Colonial Period
September 1665 – Robert Clarkson was granted a patent for 300 acres, called Horne Point, which extended from Todd's Creek (now Spa Creek) to Beasley's Creek (now Back Creek).
Clarkson immigrated to Maryland in 1657, was a Quaker, served in the Lower House of the Maryland legislature during the brief Assembly of February 1659/60. In 1662, he was fined for refusing to bear arms. He died in 1666.
Clarkson's widow remarried in 1666 to Richard Hill, who gained control of Horne Point.
Richard Hill (ca. 1640-1700) was a planter, merchant, Gent. Quaker sympathizer, one of Anne Arundel County's leading figures, a justice of the county and Provincial courts, and member of the legislature for 15 years. He was named special agent from Maryland to New York in negotiations on Indian affairs in 1681.
His elder son was also a Maryland legislator. Another son became mayor of Philadelphia and president of the Council of Pennsylvania.
Horne Point descended through the Hill family to Henrietta Margaret Hill (1751-1815). She called herself "Henry Margaret," and inherited more than 2000 acres from her grandfather in 1761. Her Anne Arundel County land stretched from Harness Creek on South River (west of Hillsmere) to Spa Creek, around the Bay and river shores.
Henry Margaret Hill married Benjamin Ogle (1748/49-1809) in 1770.
Benjamin, governor
of Maryland 1798-1801, was the son of Samuel Ogle (1694-1752), who was
governor of Maryland three times between 1732 and his death.
Samuel and Benjamin also owned Belair in Prince George's County, which
is probably the reason there was never a plantation house on Horne Point
or on any of the Hill land north of South River… the Hills had plantations
south of South River and the Ogles had Belair.
Revolutionary Period
Summer 1776 – A half-moon battery was built on Horne Point as part of the defense of Annapolis. The Convention (the revolutionary government of Maryland) authorized £10,000 to fortify Annapolis and built forts on Windmill Point (now in the Naval Academy), Beaman's Point (Fort Nonsense), and Horne Point. A French engineer was paid £7 by the Convention in August 1776, probably for designing forts. The forts were evacuated in August 1777 when Admiral Howe's fleet of 260 warships came up the Bay.
March, 1781 — Revolutionary troops under the Marquis de Lafayette camped briefly in Eastport, on Hill/Ogle land, while awaiting transport South. (They finally went back up the Bay and traveled to Yorktown by land because of the British blockade.) The "Plan of the Harbour and City of Annapolis," 1781, shows Lafayette's encampment on Carrol's Creek (now Spa). The troops are shown to right of the present bridge facing east.
Post-Revolutionary Period
1798 — There was one old frame dwelling and one blacksmith's shop on the Horne Point land belonging to Benjamin Ogle, according to the Federal Direct Tax of that year.
1803 — Benjamin and Henry Margaret Ogle resurveyed part of the peninsula, including Horne Point, into an 809-acre tract called the President.
Benjamin owed much money to his mother, Anne Tasker Ogle, who outlived both Ben and Henry Margaret, and mortgaged the property to her.
Benjamin Ogle died in 1809 and was buried privately and quietly "on his farm near Annapolis" — presumably somewhere on the President.
When Henry Margaret died, she owed her mother-in-law about $29,000, and the land was sold.
1815 — 645 acres of the President, including the original Horne Point tract, were sold to John Barber for $35.50 per acre.
The Barbers sold off several parcels over the next 50 years, but the majority remained as a farm called Horn Point Farm.
1800 to about 1860 — This period was not particularly active for the entire county, including the Eastport area.
Development Period
1845 — The United States Naval Academy was established, and it brought jobs to Annapolis and increased the demand for services. After the Civil War, the railroad business picked up and immigration began to affect the county. Both the railroad and sail or steam vessels were used to send produce and seafood to Baltimore City. Oysters were an important commodity and were shipped as far away as Canada.
1861 — The Barber land was sold and divided into two big parcels. The land west of present Sixth Street remained mostly undeveloped and used primarily for farming until well after 1900.
Large farms were still in operation on this side of Eastport as late as the 1940s. The large house at the corner of Burnside Street and Bay Ridge Avenue is the Burns family farmhouse of the 1890s. There was another nineteenth century farmhouse near the present junction of President and Boucher streets.
1868 — 101-1/4 acres were purchased by the Mutual Building Association of Annapolis, which had been formed that year to encourage building and residential ownership of land and houses. This was apparently the first such building and loan association in the county and was incorporated by 15 Annapolis businessmen under an Act of Assembly in 1868.
A plat dated 30 September 1868 divided the property into a grid of 256 lots and laid out Chesapeake, Severn, Chester, and Eastern avenues and the numbered streets. Streets were numbered First through Seventh from the interior of the peninsula to the river. Seventh, which was nearest the river, is now Riverview. First was also called Front Street. The land platted with lots did not include acreage on Horne Point proper that belonged to Richard Swann. Swann was purveyor of foodstuffs to Naval Academy and managed the mess hall. He had a large farm on Horn Point where he grew celery and other vegetables.
The platted land also did not include the lot at left of the present bridge and four acres on Chester where Mears Marina is now.
Purchasers could buy lots from the Mutual Building Association and build their houses while paying for either or both in small weekly or monthly installments. This arrangement was perfect for working families: small tradesmen, watermen, and blue-collar employees of the Naval Academy and Annapolis businesses.
c.1870 — The Mutual Building Association built the first bridge (a wooden one) over Spa Creek from the end of Compromise and Duke of Gloucester streets to present day Fourth Street. This was a “toll bridge,” with Maryland law setting the maximum tolls:
$0.05 per foot passenger (pedestrian)
$0.10 for horse and rider
$0.05 per horse, mule, or ox
$0.03 per sheep, calf, hog, etc.
Development was not very successful for many years. Houses were often like small farms with a cow or two, chickens, large gardens, etc.
Extant early houses include the one at corner of Severn and First, built about 1868, used as store, polling place, and school.
1885 — Annapolis Glass Company formed to make china, glass, and pottery. It was located in the block between Severn Avenue and the water between present Second and Third streets. One of the principal incorporators was Charles J. Murphy (c.1839-1908), born in Eastport, Maine, who served in the U.S. Navy for 40 years and retired as a Boatswain. Murphy is credited with building "Murphy's Row," a row of attached brick houses off First Street, supposedly used to house glass factory workers. (Although old timers in Eastport remember the workers boarding in other houses and paying with glass.) Murphy's Row is now Jeremy's Way.
The glass factory used glass sand from deposits at the head of the Severn floated downstream in barges. Great brick vaults were built underground on Second Street side of property and produced green and clear glass. The factory was in operation from 1886 to 1903.
Murphy is also given credit for naming Eastport after his home town. Although the community was at various times called Horne Point, Horne Point Village, and Severn City, the application for a post office in 1888 used the name Eastport.
1895 — William H. Burns subdivided the land between the County Road (Bay Ridge Avenue), Back Creek, present Sixth Street and Burnside Street into 37 lots.
Early Twentieth Century
As building in Annapolis increased around the turn of the century, Eastport grew to house workers.
1899-1910 — The Naval Academy was completely rebuilt and greatly enlarged, and federal and state buildings such as the Post Office, the west wing of the State House, and the old Court of Appeals Building were also constructed.
The Eastport shoreline was dotted with marine railways, docks for larger vessels, and the backyards of homes, each with its own pier and collection of small boats
While the Spa Creek side was developing more with marine businesses, the Back Creek was sleepier and more oriented to workboats. The same distinction is true today.
The second Eastport bridge was built of metal in 1907 on the same site as first. William T. Branzell lived in a little house on this bridge for 27 years as bridge-tender.
World War II — Annapolis Yacht Yard built sub-chasers and PT boats for the U.S. Navy at its yard between Second and Third streets along Spa Creek. After the war John Trumpy and Sons used the yard for the building and repair of sleek luxury yachts.
Modern Period
The third and present bridge was built about 1947 to Sixth Street instead of Fourth.
January 1, 1951 — Eastport was annexed to the City of Annapolis along with West Annapolis, Cedar Park, Germantown, Parole, and other small communities as far east as Edgewood Road, thus making Annapolis the fourth largest city in Maryland.
--Based on material prepared by Jane McWilliams
for the Eastport Historical Committee
and the Historic Annapolis Foundation
1993
