Havre de Grace 1812 is well underway

Greetings, Havre de Grace residents, Harford County residents, Maryland State residents, War of 1812 enthusiasts, and all other site visitors! Welcome to our humble little blog about the progress of the War of 1812 Bicentennial project in Havre de Grace, MD. Right now, the site is not much to look at, but we will develop it as time goes on.

But don’t let the rather bare site fool you (Although it is April Fool’s Day!). The volunteers involved with the War of 1812 project are already hard at work on the exciting projects we will be unveiling about a year from now! These projects will tell the story of what happened to the tiny waterside town of Havre de Grace in the early morning of May 3, 1813. (In short, if you don’t know the story…the British fleet, led by Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, came ashore at Havre de Grace and set the town on fire!)

We have four major projects underway to tell the story of what happened here in Havre de Grace. These projects are being funded by the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network and the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority – so a big thank you to them!

The Four Project Components:

1. A Community History Project. We will be engaging in a large research project, led by our two historians, Chris George and Mike Dixon, who will also be contributing to this blog. We will be digging through library archives, reading old newspapers, and searching through old boxes of memorabilia to find new pieces of information about the fire in Havre de Grace and the people who lived here at the time.

2. A scale model of the town as it was in 1813. Building will be marked as to whether they survived the fire or not.

3. Exhibits at the Havre de Grace Visitor’s Center and its local museums: Concord Point Lighthouse and Keeper’s Dwelling, Susquehanna Museum at the Lock House, the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, the Skipjack Martha Lewis, the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, and the Steppingstone Museum. In addition, we will be posting markers around town to point out special areas of historical import.

4. Educational curriculum. We are developing special curriculum that can be used by local teachers in their classrooms to teach about the War of 1812 in general and the events in Havre de Grace in particular. In addition, we will be developing traveling trunks that can go into classrooms to enhance lessons; we will be developing scripts for some costumed interpreters to get into character of 1813 Havre de Grace townspeople; and we will be hosting students on field trips to the Havre de Grace museums.

Want to get involved? We have a lot of opportunities for volunteers to get involved with this project…find them all here!