In the heyday of downtown Elkton, Chief William White or one of his police officers directed Friday evening traffic at the heart of the business district, Main and North streets. Lines of automobiles, hundreds of shoppers, and more than a few strollers streaming into town from throughout Cecil County moved through that intersection. This activity,…
Cecil County Covered Bridges
Maryland’s Covered Bridges are the subject of an excellent web site found at www.mdcoveredbridges.com This virtual repository of fascinating information includes data on about 20 structures that faded from the Cecil County landscape a long time ago and our two existing structures. If you are looking for a narrative history on a bridge, the basic…
Newest Cecil County Site Welcomed to the Blogosphere
We are pleased to welcome the latest Cecil Couty Blog to the blogosphere. This one focuses on the history of the Rising Sun Community Little League.
Elkton’s Second Depot Opened in 1855
Elkton’s depression era station replaced a depot that had somehow managed to outlive its usefulness in just 80 years. It was in 1855, that the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company decided to replace the first station, which had been built when the railroad first arrived in town in the late 1830s. The company purchased…
Elkton Gets a New Railroad Station
In the middle of the Great Depression, the Pennsylvania Railroad electrified its mainline between New York and Washington and this resulted in a number of improvements in Elkton. In the center of town, a sharp curve in the tracks created a hazard so company engineers straightened the right-away, eliminating the dangerous bend. While they were…
Mt. Zoar Colored School Conowingo
John Berry, Jr., an African-American living at Mt. Zoar was authorized by the Cecil County Board of Education to raise money to help build a school at the small community a mile or so outside of Conowingo late in 1871. He successfully raised local funds and the school board matched it with the school tax…
The Obama Express Rolls Through Elkton
Elkton Town Administrator, Lewis George, was at the Elkton station Saturday when the Obama Express came rolling past the old railroad depot. He said: “I took this photograph of then President-elect Barack Obama’s train blitz through Elkton on Saturday, January 17, 2009, at around 2:30 p.m………..as I stood in the midst of a very cold and…
Many Presidents Rode the Rails
On this historic day when people all along the northeast corridor between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. greeted the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama, we look at a few other times when the nation’s leaders came through the county on the rails. It was a frequent occurrence in the era before air travel became common. —————– Riding Cecil’s First…
Hundreds Turn Out to Greet President-Elect Barack Obama as Whistle Stop Express Rolls Through.
By the time the Whistle Stop Express rolled across the Mason-Dixon Line into Maryland at 2:17 this afternoon, the mercury was still a couple of points short of the day’s high, 19-degrees. But the artic air blanketing the Mid-Atlantic didn’t stop over 200-well wishers from waiting patiently in the bitter cold at the old Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Elkton. On…
Remembering Charles Caldwell, the Principal of George Washington Carver School
One of our fellow Cecil County Bloggers, “the Road to Compromise” has an interesting piece up about the respected, long time principal of George Washington Carver High School, Mr. Charles Caldwell. He served the county Board of Education until the Booth Street school closed at the time of integration in Cecil County. We thought our readers…