Window on Cecil County's Past

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…

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. 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…

CROSSROADS TO FREEDOM WALKING TOUR CECILTON – SEPT, 10, 2023 @ 1 p.m. WALKING TOUR FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD MONTH ABOUT ONE HOUR FREE For International Underground Railroad Month, enjoy this walk through Cecilton as we explore the story of the Underground Railroad in the land between the Bohemia and Sassafras rivers. During this casual…

With William Singerly’s business ventures growing in Elkton, he erected a handsome three-story, ten-room “cottage” just a few blocks from the railroad station. The structure, known as the Singerly Cottage, faced an as-yet-unnamed street in a developing section of town, some papers calling it Maple Street. But today, it is known as Cathedral Street. Work…

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover’s administration started searching for a location for a summer White House. President Calvin Coolidge had recommended Mount Weather, near Bluemont, Va. But Herbert Hoover wanted an area accessible by both car and the presidential yacht. He also favored a place where good fishing and other outdoor recreation could be enjoyed….

One of the most interesting and architecturally distinctive buildings in Elkton’s old business district was the Cecil Whig Building. It was located at 125 North Street, next to PNC Bank. The newspaper, established on Aug. 7, 1841, by Palmer Ricketts, was originally published out of a log cabin. As the weekly grew, it needed more…

Cecil County once had many thriving villages, most with a cluster of homes, a few shopkeepers and tradesmen, a schoolhouse, a physician, and almost everything one needed for daily life. While most of these places continued into the 21st century as residential communities, they no longer bustle with enterprising activity the way they did in…

On May 25, 2023, WITF’s Scott Lamar visited the Mason-Dixon Line to learn about the history of one of the most famous boundaries in America with historian Mike Dixon. The boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland was disputed as early as the 1680s. An English team – Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon – surveyed the…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the blacksmith trade thrived in Cecil County. Smithies, their dark, dingy shops cluttered with tools, were found in every town and many villages where they worked away at forges, shoeing horses, repairing farm implements, and shaping metal. The clang of their hammer striking red-hot metal on an anvil…

Independent African American newspapers have traditionally been important information outlets for the Black community. As people lived under the oppression of Jim Crow, fought for equality, and sought unbiased reporting, these enterprises printed news and opinions that mainstream media ignored or slanted. Maryland readers had the Afro-American and the Afro-American Ledger, both Baltimore papers telling…