St. Michaels, Maryland
Encyclopedia
Talbot County, Maryland
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*81.4% White*12.8% Black*0.2% Native American*1.2% Asian*0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.6% Two or more races*2.7% Other races*5.5% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 1,193 at the 2000 census. Saint Michaels derives its name from the Episcopal Parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
established here in 1677. The church attracted settlers who engaged in tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
growing and ship building.
Geography
Saint Michaels is located at 38°47′1"N 76°13′20"W (38.783748, -76.222214).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²), of which, 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²) of it (9.89%) is water.
It is located in a long, narrow neck of land along the Miles River
Miles River
The Miles River is a tidal river in Talbot County, Maryland. It is a tributary of the Eastern Bay and is thus part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The town of St. Michaels is located on the Miles River, and the river's name is believed to be derived from the name of the town.Its watershed area...
. The village is a tourist attraction, and there are high quality hotels, inns, seafood restaurants, and gift shops in town. Tourboat cruises connect the town with Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
across the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
. A for-pay public ferryboat service in nearby Bellevue also takes people across the Tred Avon river to Oxford
Oxford, Maryland
Oxford is a waterfront town and former colonial port in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 771 at the 2000 census.-History:Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland...
.
History
The town was laid out as a speculative development in the 1770s by James Braddock. Unlike the more typical 18th century grid-pattern town planning, Braddock laid St. Michaels out around a central square.A rural Anglican church that long predated the town gave St. Michaels its name. Despite its presence on the shore of the harbor, the town of St. Michaels early became predominantly Methodist following visits by itinerant Methodist preachers. Braddock donated land for a Methodist church in the center of St. Mary's square, and a brick structure built as the Sardis Chapel remains on that site.
The town's earliest industry was shipbuilding, and as many as six shipbuilders were active in or near the town by the War of 1812. Their typical product was a fast schooner, a type later known as the Baltimore clipper. Such vessels were well adapted to evading blockades or outrunning pirates or foreign naval vessels at sea, and some were later used as private armed vessels carrying a letter or marque. For example, Thomas L. Haddaway launched the schooner Lottery at St. Michaels in 1812, and her owners obtained a letter of marque allowing her to take prizes at sea.
The town played a role in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
when, in 1813, a fleet under the command of Admiral George Cockburn
George Cockburn
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet GCB was a British naval commander of the late 18th through the mid-19th centuries. He held important commands during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and eventually rose to become Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord.-Naval...
moved up the Chesapeake Bay, and targeted St. Michaels because of the presence of a militia battery erected to defend the town and its shipyards. Under cover of early morning darkness on August 10, 1813, the Battle of St. Michaels
Battle of St. Michaels
The Battle of St. Michaels was a battle during the War of 1812. Similar to the Battle of Craney Island a month earlier, American militia units were able to repulse a British landing attempt in the Chesapeake Bay.-Background:...
commenced as the British sent a landing party ashore just south of the town, and after a brief exchange, neutralized the battery and returned to their boats. The British proceeded to bombard the town from the barges and a brig, but failed to destroy the shipyards or cause any substantial damage to the town. The militia returned fire from artillery batteries at Impy Dawson's wharf (the foot of Mulberry Street) and Mill Point (the foot of Carpenter Street). A contemporary report noted that "several houses were pierced" by the British fire. Nearly a century later a story was recorded that as a result of the town's ruse of dimming the lights and hanging lanterns in the trees beyond the town, the town was spared. Based on this story, St. Michaels became known as "the town that fooled the British," a nickname selected during the sesquicentennial celebration of the battle in 1963. The Cannonball House
Cannonball House (Saint Michaels, Maryland)
The Cannonball House in Saint Michaels, Maryland, United States, is a historic house built in the early 19th century. The Federal style house is a side-hall double-parlor design on a corner lot, built for shipbuilder William Merchant...
survives as one of the structures reportedly struck by one of the shots, and is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, as is the Saint Michaels Historic District
St. Michaels Historic District
The Saint Michaels Historic District encompasses the historic center of Saint Michaels, Maryland, U.S.A. The late 18th and early 19th century town is a small seaport on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay which has retained a high degree of historic integrity. Of particular interest are an unusual...
.
Shipbuilding declined after the War of 1812, but an oyster industry revived the town a few decades later. By the late nineteenth century, most households in the town had at least one person engaged in some aspect of this fishery, either tonging oysters from the nearby waters of Miles River and Eastern Bay, or engaged in the shucking houses that came to line the waterfront. One of these businesses, Coulbourne and Jewett, founded in the early years of the twentieth century, is notable as a black-owned enterprise, and it early came to specialize in crabmeat. As a means of marketing crabmeat, owner Frederick Jewett devised a five level grading system (regular, claw, special, backfin, lump) which is still used by the industry today.
Although the town's tourist industry has roots in the mid nineteenth century with steamboats bringing excursionists from Baltimore to the town, and with summer guest cottages opening for weeklong rentals beginning in the 1880s, tourism was not a major part of the town's economy until the 1970s. The impetus started with a maritime museum, which opened its doors in 1965, and a waterfront seafood restaurant and a tour boat followed before the end of the decade.
One of the town's chief attractions is the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is located in St. Michaels, Maryland, United States and is home to a collection of Chesapeake Bay artifacts, exhibitions, and vessels. This interactive museum was founded in 1965 on Navy Point, once a site of seafood packing houses, docks, and work boats...
, located on land that was formerly occupied by seafood packing houses and a cannery, and home to a number of historic bay vessels, including the bugeye
Bugeye
The bugeye is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.- Origins :...
Edna E. Lockwood
Edna E. Lockwood (bugeye)
The Edna E. Lockwood is a Chesapeake Bay bugeye, the last working oyster boat of her kind. She is located at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Saint Michaels, Maryland. She was built in 1889 at Tilghman Island, Maryland by John B...
, a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
, and several skipjacks.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,193 people, 548 households, and 340 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,442.1 people per square mile (555.0/km²). There were 671 housing units at an average density of 811.1 per square mile (312.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 69.24% White, 29.25% African American, 0.17% Asian, 0.59% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.59% of the population.
There were 548 households out of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.6% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 17.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.8% were non-families. 34.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.75.
In the town the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 4.5% from 18 to 24, 21.3% from 25 to 44, 26.1% from 45 to 64, and 23.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 84.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $32,578, and the median income for a family was $39,821. Males had a median income of $30,438 versus $23,250 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $28,131. About 11.1% of families and 15.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.8% of those under age 18 and 9.8% of those age 65 or over.
Notable people from Saint Michaels
- Frederick DouglassFrederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
lived part of his life as a slave at the Mount Misery farm (working for the poor farmer and notorious "slave-breaker" Edward CoveyEdward CoveyEdward Covey was an early 19th-century American slaveholder. He is described by Frederick Douglass in My Bondage and My Freedom as a "a first rate hand at breaking young negroes". In 1833, Douglass was rented to Covey for a year so that Covey would break the teenage slave's spirit. One day, after...
) and later returned as a county marshal during Reconstruction. - Former baseball player Harold BainesHarold BainesHarold Douglas Baines is a former right fielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for five American League teams from 1980 to 2001. He is best known for his three stints with the Chicago White Sox, the team on which he now serves as coach...
grew up and still lives in Saint Michaels. - Former Vice President Dick CheneyDick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
owns a home in Saint Michaels. - Former Secretary of DefenseUnited States Secretary of DefenseThe Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
Donald RumsfeldDonald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
purchased the Mount Misery property. - Former Major League Baseball franchise owner and innovator Bill VeeckBill VeeckWilliam Louis Veeck, Jr. , also known as "Sport Shirt Bill", was a native of Chicago, Illinois, and a franchise owner and promoter in Major League Baseball. He was best known for his publicity stunts to raise attendance. Veeck was at various times the owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis...
retired to Saint Michaels after selling the Chicago White Sox in 1981.
Culture
- Saint Michaels is known as "The Town that Fooled the British" because of a legend about a clever defense strategy during the War of 1812.
- An attraction in town is the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
- The movie Clara's HeartClara's HeartClara's Heart is a 1988 American film starring Whoopi Goldberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Kathleen Quinlan and Michael Ontkean. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Mark Medoff, based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Joseph Olshan.-Plot:...
starring Whoopi GoldbergWhoopi GoldbergWhoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
and Neil Patrick HarrisNeil Patrick HarrisNeil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
was filmed in Saint Michaels in 1988. - The movie Wedding CrashersWedding CrashersWedding Crashers is a 2005 American comedy film directed by David Dobkin. It stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, with Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Diora Baird, Jane Seymour, and an uncredited Will Ferrell....
starring Owen WilsonOwen WilsonOwen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
and Vince VaughnVince VaughnVincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers...
was partly filmed in Saint Michaels (Mainly Neighboring Easton, MD) in 2004. - In 2007 the town was named #8 of the Top Ten Romantic Escapes in the USA by Coastal Living Magazine.