2005 Maryland State Preservation Award Winner

The Whitehaven Hotel, in Wicomico County, was originally constructed in 1810 as a residence situated on the banks of the Wicomico River. In the 1880s it was converted to a hotel to serve steamboat travelers disembarking at the Whitehaven village wharf. An adjacent store building was moved and attached to enlarge the hotel, and the building received a mansard roof and wrap-around porch. Wings were attached in the 1890s and circa 1910. The hotel housed a general store, telegraph office, post office, and saloon. As the steamboat era closed in the 1930s, Whitehaven’s waterfront was no longer bustling, the village became a backwater, and the hotel returned to its origins as a private residence.