St. Mary's County Historical Society

11/06/2025

11/03/2025

***** Thanksgiving Closure *****

Tudor Hall and the Historical Society will be closed from noon on Tuesday, November 25, for Thanksgiving. We will re-open Wednesday, December 3rd.

10/24/2025

Strengthening Leadership to Sustain St. Mary’s History

Our board is committed to growing and sustaining the St. Mary’s County Historical Society for generations to come. Board members Gene Wood, John Houser, and Steve Gass recently attended a class on purposeful board leadership with instructor Stephanie D. Rolle, Director of the Nonprofit Institute at CSM — learning new ways to strengthen our mission and community impact.

👉 Join us in supporting local history, education, and preservation — become a member or volunteer today! https://www.stmaryshistory.org/

10/22/2025

Yep, this is the one everyone’s been talking about!

10/22/2025

So excited to see the 2nd floor of the Duke's Building.

10/20/2025

1936 Leonardtown Elementary School graduates
Charles E. Fenwick Collection

L-R: Caroll [Carroll] Morgan, Frances Clements, Sarah Hayden, Philip Tuinman, Melvin Russell, La Verne Miller [teacher], Mary Jane Abell, Marie Steinfelt, Rita Clements, Peggy Lee, Rheindert [Rheinhardt] Tuinman.

Black and white photo of the graduates of Leonardtown Elementary School [probably 8th grade] on Lawrence Avenue in the spring of 1936. LaVerne Miller [later Fenwick] is the teacher. Ten children are in the picture, four boys and six girls. The young people are identified on the back. They are standing on some scruffy ground with a fence behind them. There are several young people sitting on the fence, but they are in the shadows and barely visible. The Tuinman boys have on white shirts and ties, but the other boys have on knee pants and short socks. The young ladies have on dresses that have short sleeves or are sleeveless, with mid-calf length skirts. Most of them are wearing belts. They have on short socks of varying colors. It is obviously a warm day and everyone is quite tan.

10/18/2025

Adam T. Wible's blacksmith shop in Avenue, Maryland
- Charles E. Fenwick Collection at SMCHS -
Discover more treasures like this on our new Online Archives site.

The shop was a two-story dark building with a large shed roof addition on the left. Four large double-hung windows are visible on the second floor of the shop. An inside end chimney is at a rakish angle on the back corner. There was a tall set of stairs to a large door on the second floor with two planks to provide a "road" for vehicles to be pushed up to the top. It was a very steep slope. There are several two wheeled carts sitting in the yard. A man was standing in the shed door, Mr. Wible was standing on the stairs, and another man was on the right . In the peak of the wall on the gable end it said "Adam T. Wible," under that something illegible and under that "Blacksm." To the right of the shop was a small white house with a dark gable roof and a shed roof porch on the gable end . There were barrels and boxes piled all around the house. A tree shaded the porch and another shaded the shop. A tree branch was faintly visible over the scene.

Mr. Wible wrote a column for the St. Mary's Beacon under the pen name "Gabriel." ********************************** Text on verso: In black flair pen "Adam T. Wible's shop Avenue, Maryland Mr. Wibel's [sic] pen name was Gabriel when he wrote for the St. Mary's Beacon C Fen" then upside down below that are the nearly illegible stamps of the photo lab at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

10/17/2025

Did you know?

10/15/2025

https://www.stmaryshistory.org/content.aspx?page_id=4091&club_id=706426&item_id=2728859

10/14/2025

New Online Archives Site is Running

Thanks to our Webmaster and Director, Tim Benson, along with the work of Interns Alexandra Cumber and Calista Kibak, and Research Volunteer Joan Wise, the new Online Archives system is now available. This system is more graphical than the prior one, inviting you to browse through the materials as opposed to having to search all the time.

There's much more to come, to be sure. But we invite you to take a look by clicking here.
https://hub.catalogit.app/st.-marys-county-historical-society

To enjoy the full richness of our Archives, we invite you to become a member of the Historical Society.

Browse folders and entries from St. Mary's County Historical Society

10/13/2025

Do You Have Photos of Tudor Hall or the "SMCHS"?

With our 75th Anniversary coming up next year, we're on the hunt for photos and memorabilia of Tudor Hall and the early days of the Historical Society (or "SMCHS" - an unpronounceable acronym that I studiously avoid).

If you're a longtime member or if you visited Tudor Hall when it was the County Library and have a photo or memorabilia from those days, please let Steve Gass at [email protected] or Peter LaPorte at [email protected]

10/10/2025

“Our organization … is dedicated to keeping the history of this wonderful county alive and perpetuated so that others in the future can understand both why we’re here in such a unique place and the people that made this county what it is,” Peter LaPorte, the executive director of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, said.

https://www.somdnews.com/enterprise/news/local/grave-marking-ceremony-held-at-charlotte-hall/article_a98fb61c-cc87-428b-b5e1-7f270d145064.html