As you are crossing the Choptank River Bridge out of Talbot County into Dorchester County to your right you will see a large sail at the Dorchester County Visitor Center Sailwinds Park. Cambridge was established around 1666 and by 1684 was a busy port town on the Chesapeake Bay.
The park has a playground, restrooms, a relaxing garden with native plants, a mile-long boardwalk to stretch your legs (and your dog’s legs), a “Flying goose” monument fountain
and a beach area. It’s also the official starting point of the Harriet Tubman Byway.
The 2nd stop of the Tubman Byway, The Harriet Tubman Memorial Gardens, is located just off of US50 at Washington Street. It was late Winter the day I was there to take this photo of one of the murals painted by Charles Ross, a Tubman relative. I plan to take a trip in late spring to see what I’m sure is a beautiful garden. There are also exhibits that talk about her life and Underground Railroad activities.
Court Houses in the south often were the symbol of white legal, political, economic and social power during the period. Slave auctions and other legal matters to uphold slavery was common place. In 1852 the Dorchester Court House burned with the current Italianate building, constructed in 1854. The Byway page for this stop lists a number of UGRR activities including the sale and escape of Harriet Tubman’s niece, Kessiah, and her two children in 1850.
Leaving the Courthouse you take bumpy ride down a brick-paved street to Long Wharf Park to Stop 4 on the Byway. The deep water of the Choptank River in Cambridge allowed for dockage of large vessels. In the early days of Slavery the port was a location where captive Africans were unloaded and later a point where Slaves were shipped to Southern Plantations.
Also at the Long Wharf Park is the FDR Smokestack Memorial, a World War Monument and the Choptank River Lighthouse.
The Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center (stop 5) located at 424 Race Street is run by one of the oldest organizations dedicated to Harriet Tubman, The Harriet Tubman Organization, Inc. The organization dates back to the 1970s when on September 24, 1972 the Harriet Tubman Association of Dorchester County was founded.
In 2019 the now world famous mural by Michael Rosato was completed on the building’s wall.
The mural can always been seen, however the museum’s hours are Thursday-Saturday, 12-3pm. For more information visit their Website www.harriettubmanorganization.com/ or call the museum at 410-228-0401.
It’s now time to travel down MD16 towards Church Creek and other locations on the Byway. Before leaving Cambridge is the Stanley Institute (Stop 5). The Stanley Institute, the only community owned one-room school house still intact in Dorchester County. The school, an early example of a post-Civil War African-American school, was being used into the 1960’s closing on July 15, 1966.
While not part of the Harriet Tubman Byway the African-American Heritage Mural features an image of Hariet Tubman. The 11-foot-by-48-foot mural by artist Michael Rosato was dedicated in 2017 and highlights Cambridge’s African-American history, culture and heritage, particularly in the community around Pine Street. Included in the mural are 60’s Civil Rights leader Gloria Richardson Dandridge, a Tuskegee airman; Dr. J. Edwin Fassett; Nurse Maxine Magee, one of the first African-American public health nurses in the country; and Ella Fitzgerald, one of many popular African-American musicians who performed on Pine Street.
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This is the 2nd of a 4 part series on the Harriet Tubman Byway.
The first – Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center
The third – Crossing the Mason-Dixon into Delaware
The fourth – Choptank River
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Each Friday a photo-essay by photographer SG (Steve) Atkinson will appear with information and photographs of ‘Points of Interest’ on the MD Eastern Shore. Click Here to see previous photo-essays.
Visit his Website ShoreToBePhotographs.com for more information about him and his work.