The Charles County Department of Planning and Growth Management has released the latest edition of Preservation Matters: Celebrating Charles County’s Historic Places, its magazine on historic preservation in the county.
This year’s issue focuses on local history during and after the Revolutionary War era, part of the nation’s commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary. Local historians, archaeologists, preservation professionals and community researchers collaborated on the special edition, which is free to read online.
A signer from Charles County
The issue’s lead feature profiles Thomas Stone, a Charles County resident and one of Maryland’s four signers of the Declaration of Independence. The other three were Samuel Chase, William Paca and Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Stone was born in 1743 at Poynton Manor near Port Tobacco. In the 1770s he began building Haberdeventure, the home where he raised his family, and it stayed in the Stone family until the 1930s. The estate is now the Thomas Stone National Historic Site, which the National Park Service manages near Port Tobacco. Beyond signing the Declaration, Stone served in the Continental Congress and helped draft the Articles of Confederation. The Park Service also notes that Stone was an enslaver who held many people in bondage at Haberdeventure, even as he backed the Declaration’s promise of freedom.
Port Tobacco, tobacco and a Civil War soldier
Other features explore archaeological discoveries in Port Tobacco and the county’s long history with tobacco. Port Tobacco grew into one of Maryland’s largest international seaports before the Revolution and served as the county seat until silt choked its river. That decline left many archaeological sites intact, making the village one of the region’s richest places to study Native, colonial and African American history.
On a recent episode of the county’s government podcast, county preservation staff previewed the issue. They also described the Revolutionary-era story of a Port Tobacco tailor caught smuggling. The county offers public archaeology sessions in Port Tobacco on Mondays for residents who want to get involved.
The issue also profiles James Gross, a Black soldier who fought in the Civil War.
Remembering the 1926 tornado
The magazine also looks back at the 1926 La Plata tornado, one of the deadliest disasters in county history. On Nov. 9, 1926, a tornado destroyed La Plata Elementary School. According to a state historical marker near the site, 13 pupils and four townspeople were killed and about 35 people were injured. The names of the children are memorialized on a plaque at Milton M. Somers Middle School.
November marks the 100th anniversary of the storm.
Preservation awards and Lower Cedar Point
The issue also recognizes the recipients of the 2025 Charles County Historic Preservation Awards. The county’s Historic Preservation Commission honored them at a ceremony at Historic Ellerslie in Port Tobacco last October. The awards are presented each year in two categories: Preservation Project, for exemplary restoration, rehabilitation or adaptive reuse, and Preservation Service, for individuals and organizations that advance preservation in the county.
The magazine also highlights the Lower Cedar Point shoreline restoration project. County staff tied it to the role of agricultural preservation easements in protecting working farmland, including a fight against shoreline erosion on the Potomac.
How to get a copy
The county has published Preservation Matters for more than a decade, with past editions archived on the county website. The Chronicle covered the 2018-19 edition, which featured Mount Hope Baptist Church and Hughesville’s tobacco markets.
To request a free printed copy of the new issue, contact Cal Carpenter, preservation planner, at CarpenterC@CharlesCountyMD.gov or 301-645-0584.
