Fall 2008 - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

The future of Claiborne shifted to its current location when
it became the junction for the ferries and railway of the Baltimore,
Chesapeake & Atlantic Railroad Co. Tourists packed
the ferries that landed on the Eastern Bay side of the village
where they boarded the train bound for the beaches of Ocean
City. Maple Hall and several other major boarding houses,
including Wades Point Inn across the harbor, flourished.
The railroad company printed booklets every year touting
the wonders of the area.
In 1915, the booklet described the area in glowing terms.
“Certainly there is not a
more favorable location
for summer boarding houses
on the entire Eastern Shore.”
It went on to say, “It is popular
with Baltimore people because it
is so handy to their city; moreover,
the service is excellent and
the fare low.’
Penny pulls out an almost pristine pamphlet
for the ferry to Claiborne advertising the fare
from Baltimore to Claiborne as $1, each way.
The railroad booklet, which is part of the CBMM collection,
lists Maple Hall as one of the Claiborne boarding houses
with a capacity of 50. The going rate was $7 a week per person.
Wades Point Inn, which could accommodate 80 guests,
charged a dollar more a week.
So popular was the area that 28 boarding houses were
listed between Claiborne and Royal Oak. Three inns in Royal
Oak advertised that they had lodging for 100 guests.
To take advantage of this popularity, John Cockey, who
married Penny’s great grandmother, saw another vision of a
grand little city.
A blueprint that Penny found at Maple Hall entitled “Plan
of CLAIBORNE Talbot County, MD” and dated March 1912,
The lawn of Maple Hall extends down to the waterfront,
and includes a family cemetery for the Tunis, Cockey, and
Cook families.
shows most of what is the current village but with a greatly
expanded footprint. It had a wide Bayside Boulevard sweeping
along the edge of the harbor and an equally impressive
Washington Boulevard that wound along the banks of Tilghman
Creek, passing as if in review, in front of Maple Hall.
Much of the land was owned by John Cockey, and the
subdivision was prepared for the Maple Hall Real Estate Co.
It was another plan that never quite made it far from the
drawing board.
By the 1920s, much of the Baltimore traffic had been
shifted to Love Point on Kent Island, where trains could take
passengers to Rehoboth, Del., as well as Ocean City. The last
ferries to Claiborne stopped running after the first
Bay Bridge opened in 1952, making
Claiborne, once a
transportation hub, into a
cul de sac off the road between
St. Michaels and Tilghman
Island.
Penny Rhine walks the lawn
of Maple Hall, taking in the view
from the family cemetery on the water
to the imposing inn. The seven acres are what is left of the
Tunis-Cockey-Cook holdings.
“The family sold off 150 acres in the 1950s for $50 an
acre,” she said.
Penny and Rick advertise Maple Hall with the slogan, “A
Shore Tradition.” But now, Penny says sadly, it is time for
the long family tradition to come to an end. Maple Hall Inn
is for sale.
“I have lived all but 17 years of my life here,” say Penny,
60. “This was always home, even when my family traveled
with my father while he was in the service.”
The family cemetery will not be part of the sale, she says.
Penny and Rick have already made plans to be buried there
in the shade overlooking the creek, along with generations of
Tunises, Cockeys and Cooks, including three Confederate veterans.
It is a fitting resting place for the families that helped
shape the Bay Hundred for the better part of two centuries.
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