Cape Charles Historic District

Pennsylvania politician, businessman and horse aficionado William Lawrence Scott caused Pocomoke City, Maryland, engineer Robert Bauman to lay out a town at the southern terminus of his New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad, which was constructed in the 1880s and allowed agricultural produce and goods from the Delmarva Peninsula to be shipped across the Chesapeake Bay much more economically than previously. The town grew as the railroad brought passengers and freight, but stagnated after World War II and especially after passenger rail service ended in 1958. Ferry service also ended about three decades ago.^[4]

The district encompasses 526 contributing buildings and 3 contributing structures in the town of Cape Charles. The buildings relate to the town's development as a harbor and railroad town in the late-19th and early-20th century. Notable buildings include the Seafood Headquarters (c. 1886), McCrory's Store annex (c. 1900), Mitchell House (1884), Jack Moore House (c. 1910), A. L. Detwiler House (1919), Kellogg House (1924), Mumford Bank (c. 1895), Parsons Building, Watson's Hardware, Mack Building, Palace Theatre, Municipal Building, St. Stephen's African Methodist Episcopal Church (1885, 1912), St. Charles Roman Catholic Church (1889), Trinity United Methodist Church (1893), the former Presbyterian church (1902, Cape Charles Memorial Library), First Presbyterian Church (1926), and U.S. Post Office (1932).^[5]

The oldest house now in Cape Charles is a dwelling just east of the Municipal building on Mason Avenue, built late in the fall of 1883. It was built on the railroad property, but later moved across the street to its present site at 515 Mason Ave. (1883)

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.^[1]