a majestic American flag atop the towers fluttered in the damp breeze.
At the graveside, the mournful strains of the bagpipe gradually faded off into the distance as uniformed first responders stood at attention. Toward the end of the service, the somber silence was interrupted by the crackling of a dispatcher’s voice transmitting the final call for Chief Muller over the radio.
Frank’s fire service career began as a 16-year-old in 1971 when he entered the ranks of the service as a probationary member with the Singerly Fire Company. This starting point 52 years earlier suddenly seemed very distant as mourners honored a life of remarkable service.
Frank headed to Ocean City to work as a “paid ambulance driver at the Maryland Shore,” after graduating high school. While rushing patients to the hospital on those busy summer days in the 1970s, the resort offered him an opportunity to become an advanced life support (ALS) provider, a new initiative across the state. He became certified, and as ALS demands grew at the Shore, Ocean City Mayor “Fish” Powell asked the young man to return to the class to become the fire department’s ALS instructor.
He eagerly jumped at the opportunity and started training generations of ALS clinicians. As the decade drew to a close, Frank returned home to Elkton, returning to his old volunteer role with Singerly Fire Company. In 1978, Frank taught the first class of advanced life support providers in Cecil County.
He also worked as a road deputy with the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office. As a certified law enforcement officer, Frank pioneered another innovation — the Deputy-Medic Program. Deputies were on the road 24/7, so why not have the officers certified as ALS providers support the volunteer ambulance crews, he reasoned.
With his extensive experience as a field caregiver and instructor, Cecil County hired him in 1988 to establish a paramedic program staffed by county employees. In 1997, Frank was appointed Director of Cecil County Emergency Services. The chief retired in 2007.
When Chief Frank Muller started with the department, it was primarily a Cold War agency, dispatching volunteer fire companies and planning how to protect Cecil County from a nuclear attack. Over the decades, he guided the department through significant changes as it took on many more responsibilities as public safety grew increasingly complex. After the September 11 attack, its work was significantly transformed.
As an innovator and leader, he guided the agency through tremendous growth, moving from primarily a dispatch and emergency coordination center to a government unit providing the full spectrum of public safety initiatives, including responding to natural disasters, hazardous material incidents, and attacks.
ELKTON — In the spring of 1883, William Singerly purchased ground along the Big Elk Creek for his pulp mill and wharf. But atop the hill that sloped gently down to the waterway stood the old family burial ground of the Hollingsworth and Partridge families, containing some eighty graves.
The Hollingsworth section of the Elkton Cemetery. The graves was moved from along the Big Elk Creek in 1883
As the contractor dug away at the hillside just west of Bridge Street and alongside the creek, he discovered that it was necessary to remove the graves of people interred there, some over 100 years ago.
Singerly immediately hired a contractor to begin moving the Elkton cemetery. This involved establishing plans to move the remains, securing the permission of the relatives to relocate the graves to two large lots he purchased in the Elkton cemetery on Howard Street. There was sufficient room to accommodate all the reburials from the old family graveyard and surrounding ground, according to the Cecil Whig.
Superintended by Henry Wood, the excavation work revealed many graves, according to the newspaper. When the workmen discovered graves, they carefully removed as much of the remains of each individual as possible, placing them in strong, neatly made boxes, mostly for reinternment in the Elkton Cemetery.
If there were head or foot stones, Mr. D. Sloan, Elkton’s monument dealer, gathered them up and put them up at the Howard Street Cemetery.
Outside the enclosure of the old family graveyard, many people were buried without stones or slabs to tell who they were or when they were placed there. They were removed with the same care; the only distinction was that separate boxes were not given to them.
On March 27, 1883, the first day of the work, seven or eight graves were moved. Over the next few weeks, the work continued as the remains of some of Elkton’s earliest residents were moved. The oldest grave in the family burial ground was in 1740. The remains of the Rudulph family were taken to the Presbyterian cemetery for reburial. Charles R. Sewell, son of James and Ann Maria Sewell, was moved to the Sewell Family Burial Vault on South Bridge Street.
Within a week or so, the work of moving the Elkton cemetery was completed.
For the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the United States Airmail Service, Postmaster General James A. Farley and President Roosevelt created a week-long event to commemorate the occasion. As part of the celebration, the postal service made a commemorative first-day cancellation for National Air Mail Week, May 15-21, 1938.
The Post Office Department formally established domestic U.S. airmail service on May 15, 1918, with the inaugural route taking the planes up the east coast between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, according to Wikipedia. After the service started, aircraft carrying express mail passed daily over northeastern Maryland.
For the local celebration in 1938, Postmaster J. Mercer Terrell arranged for an airmail plane piloted by Dr. A. L. Trussell to make the first stop in Elkton to pick up mail from the local post office. The aircraft landed at Elk Landing to collect a sack of letters containing the special cancellation.
The cachet with the headline ELKTON, MARYLAND showed an old stagecoach carrying mail over the old post road and an airplane flying overhead. A press release for the day called it “the fastest method of fast mail service.”
Source: personal collection
National Air Mail Week in 1938, a special postal cancellation marking 20 years of airmail service.
On Dec. 10, 1947, residents in northern Cecil County welcomed the latest in entertainment as the new modern Rising Sun Theatre opened at 11 E. Main Street.
An eager crowd is lined up at the new Rising Sun Theatre in the center of town (Source: Cecil Whig)
A large crowd eagerly purchased tickets to watch “Dear Ruth” despite icy, hazardous conditions prevailing across northern Maryland.
Capable of seating 400 ticket holders, upholstered red leather seats with spring cushions provided comfortable seating in the auditorium. Also, modern projection and sound equipment in a fire-resistant projection booth presented the latest in the movie-going experience.
After the grand opening at the “Sun Theatre,” patrons throughout the area had a first-run movie theater of their own right in the heart of town.
William Buck owned the entertainment business, and a week earlier, he had closed the old theater in what was called “firemen’s hall” at the corner of Queen and Cherry streets. According to the Maryland News Courier, he had operated the town motion picture house for five years at the location, having acquired the enterprise from others.
“Firemen’s Hall” had been built in 1871 by the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and over the decades, it had housed various businesses, including the picture shows. This building was demolished around 1964 to make room for a new firehouse.
The old Sun Theatre building still stands on Main Street a few building east of the town hall.
NOTES
Information about the opening of the Rising Sun Theatre from the Maryland News Courier Dec. 12, 1947, & Dec. 5, 1947.
