High atop a perch on the old brick firehouse in downtown Elkton, a 128-year-old weathervane has pointed out the direction of the blowing wind for centuries. From that central location or the nearby courthouse where it originally claimed a spot, it swung in changing breezes, gusts, and gales always serving as a steady sentinel —…
The Gilpin Building Anchors a Corner in Downtown Elkton
The old commercial district in Elkton has several architecturally interesting cultural resources, one of which is the Gilpin building, a centuries-old surviving structure. This substantial three-story brick vernacular building was the subject of a recent inquiry, as we were asked to investigate the past at the southwest corner of North and High Streets. During the 1880s, the town…
The Cecil County “Library on Wheels”
The times were changing for readers after World War II and Cecil County kept up as it organized a county library system. The first step was to hire a professional librarian, Ruth Miller, and she made the establishment of a “library on wheels” a priority. Filled with shelves, the bookmobile started rolling down the road in…
Cecil County New Deal History Found on WPA Today
WPA Today, a website published by Brent McKee, contains an interesting virtual exhibit of WPA projects around Maryland. He has drawn on Great Depression era photographs and art work in the collection at the University of Maryland College Park Archives and added his own current images to it as he travels around the State. The Maryland exhibits…
Singerly Station 14 Shines on the Last Day of Spring 2013
As Cecil County anticipates the arrival of summer, the Singerly Fire Company Station in Kenmore was looking fine in the late afternoon sunshine on the last day of spring 2013. Station 14, some seven miles from Elkton, opened in 1978 to serve the far northern part of the fire protection district. It serves Fair Hill, Providence, Lewisville, Appleton, Cherry Hill,…
St. John’s United Methodist Church Shines on a Fine Day As Spring Fades to Summer
Sitting on a hilltop in Lewisville is a fine old house of worship, St. John’s United Methodist Church. Located yards south of the Mason-Dixon Line in Maryland, the church has a historic past. And next to it is the cemetery where ten Civil War Veterans, members of GAR Post 10, are buried. On this bright…
Meet Local Auithors at Elkton Central Library , June 22
Press Release – Cecil County Public Library Sixteen local authors will share their latest work at the Elkton Central Library on Saturday, June 22, 2013, from 1-4pm. Meet and greet your favorite local authors and have the opportunity to discuss the writing process, explore inspiration, and check out some of their latest work! Listen to…
The Sassafras River Drawbridge in 1968
The old Sassafras River Drawbridge, the vital link between Georgetown and Fredericktown, had been around for 51 years in 1968, when a Whig photojournalist did a piece called the “The Keeper of the Bridge.” The tenders that June were D Raymond Hill of Kennedyville on the dayshift and Harry Redding of Galena on nights. They were responsible for raising and lowering the structure during that…
Passage of Centuries Transforms the Land at Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area
The current issue of Cecil County Life, a Chester County Press publication, has an informative article about a historical investigation focused on understanding centuries long transformations on the land at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area. Emily Kilby decided to make a scholarly, in-depth study of this place in northeastern Cecil County, a couple…
Cecil County Public Safety Oral History Project Continues With Additional Interviews
In November 2012, with the encouragement of Willis May, the Historical Society launched the Elkton Police Oral History Project with a group of retired Elkton Police Officers. The purpose of the initiative was to carefully document the story of the force in the 1960s and 1970s. As we moved through the preliminaries, Willie, our project…