NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002

Holiday on the Hill

‘Tis the season to visit Snow Hill, home of old churches, great antique shops, and a nine-foot stuffed bear.

By Fran Severn
Photography By Ryan Hulvat

It’s holiday time in Snow Hill, Md. Flocks of Canada geese forage in the frost-covered stubble of the cornfields outside town. A hardy soul trots his Labrador along the Pocomoke River in Byrd Park. Candles shine in the windows of storefronts and the elegant houses on Federal Street. With no hills and rarely any snow in this village on the Pocomoke River, winter visitors expecting a scene reflecting the town’s name may be disappointed. But the spirit of the season still permeates Snow Hill like the scent of smoke that pours from the chimneys of the picturesque historic homes.

There’s a lot of speculation about how the town got its name. Most likely, the Englishmen who settled here in 1642 were from a London suburb of the same name. The town developed near, around, and finally over a large native village called Askiminokonson, so maybe naming the place Snow Hill wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

In the town’s early days, wood from the cypress and pine forests that grow along the Pocomoke’s shoreline supported the local economy. By 1694, Snow Hill was a royal port with warehouses, shipwrights, shops, blacksmiths, and all the other businesses a successful port demanded. (The Pocomoke is not very wide, but it is up to forty feet deep in places, which allowed oceangoing sailing ships access to the inland town from the Chesapeake.) Now this town of 2,400 people depends on agriculture, government (it’s the seat of Worcester County), and a growing number of retirees and urban transplants for its economic health.

Snow Hill Browsing and visiting are honored pastimes in this small, closely knit community. Running errands can take hours when each transaction includes asking about the family, commenting on local politics, and reviewing holiday plans.

On Green Street, Snow Hill’s commercial hub, the shops are ready for the season. Greenway Station Antiques holds a treasure trove of oddities such as a deep sea diver’s helmet and the placard from Showell’s Theatre in Ocean City—“July 6: Lionel Barrymore in Ah Wilderness.” At I Remember This Antiques & Collectibles, you’ll find rarities like a nine-foot stuffed bear and a circa-1922 electric stove.

Over at Pusey’s Country Store, Cyndy Pusey-Cunningham presides over the red barn-like building, which her parents started as a general merchandise and feed store in 1970. “It was mostly farm supplies, but we carried a little bit of everything— electrical, plumbing supplies,” she explains. “We used to mix and grind the feed, but that’s all done directly at mills now.”

Electrical cables and plumber’s helpers are long gone, replaced by freshly baked cookies, which tempt customers whose willpower is already tested by displays of jams, honey, condiments, and soups. On a wall in the back of the store hangs a display of old black-and-white postcards depicting Snow Hill landmarks. There is Old Hallow’s Church, one of the first Episcopalian churches in the United States, and “Mapleton” on Federal Street, Pusey-Cunningham proudly points out, “the house I grew up in.”

In December, a year-round display of Christmas items expands through out the store. There’s fresh holly and cedar arrangements, gift baskets, watercolors of area landscapes and wildlife by local artist Sharon Himes, whimsical white shorebird garden ornaments made from PVC pipe—the Bay’s answer to the plastic pink flamingo—and handcrafted local decorations and ornaments. Outside, fresh cut trees from a local tree farm and wreaths made from boxwood, mistletoe, and mixed-greens fill the parking lot.

More ornaments glitter from displays at Opera House Act II antique store, where owner Natalie Wien carries rarities from more than thirty dealers and consignors. Housed in a former car dealership, it’s the largest of three antique shops in town.

The Julia A. Purnell Museum is also a repository for unique antiques. Purnell, who lived in Snow Hill from 1843 to 1943, was a master, or perhaps mistress, of sewing and needle arts. She documented Worcester County’s public buildings, private homes, and churches in more than 150 crewelwork scenes, in addition to nearly two thousand other quilted and embroidered works, completed in her one hundred years. Her simple, brightly colored pieces are American primitives—something like Grandma Moses paintings in thread. Amazingly, she never wore glasses.

The museum, located in the former St. Agnes Catholic Church, was founded by Purnell’s son to showcase his mother’s artwork. But it quickly became much more. “We’re the attic of Worcester County,” says Mary St. Hippolyte, executive director of the museum, with a laugh. “We have over ten thousand artifacts dating from the 1500s to present day that cover every area of life on the Delmarva peninsula, from clothing to dental tools—we’re a mini Smithsonian.”

Among the extensive collection is a fire grenade—a round glass jar from the 1870s that was filled with carbon tetrachloride and tossed into fires to help extinguish them—and a grooved axe head, found in someone’s back yard, that’s somewhere between three and thirteen thousand years old. “The original Indian village here was so large and so old, that finding these things is not that unusual,” according to St. Hippolyte. And there’s even Snow Hill’s first traffic light, circa 1950. “We’ll acquire the second someday,” St. Hippolyte predicts. “It’s at the intersection of Washington and Market streets, the only light in town.”

T>he town lunch spot is Bailey’s, where locals gather to trade greetings over a meal. Desserts are next door at Sweet Memories Ice Cream Parlor. The combination deli/sweet shop offers Hershey’s ice cream, gummy worms, sugared dots, and other old-fashioned penny candies.

The Western Auto Store is another flashback. It’s a real hardware store with a wooden floor and shelves stocked with tools, paints, and hunting supplies. Bicycles and tricycles (with the obligatory push bells on the handlebars), and bright red Flexible Flyer wagons wait by the front door. A sign in the window advertises “Pinking Shears and Scissors Sharpening.”

Snow Hill Gus Payne opened the store fifty- one years ago. He’s never thought about any other kind of work. “I try to be an all-purpose store, serving my town and my friends,” he says. How does he survive competition from the major chains? “I like to think that people appreciate a neighborhood store. They know I’ll take care of them.”

A long-standing Snow Hill holiday tradition is the Christmas train garden located on the upper floor of the Pocomoke River Canoe Company. The train display is open from 1 to 5 p.m. during the last week in November and weekends in December. (Snow Hill kicks off the holiday season with a full day of Christmas activities on December 7.) The diorama depicts the topography of the Snow Hill area and the port of Baltimore. Water circulates through “rivers”; lights glow from inside houses. There’s even a train wreck at the bottom of a ravine, while wall murals show forests, town scenes, and shipyards. The room hums with the click-clacking, whirring presence of the twelve trains as they drag their freight cars on their endless, colorful parade.

Over on Federal Street, homes of the millionaires of yesterday and the not-too-bad-off-folk-of-today are decked out in holiday splendor. Colonial mansions share the same address as discreetly decorated painted ladies of the Victorian era and sturdy Federalist houses. There are more than one hundred buildings more than one hundred years old in the heart of Snow Hill.

None is more impressive than Chanceford Hall. Built in 1759 by relatives of Robert Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, this Greek Revival mansion is now an elegant four-room inn run by Alice Kesterson and Randy Ifft. Originally from northern Pennsylvania, Kesterson and Ifft moved to Snow Hill from Chicago, attracted by its beauty and quiet way of life. In the summer, guests lounge under the black walnut and weeping cherry trees in the acre of gardens behind the house, or burn some calories in the lap pool. Winter means relaxing in front of one of the ten working fireplaces, a favorite activity of the three resident Akitas: Ollie, Ping-Ping, and Zoe. Avid readers, the couple have filled the house with seemingly more books than the Enoch Pratt Library and encourage their guests to browse and borrow. “We give our guests a postage-paid envelope when they leave so they can return any books that they take,” says Ifft. “The other option is to bring it back when they return for another stay.

Folks traveling with their children and dogs find a warm greeting at the ten-room River House Inn, where Susanne and Larry Knudsen (and their standard poodles, Peaches and Rosie) welcome all to their historic Victorian home with converted outbuildings on a two-acre estate on the Pocomoke. Guests arriving by boat in the summer can tie up at their dock. Visitors can also take a guided wildlife tour on the river aboard The Otter, Susanne’s pontoon boat.

Spring starts a season of Lions’ Club dinner and monthly dances under the stars at Sturgis Park on the river. In July, the state sport meets the Pocomoke with the annual canoe joust. In August, massive harvesters parade slowly along Market and Green Streets during the annual Blessing of the Combines. And as the weather cools, the Chesapeake Celtic Festival celebrates the clans in October. That’s just in time for the annual arrival of the Canada geese, ready to clean out the cornfields and remind people that the holidays have come again.

Locals Guide to Snow Hill

Fancy night out:
David’s (a bistro!)
The signature crab brie soup is decadent as is the grilled duck breast, marinated in a teriyaki and ginger sauce and served with a raspberry-Merlot confit. Desserts include an array of ices, plus homemade treats such as a strawberry napoleon. A Sunday brunch buffet features freshly made blintzes and an omelet station. 208 W. Green St. 410-632-2811, http://www.davidsabistro.com.

Wintertime walks:
Stroll holiday festooned eighteenth- and nineteenth-century neighbor-hoods with a self-guided walking tour of Snow Hill’s historic district. Pick up a copy of the tour at the visitors’ center and enjoy the lights and wreaths decorating the fifty houses dating from 1750. The map also details a brief history of the homes, including another seventy-five or so that are believed to pre-date 1877. Brochures are also available at the Purnell museum and at town hall.

Hands-on history lessons:
Furnace Town Living Heritage Museum
This living history site depicts life in the early nineteenth century of this iron-manufacturing village of 300 people. Skilled artisans and re-enactors demon-strate gardening, woodworking, broom making, weaving, and printing. Open April through October, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 3816 Old Furnace Rd. 410-632-2032, http://www.furnacetown.com

Fresh new old spot:
The Snow Hill Inn
The romantic eighteenth-century property, originally opened as an inn back in the ‘80s, has changed hands. The new owners plan to freshen up the former post office, and reinvigorate the menu (word has it that one of the new partners is a chef). Look for the re-opening this November—it’s worth a new peek. 104 E. Market St.