Queen Anne in Prince George's County, Maryland is a former seaport on the Patuxent River in Maryland.

Contents 1 Geography 2 History 3 Renaming 4 References

[edit] Geography

Queen Anne is located at 38°53'55" North, 76°40'42" West (38.8987239 -76.6782992).^[1] Most of the town's former waterfront area is now part of Patuxent River Park, owned and operated by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. This includes hiking trails, two paddling launches, fishing locations, and an environmental education center operated by 4H. The head of tidewater on the Patuxent River is at the downstream (4H) launch site in Queen Anne.

[edit] History

Located across the upper Patuxent River, the Queen Anne's Bridge is part of a small predominantly black town in Prince George's County called Queen Anne's Town,known locally simply as Queen Anne. Queen Anne, for whom the town and bridge are named, ruled England and the American colonies from 1702-1714.The town was created in 1706 when the colonial Maryland Legislature authorized surveying and laying out the towns of Queen Anne Town, Nottingham, Mill Town, Piscataway, Aire (also known as Broad Creek) and Upper Marlboro (then known as Marlborough Town).^[2][3][4]

The town, located between Upper Marlboro and Bowie, was not always a predominantly African-American settlement. Queen Anne's Town was created as part of a 1706 act "for the advancement of trade and erecting ports and towns in the Province of Maryland." Queen Anne's Town was a seaport that used to be an excellent and convenient stop for goods that were being transported between Baltimore and Annapolis. The Queen Anne's Bridge, originally built in 1755, once served as a main road connecting Anne Arundel County to Prince George's County. The present steel truss bridge is an early 20th century replacement. The town grew to a population of about 150, but by the mid 1700s, upland farming in the Patuxent basin without erosion control led to massive silting of the river. The ports along the Patuxent quickly filled with silt and could no longer take in ocean-going vessels^[5] such as the snows that frequented the town.^[4] The last cargo ship left for England about 1790 and the town began to decline.^[5]

In 1747, the legislature tried to improve the quality and the method of marketing tobacco, then the major crop of the area, and established a formal system of tobacco inspection and quality control. The town was home to one of seven state tobacco warehouses built in Prince George's County.^[4] A horse racing track was also built in the town.^[5]

During the War of 1812, the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla commanded by Joshua Barney scuttled his entire fleet in the shallows off Queen Anne to avoid the vessels being captured by the advancing British.^[6]

About 1878, William Lane Watkins became the first black man to move into Queen Anne's Town. Watkins, son of a white man and a light-skinned black woman, was taught by his father how to read and write. About 1872, accepted as a white man, he entered the Boston University Medical School, from which he graduated with a full medical degree. Soon after Watkins graduated, he was discovered to have been of mixed race, thus finding it impossible to practice in Massachusetts. With the invitation of a friend, Tim Parker, Watkins decided to move to Prince George's County. When Watkins first arrived in Prince George's county, he was able to rent a room from the family of Wilson and Jane Ellen Turner, who lived in an area near Queen Anne's. Rent was $10 a month, which was expensive for a black man around that time in the late 1870s. Soon Watkins fell in love with Wilson's daughter and began to find a home for him and his wife.

Watkins chose to live in Queen Anne's Town proper, an all-white community. When he arrived in Queen Anne's Town, Watkins was told that "N's" were not allowed to live on Queen Anne's Bridge Road. Watkins answered that he was not an "N" and he would live there if he chose to. So, he moved in anyway as did many other blacks. About 1877 Watkins became the first teacher and principal of the new Mt. Nebo School[1], a school for black children in Queen Anne's Town. As the years rolled by, Queen Anne's Town gradually changed its racial composition. The few remaining white residents died out or moved away, thus creating the small predominantly black community, which exists today.

Sometime after World War II, a heavy truck caused the existing Queen Anne's Bridge to buckle into its present contorted form. Now the bridge is no longer suitable for cars. New roads and highways have now made it unnecessary to pass through the forgotten town of Queen Anne's.

[edit] Renaming

In 1897 the United States Board on Geographic Names decided to change the name of Queen Anne to Hardesty to avoid confusion with the other town in Maryland named Queen Anne. However, local usage including signage, road names, bridge names, commercial mapping, the community association name, etc. continues to reflect the Queen Anne name.

[edit] References

Coordinates: 38°53′55″N 76°40′42″W / 38.8987239°N 76.6782992°W / 38.8987239; -76.6782992

African-American Sites Along the Patuxent River[2]

This Maryland state location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e