Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
Port Tobacco: A Maryland Mosaic
Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 23, 2019
1. Port Tobacco: A Maryland Mosaic Marker
Potobacs, one of the ancestral groups of today's Piscataway Indians and other native groups, had a village in this area in the 1600s. By the end of that century or early in the next Europeans built a scatter of houses and warehouses called Chandler's Town. Renamed Charles Town in 1727, but known locally throughout its history as Port Tobacco, the town became, and remained, the seat of Charles County government until 1896.
The only surviving map of the town dates to 1888, 200 years after initial European settlement. Over those years the town's inhabitants and neighbors shared
this page online
• contact and conflicts with Native Americans;
• the Revolutionary War;
• religious diversity;
• slavery;
• the Civil War; and
• segregation, to name a few.
The people of Port Tobacco helped forge the nation's character. Current research examines those people and the nation they helped create.
The Port Tobacco Archaeological Project was created in 2007 to research the 300-year-old town and its aboriginal predecessors.
Tens of thousands of artifacts have been unearthed to date, many dating to the years before the American Revolution of 1776 to 1783. Scientists study those objects to learn about the beliefs and customs of the area's inhabitants, and to illuminate a complex history that has shaped our present.
Image Captions:
Port Tobacco Courthouse, south wing (1915), Columbia Historical Society Files.
Yellow symbols above represent surviving historic buildings.
Above, excavators recording their finds.
Left, sherds of tin-glazed earthenware, or 'delft,' a common 18th-century ceramic.
Below, Augustine Hermann map, detail (1673).
Left, Commerce Street in front of Padgett House (1900)
Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco
•
Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 23, 2019
2. Port Tobacco: A Maryland Mosaic Marker
• www.RestorePortTobacco.org
Erected by Maryland Heritage Area Authority.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Colonial Era • Religion & Religious Structures • Settlements & Settlers. A significant historical year for this entry is 1727.
Location. 38° 30.676′ N, 77° 1.195′ W. Marker is in Port Tobacco, Maryland, in Charles County. It is on Commerce Street 0.1 miles west of Chapel Point Road, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 8430 Commerce St, Port Tobacco MD 20677, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Washington Metropolitan Area and in Southern Maryland. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Upper South, in the Mid-Atlantic, in the Tidewater, and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once one of the original Thirteen Colonies and also the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Port Tobacco (here, next to this marker); Port Tobacco: Commerce (a few steps from this marker); Port Tobacco: Conspiracy & the Plot to Assassinate President Lincoln (within shouting distance of this marker); St. Columba Masonic Lodge (within shouting distance of this marker); On to Yorktown (within shouting distance of this marker); Revolutionary War Patriots (within shouting distance of this marker); John Wilkes Booth (within shouting distance of this marker); Stagg Hall (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Port Tobacco.
Related marker. Click here for another marker that is related to this marker. The linked marker is a duplicate on the other side of the walking trail.
Credits. This page was last revised on November 9, 2026. It was originally submitted on November 23, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 913 times since then and 80 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on November 23, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
