Elkton Town Meeting, August 27, 2011 – Weeks ago the commissioners were told by some members of the historical and architectural review committee (HARC) that the special district protecting old structures in a few neighborhoods in Elkton should be eliminated or its area should be reduced. The regulations are far too restrictive and the county seat…
Treasures of Charlestown Subject of Program at North East Library on Sept. 27
Local historian Audrey Edwards will talk about colonial Charlestown’s historic buildings, artifacts and the stories behind its historical markers. Step back in time to the days of the American Revolution! North East Branch Library, 106 W. Cecil Ave., North East, MD. 21901 410-996-6269 Tues. Sept. 27th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Gilpin Falls Covered Bridge No Stranger to Hurricanes
The Gilpin Falls Covered Bridge, that relic from another era, is no stranger to hurricanes and it just endured another one. Tropical storm conditions battered Cecil County over the weekend as Irene passed just off the Maryland Coast. That blast dumped over 7-inches of rain on an already soaked county as wind gusts up to…
Cecil Whig: Battle Brews Over History in Elkton
The Elkton Historic District Committee met with the mayor and commissioners to discuss the review board’s recommendation ”that the town’s two-decades-old historical district should be eliminated,” the Cecil Whig reported Aug. 15. The standards the committee should operate under “are contained in a 200-page document that is incredibly detailed and restrictive in scope, down to the…
State Planner in Response to Local HARC Committee Comments: Preservation Regulations Aren’t Strict Rules Dictating Minutia
Last week the Mayor and Commissioners of Elkton heard that the burden associated with the town’s historic district outweigh its benefits. Members of the appointed group overseeing the special zoning area, the Historic and Architectural Review (HARC) Committee, aired those concerns, saying the “restrictive requirements” are “like Monticello” and put HARC in charge of “maintaining to…
On a Rain-Swept Sunday, Memorial to Victims of Eastern Airlines Plane Crash Near Port Deposit Dedicated
On this rain-swept Sunday afternoon, about 30 people gathered to formally dedicate a memorial to the 53 people who died in 1947 when Eastern Airlines Flight 605 plummeted into a Cecil County woods. The crowd assembled on a Principio Road hillside near Jackson Park Road, including a passenger’s son, a sailor who rushed to the…
Tome Student Helps Society Make Expanded Yearbook Collection Available to Patrons
For years the Society has worked to build a large collection of yearbooks as these volumes, which call up memories from decades ago, make valuable research resources for individuals working on a family or local history project. Cover-to-cover there are portraits of each student, plenty of anecdotes, brief essays, highlighting specific memories, advertising, photos of…
Elkton Historic District Commission Advises Town the Regulations are too Restrictive for the County Seat
Concerns about enforcement of Elkton’s historic district ordinance were put on the table for the Mayor and Commissioners at the monthly workshop. The matter came up as the last item of business on an unusually long three-hour session jammed with developers bringing up other extremely technical regulatory issues related to a Planned Unit Development (PUD)…
At Fire Station That’s Served Elkton for 40-Years Expansion is Underway
The expansion of Singerly Fire Company’s main fire station on Newark Avenue in Elkton is moving right along. At the station that has has served the community for forty years, demands on the facility have grown since 1971 so the enlarged structure will have eight fire appartus bays facing Newark Avenue. Singerly responds to fire and EMS calls out of…
Team Digitizes Centuries Old Funeral Home Records, From One of the Two Undertaking Establishments in Cherry Hill
Two Historical Society of Cecil County volunteers, Billie Todd and Evelyn Wekke, are pouring over aging business ledgers from the Grant Funeral Home of Cherry Hill. Scanning the old, yellowing pages they meticulously extract information on deaths from the undertaker’s account books, cataloging information about the people whom W. J. Grant and son buried, including names,…