Photography By Edwin Remsburg
There are three types of people on Maryland’s Tilghman Island: the “been heres,” the “come heres,” and the “come here laters.” “We divide the people up into those that were born here, those that are now living here, and those that are here on a part-time basis and probably anticipate retiring here or moving here permanently,” says Jack Redmon, realtor and co-owner of the Tilghman Island Inn, a come here himself (from Annapolis).
Tilghman’s changing tide comes into view at the Knapps Narrows drawbridge, which links the island to the mainland about a dozen miles southwest of St. Michaels. A smattering of restaurants and the Knapps Narrows Marina, filled with fiberglass sailboats and two-tiered yachts, paint the island’s future on the west side of the drawbridge, while Harrison’s Oyster Company and a paltry fleet of wooden Chesapeake Bay workboats preserve the patina of the past on the other.
The northern end of the three-mile-long and one-mile-wide island maintains the aura of a watermen’s town. A tackle shop and a handful of simple shingled houses line a two-lane road without sidewalks. Osprey and great blue heron chart endless flight paths near Dogwood Harbor, a vestige of the “been heres” way of life. Crab boats mingle with a short line of skipjacks, the last commercial sailing fleet in North America. Nearby, Harrison’s Chesapeake House operates the same one-stop hospitality business as it has since post-Civil War days.
But just to the south, the scene changes. Dozens of half-million dollar homes—many with one-level living preferred by retirees—are sprouting up in the new Tilghman- on-Chesapeake. This residential development and yacht club, slated to have seventy-three homes when complete, attracts primarily come heres who love the expansive views and easy access to countless miles of boating. “I never thought I would ever see sailboat marinas and condos on Tilghman,” says seventy-six-year-old native Wilson Roe. “It was a working watermen’s town, but it’s rapidly becoming a tourist attraction and retirement community.”
Located where the Choptank River meets the Chesapeake Bay, Tilghman Island still leads Talbot County’s seafood production, but it’s a tiny fraction compared to its oyster heyday. Nearly 120 years ago, watermen dredged the bountiful waters, while shuckers quickly created tiny Avalon Island by discarding millions of oyster shells just off Tilghman’s river banks. (Today the swimming pool and yacht club of Tilghman-on-Chesapeake stand on Avalon.) In the early 1890s, the Tilghman Packing Company processed and canned oysters and other Eastern Shore delicacies on the island, while the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic steamship landing assured national seafood distribution. Production remained solid through the 1920s and got a boost during WWII, when several local packing companies operated twenty-four hours a day, canning everything from oysters and clams to homegrown tomatoes and corn.
“We had five grocery stores on the island,” says native Norma Roe. She has run Norma’s Guest House, with two furnished suites, for more than sixteen years with her husband, Wilson. “We had a barber, a pharmacy, a movie theater, a department store, a pool hall, and a bowling alley. You didn’t have to leave the island. Now there’s only two groceries.”
As cars replaced steamships and trains and the Bay’s oysters started to wane, Tilghman’s conveniences went by the wayside. In 1985, oyster diseases MSX and Dermo devastated nearby beds, and the state invoked a five-year moratorium on catching rockfish. Many watermen were squeezed from their trade, ultimately taking jobs as carpenters, electricians, or landscapers. Others, like third-generation skipjack captain Wade Murphy, supplemented their income with occasional sailing charters. He now uses his skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark exclusively for cruising. “I cater to the tourists,” declares the sixty-two-year-old. “I always say, the people are easier to catch than oysters are.”
A National Historic Landmark, the Rebecca now reigns as the Chesapeake’s oldest working skipjack and is among only a half-dozen still sailing (from an original fleet of nearly a thousand). Murphy’s two-hour tours from Dogwood Harbor turn passengers into crew members; they hoist the main sail, participate in an oyster-dredging demo, and steer the fifty-three-foot wooden boat while he talks about everything from his boat’s fabled history to global warming.
The circa-1935 Lady Patty, a forty-five-foot classic ketch, offers another way to sail Tilghman’s waters on a historic boat. Mike Richards and his wife, Carol, moved to Tilghman Island nearly fifteen years ago, and Mike soon offered champagne sunset tours around the island on the sixteen-passenger cruiser, which made racing history in the fifties. Now their son, Chris Richards, captains the boat, while Mike runs several Chesapeake Bay lighthouse tours, ranging from a few hours to an entire day, on his thirty-passenger Vietnam-era special operations boat called M/V Sharps Island. Carol books the family’s charters and also operates the two-room, two-suite Lazyjack Inn on Dogwood Harbor, built in 1855 and restored after Hurricane Isabel.
Nearby, a couple of shops and restaurants serve locals and visitors. Gary and Susan Crawford own Crawfords Nautical Books, which carries more than 12,000 nautically themed books in the old Tilghman Bank building. Built in 1915, it’s one of the island’s few brick structures. The Crawfords discovered Tilghman nearly twenty-five years ago by driving “till we ran out of road,” says Gary. “It’s the most beautiful spot on the Eastern Shore. You can run up rivers and poke into creeks to your hearts content, or just go right into the Bay. It’s a super location.”
In the light yellow Victorian buildings next door, the So Neat Cafe and Bakery offers everything from decadent homemade pastries and freshly baked breads to hearty salads and deli sandwiches Thursday through Sunday. “We try to give good quality food and a smiling face to everyone,” says owner Cindy Presnell. She and co-owner Patti Bratek also run a recently expanded gift shop—with cards, candles, candy, and more—connected to their eatery and own the adjacent Jaime’s Plants and Wicker. The petite shop offers homegrown greenery, wicker items, and assorted antiques. “We offer a little bit of everything so people don’t have to go to St. Michaels to shop,” says Bratek.
The island’s overnight options encourage lingering. The Black Walnut Point Inn sits within a wildlife preserve on the island’s southernmost point and offers seven remote waterfront rooms and cottages. The twenty-room Inn at Knapps Narrows Marina, catering to boaters, opened three years ago. The upscale Tilghman Island Inn features twenty spacious rooms—all with patios or balconies, many with in-room spa bathtubs—tucked along the scenic wetlands of Knapps Narrows. Gourmands rarely leave the inn, which offers two dining rooms serving classic American dishes with a Southern flair and an award-winning wine list. The romantic Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn, with seven rooms and a cottage, reportedly serves up the best breakfast around, with special dinners by request. Two other restaurants, the Bay Hundred and Bridge, flank Knapps Narrows; both offer surf ‘n’ turf for lunch and dinner, plus outdoor seats with close-up views of glowing sunsets and one of Maryland’s busiest movable bridges.
If it’s tradition you want, head to Harrison’s Chesapeake House, a Tilghman Island institution. The Harrison family has been serving up platters of fried seafood to schools of fishermen for more than a hundred years. The business now includes a gift shop, fifty comfortable rooms, and a growing fleet of charter fishing boats.
Looking across Dogwood Harbor, the seventy-year-old family patriarch, Captain Buddy Harrison, says, “It’s a changing world here. There’s a lot of come heres...it’s not as close-knit as it once was. But a lot of them bring a lot of talent that we’ve never had before, and it really helps the community. We’ve been having changes for the last 300 years. It’s not going to stop now.”
Karen-Lee Ryan, a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C., loves to escape to the Eastern Shore.
Locals’ Guide to Tilghman Island
Where you’re most likely to run into Republican elite: Soon after buying a place in St. Michaels, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped into the So Neat Cafe and Bakery, where Lynn Cheney was also spotted.
Where you’re most likely to find watermen: As soon as Fairbank Tackle (on Tilghman Island Road) opens at 5 a.m., locals line up for coffee, cakes, pies, and early morning conversation.
Best place for viewing wildlife: Head to Black Walnut Point at the southern tip of the island, where a pair of bald eagles nest. On fifty-seven acres of preserve, you can also spot tundra and mute swans, blue heron, deer, and fox. You can’t miss the songs of the tree frogs even if you don’t see them.
Where to see a classic Tilghman Island house: Around the 1890s, many Tilghman Island homes were built with three gables on the front and a distinctive “V” shape. Today only seven remain, including one at the corner of Wharf and Tilghman Island roads and another midway down the south side of Wharf Road.
Power your own boat: Kayaking is increasingly popular with Tilghman residents and visitors, who love to explore the calm coves in and around the island. Rent one at the Tilghman Island Marina.
Contacts
Bay Hundred Restaurant
6178 Tilghman Island Rd.
410-886-2136
Bridge Restaurant
6136 Tilghman Island Rd.
410-886-2330
http://www.bridge-restaurant.com
Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn
21490 Gibsontown Rd.
410-886-2070
http://www.woodduckinn.com
Crawfords Nautical Books
5782 Tilghman Island Rd.
410-886-2230
http://www.crawfordsnautical.com
Harrison’s Chesapeake House
21551 Chesapeake House Dr.
410-886-2121
http://www.chesapeakehouse.com
Lady Patty and Chesapeake Lights Tours
Departures from Bay Hundred Restaurant
410-886-2215
http://www.sailladypatty.com and http://www.chesapeakelights.com
Lazyjack Inn on Dogwood Harbor
5907 Tilghman Island Rd.
410-886-2215
http://www.lazyjackinn.com
Norma’s Guest House
21460 Dogwood Harbor Rd.
410-886-2395
http://www.normasguesthouse.com
Rebecca T. Ruark
Departs from Dogwood Harbor
410-829-3976
http://www.skipjack.org
So Neat Cafe and Bakery
5776 Tilghman Island Rd.
410-886-2143
Talbot County Visitors Center
11 South Harrison St.
Easton, Md.
410-770-8000 or http://www.tourtalbot.org
Tilghman Island Inn
21384 Coopertown Rd.
410-886-2141
http://www.tilghmanislandinn.com
