Calvert Nature Society

Journey into History

The Historic District Commission has developed a Calvert County Heritage Tour on Lower Marlboro. This "story map" features 21 stops with images, video and commentary. Find it here: Lower Marlboro Route

There has been a wharf at Lower Marlboro since 1750. A hand-drawn map of Lower Marlboro, circa 1800, shows a square wharf in its present location with a holding pen not far down the road on the south side. Two warehouses were located north of the wharf. Later documents, as recent as 1923, show an L-shaped wharf with two gable-ended warehouses. Access was an inclined ramp on the south side of the warehouses.
 
Lower Marlboro is one of twenty steamboat landings/wharves located in Calvert County. Approximately 36 miles from where the Patuxent meets the Chesapeake, the wharf was an important mode of transportation for local residents, farms, and businesses.

Recent research revealed that thirteen enslaved persons escaped to freedom, taking refuge on one of the British vessels that came into Lower Marlboro in July of 1814. The British troops, accompanied by Colonial Marines, a unit made up of former slaves, burned the tobacco warehouses, but also went to the home of Elizabeth Ballard from which they took the enslaved families to safety on their boats. Most of the thirteen later showed up on documents as free people in Nova Scotia. Read more...