Nottingham, Maryland

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Part private, part Patuxent River Park. Historic signs. All that remain are a one room schoolhouse and a dozen houses on Watershed Drive, the end of Tanyard Rd., and the end of Nottingham Rd. (formerly called Union St.) Water St. ran along the Patuxent where steamboats stopped from 1819 until the 1930's. Occupied by the British on Aug. 21-30, 1814 who skirmished with then-Secretary of State James Monroe leading a thirty-man scouting force on horseback through town. Warehouses on piers from at least 1878 until the 1940's. The town would increase to 1500 residents in the immediate area, with a whipping post and pillory by 1716, an ordinary by 1727, tobacco inspection station 1747 to 1853, public house, mercantile trading headquarters, and horse racing site. George Washington stopped here overnight while using the ferry to cross the river.

Located in southeastern Prince George’s County, the community of Nottingham was established when the General Assembly of the Province of Maryland passed the “Act for the Advancement of Trade and Erecting Ports and Towns” in 1706 and 1707 in order to establish commercial centers along the rivers in Maryland. In 1747, Nottingham was designated as an inspection site for tobacco. In order to protect the quality of tobacco
being shipped to England, all tobacco grown in Maryland had to pass through inspections sites at Nottingham, Piscataway, Upper Marlboro, or Bladensburg before it was allowed to be publicly sold. Between 1791 and 1801, Nottingham exported more than 8,340 hogsheads
of tobacco. These small landing communities grew as commercial activity was drawn to tobacco warehouses located on the banks of rivers and nearby creeks.

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, Baltimore began to develop as a large port, with more farmers using Baltimore for the inspection, sale, and shipping of their tobacco. As Baltimore grew, the smaller river communities began to diminish as centers of commercial activity. The Patuxent River became more shallow, which limited the size of ships that could navigate the waters.

By the late nineteenth century, Nottingham began to decline and the population steadily decreased as families relocated to other areas. A devastating fire in 1901 destroyed most of the buildings in the small community, leaving only a few extant structures.
The 1861 Martenet map shows a small town situated on the banks of the Patuxent River. Within the town there were several nonresidential buildings, including the Stamp & Son Store and Post Office, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel run by William Quinn. The 1878 Hopkins map shows some changes in Nottingham. The map indicates the addition of a schoolhouse located in the northern part of the town, as well as several warehouses
on the river banks.

The majority of buildings in Nottingham are late twentieth century infill, some constructed as recently as 2002. There is only one remaining nineteenth-century
building (the Turton-Smith House), although several other residences were constructed immediately after the fire in 1901. The Colonial Revival is the predominate style in Nottingham, whether a vernacular or modern interpretation. Most buildings sit close to the road and are oriented to face the Patuxent River. The topography of Nottingham is gently sloping towards the river. The Patuxent River continues to erode the banks of
Nottingham.