what was calvert county like 20 years ago and today

[twinbeach2128]

for about 5 years

[PeteU]

Originally Posted by twinbeach2128

for about 5 years

From your screen name I'm guessing you live in either North Beach or Chesapeake Beach, right?

I grew up in the middle part of the county--Port Republic, and I can't say I had a whole lot of exposure with the Beaches. Thing is, the Beaches were off Route 2-4 so they aren't exactly on the path. Every once in a blue moon, we'd go up there--for the fireworks or sometimes I played little league games up there.

But from what I've heard, the Beaches have gotten very nice in the past few years. They've become a popular weekend spot, much like Solomons. You've even got that new waterfront hotel, which looks like something from a major oceanfront resort city.

[StuartSlate]

Originally Posted by PeteU

From your screen name I'm guessing you live in either North Beach or Chesapeake Beach, right?...

In order to have some appreciation for how far The Twin Beaches in Calvert have come – not to mention the old Rt. 301 ‘strip’ in Charles – one would have to recall the everything then nothing progression of the ‘Slots’ and ‘Little Nevada’ period in Southern Maryland from 1949 – 1968. St. Mary’s, Charles, Calvert and Anne Arundle all had slots (AA’s were nickel only).

Back then it was the only legal gambling in the whole eastern US and they’d come from as far as New York. Slots and gambling interests and easy big money had local governments flush, but when gambling was outlawed, the region hard a hard, long struggle finding a diverse economy. It sounds to me like they are finally on the right path.

Before gambling, by the way, back just after the turn of the last century, a Colorado Railroad man, Otto Mears, bought a bayside farm and developed the areas into today’s Chesapeake and North (of Chesapeake) Beaches. My father had a friend who, as a boy in the 1920’s, took the old train out from DC to Chesapeake Beach. The railroad went bankrupt during the depression.

I grew up near a kid whose mother grew up in NE DC but spent summers at Chesapeake Beach. She married a man from Paris, Maryland near the beach. If the old RR museum is still there, check out the old photographs from that era. Those old beaches photographs were donated by this woman to the museum. Gosh, there is over 100 years of history down the beaches now.

Not even addressing here the long history of racial discrimination - institutionalized until 1968 - at the beaches.

[StuartSlate]

I forgot to emntion that Mears himsef built the RR from DC to Chesapeake Beach in order to develop this 'only DC saltwater beach' into a 'Monte Carlo'.

[twinbeach2128]

OHHHH thanks guys i do live near the twinbeaches by the way

[rbaddude3]

calvert county is a pretty rural place ive been living here for 10 years and its a great place for kids lots of wide open space and peacefullness.