Wicomico County MDGenWeb Sharptown

Here is another great exerpt from John E. Jacob, Jr.'s 1981 book, Salisbury and Wicomico County: A Pictorial History. The book is currently out of print, and we are grateful to the author for giving permission to place excerpts from this wonderful book online.

Sharptown was little more than a high spot on the riverbank before Matthew Marine moved there in 1818 and began building boats. It was given a post office in 1845 and became an incorporated town in 1874. Its period of greatest activity and prosperity was from 1890 to 1918. During this period there was great demand for the wooden workboats, yachts, and schooners built in Sharptown.

Although Sharptown failed to get rail service when the panic of 1837 destroyed the projected railroad south from Elkton, it kept hoping. When the Baltimore and Eastern Railroad went through Vienna to Mardela, Sharptown tried in 1886 to raise funds for a branch from the Dorchester and Delaware through Sharptown to Mardela, Quantico, and Nanticoke. This effort was also unsuccessful.

The town did, however, get a bank in December 1905, and E. A. Brodey had the agency for the Moon automobile there in 1918. During World War I business boomed, but in 1919 The Eastern Shore Shipbuilding Co., owners of the shipyard, went bankrupt. With the completion of the Anandale that year, shipbuilding came to an end. Local employment stayed alive until 1950 when the basket and box factory of Marvil Package Co. burned and was not rebuilt. Since then Sharptown has become a bedroom community with the younger people working in nearby towns and cities.

The original plat of the Town of Sharptown was made January 12, 1874. The town's charter was revoked in 1880 and renewed in 1888. The controversial bridge which now crosses the river was not built until 1909; until then a ferry made the crossing. The four wharves and the marine railway demonstrate the maritime orientation of the town. Courtesy of The Town of Sharptown.

Saturday, 12-Aug-2023 21:10:20 EDT