St. Mary's County, established in 1637, is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 113,777. Its county seat is Leonardtown. The name is in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus. St. Mary's County comprises the California-Lexington Park, Maryland Metropolitan Statistical Area, which also is included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area. It is part of the Southern Maryland region. The county was the home to the first Maryland Colony, and the first capital of the Colony of Maryland. Settled by English Catholics, it is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in North America, at a time when the British colonies were settled primarily by Protestants. The county is home to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and St. Mary's College of Maryland. Traditionally, St. Mary's County has been known for its unique and historic culture of Chesapeake Bay tidewater farming, fishing, and crabbing communities. But with the advent of the military bases, growth of an extensive defense contractor presence, and the growth of St. Mary's College of Maryland, as well as increasing numbers of long-distance Washington, D.C. commuters, it has been undergoing a decades-long transformation which has seen the county's population double since 1970.
Leonardtown is a town in and the county seat of St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 4,563 at the 2020 census. Leonardtown is perhaps most famous for the national oyster-shucking championship that is held annually at the St. Mary's County fairgrounds.
Lexington Park is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States, and the principal community of the Lexington Park, Maryland Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 11,626 at the 2010 census.
The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast passing through Baltimore, and the Patuxent River between the two. The 908-square-mile (2,352 km2) Patuxent watershed had a rapidly growing population of 590,769 in 2000. It is the largest and longest river entirely within Maryland, and its watershed is the largest completely within the state.
Oella is a mill town on the Patapsco River in western Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, located between Catonsville and Ellicott City. It is a 19th-century village of millworkers' homes.
The Cedar Point Light was the last house-type lighthouse built in the Chesapeake Bay. An early victim of shoreline erosion, the cupola and gables are preserved at museums.
Broad Creek in Prince George's County was the first footprint of European settlement in the immediate counties around what would become the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. The area is part of greater Fort Washington.
Mattapony is a former hundred in Worcester County, Maryland.
His Lordship's Kindness, also known as Poplar Hill, is a historic plantation estate on Woodyard Road east of Clinton, Maryland. It was built in the 1780s for Prince George's County planter Robert Darnall. The five-part Georgian mansion retains a number of subsidiary buildings including a slave's hospital and a dovecote. The property is now operated as a museum by a local nonprofit preservation group. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
West St. Mary's Manor is a historic house on West St. Mary's Manor Road in rural St. Mary's County, Maryland. Built in the 1780s according to dendrochronology and with a four-room center-hall plan, and is located on the first recorded English land grant in what is now Maryland. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
Sotterley Plantation is a historic landmark plantation house located at 44300 Sotterley Lane in Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland, USA. It is a long 1+1⁄2-story, nine-bay frame building, covered with wide, beaded clapboard siding and wood shingle roof, overlooking the Patuxent River. Also on the property are a sawn-log slave quarters of c. 1830, an 18th-century brick warehouse, and an early-19th-century brick meat house. Farm buildings include an early-19th-century corn crib and an array of barns and work buildings from the early 20th century. Opened to the public in 1961, it was once the home of George Plater (1735–1792), the sixth Governor of Maryland, and Herbert L. Satterlee (1863–1947), a New York business lawyer and son-in-law of J.P. Morgan.
Nottingham is a small town on the Patuxent River in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It contains an archaeological site which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Grahame House, Graham House, Mansion House, Graeme House, or Patuxent Manor, is a historic home located at Lower Marlboro, Calvert County, Maryland. It is an 18th-century original 1+1⁄2-story brick shell laid in Flemish bond with a steeply pitched gable roof. Later alterations have included the purchase and removal of the fine paneling throughout the house to the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library.
Preston-on-the-Patuxent is a historic home located at Johnstown, Calvert County, Maryland, United States. It is a modest 1+1⁄2-story brick house which has had several later additions made to it. While the home has a traditional construction date of about 1651, there is no structural evidence to indicate a date earlier than about 1725. It has been reported by Puritan knowledge that the original Preston home burned down in 1672, to be replaced by the present structure at a later date. Preston-on-the-Patuxent is popularly, if erroneously, known as the seat of the government of Maryland from 1654 to 1657, during the Puritan regime. The belief that the property was the "capital" comes from evidence that the Council, the Assembly, and the Provincial Court met "at Patuxent" in the 1650s. Richard Preston, a participant in each of the three bodies, most probably hosted their meetings in his dwelling located near the Patuxent River.
Patterson's Archeological District is a 512-acre (2.07 km2) archaeological site near Wallville in Calvert County, Maryland at the mouth of St. Leonard's Creek, the largest tributary of the tidal portions of the Patuxent River. It contains a representative sample of a range of archeological sites characteristic of both upland and lowland utilization of the Chesapeake Bay tidewater region during the prehistoric and historic periods. The property also contains a range of historic sites.
Mulberry Fields is a historic home located at Beauvue, St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. It was built about 1763, and is a large 2+1⁄2-story, 5-bay by 2-bay, hip-roofed brick house. On the front is a two-story Doric portico, built about 1820. The house is the only remaining Georgian "mansion-type" home in an area and has a panoramic view of the Potomac River, with a mile-long allee stretching downhill to the riverbank.
Sandgates On Cat Creek is a historic home located at Oakville, St. Mary's County, Maryland. It is a 1+1⁄2-story, three-bay frame structure with brick ends built between 1740 and 1780. It is one of the best and most authentic restorations in Southern Maryland.
St. Francis Xavier Church and Newtown Manor House Historic District is the first county-designated historic district in Saint Mary's County, the "Mother County" of Maryland and is located in Compton, Maryland, near the county seat of Leonardtown. The district marks a location and site important in the 17th-century ecclesiastical history of Maryland, as an example of a self-contained Jesuit community made self-supporting by the surrounding 700-acre (2.8 km2) farm. The two principal historic structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Archaeological remains associated with the site date back to the early colonial period, mid-17th century.
Barton Village Site, also known as the Herman Barton Indian Village Archeological Site, is a large, multi-component archaeological site near Cumberland in Allegany County, Maryland.
Collington Branch is a stream that flows into the Western Branch of the Patuxent River in Prince George's County, Maryland.
