Leonardtown, MD - February 2008

Leonardtown
By 1654, county court was conducted at the house of John Hammond in the area known as "Newtown" or "Newtowne Hundred", but it wasn't until 1708 that an official town with a designated courthouse was established.

The War of 1812 British blockade of the Chesapeake Bay subjected areas such as Leonardtown to repeated British plundering and destruction. http://leonardtown.somd.com/

Old Jail
In 1876, the county commissioners the modernization of the one story 1858 jail that had become to small. The jail was completed in 1876. The first floor was used as living quarters for the jailer's family while the second floor cells housed inmates grouped by gender and race. The building served as the county jail until 1942. A Cannon from a 1634 ship in the front yard of the museum is an original cannon from the "Ark", one of the ships that carried some of the first colonists to Maryland in 1634.

Sotterley Plantation

James Bowles, son of a wealthy London tobacco merchant and member of Maryland's Lower House of the Assembly, purchased a 2,000 acre tract that would become Sotterley Plantation. In 1703, he built the original two room house which today stands as a unique record of a method of construction called post-in-ground architecture, once common in the Tidewater regions. Read more Sotterley Plantation history: http://www.sotterley.com/history.htm

Breton Lake

Turn left. Turn right. Drive toward the lake. Keep driving until the road runs out. Go through the side door of the dubious-looking restaurant to the left of the road. For the BEST MARYLAND CRABCAKES in the country!

Here's the end of the road.