Originally published October, 2000 on the Rose Haven, Maryland web site - used with permission
While known about in some quarters as long as 10 years ago, efforts were initiated this year by residents to protect and preserve a granite, tomb-shaped stone in Holland Point which marks a boundary between Anne Arundel County and Calvert County. As you can see from the pictures, chiseled in the stone is the date "1824" and the words "Anne Arundel County" on the north side and "Calvert County" on the side of the stone facing south.
Bernie Loveless, native Calvert countian and now resident of Holland Point, was one of the few who knew of the marker's existence many years before now. It was his recent efforts which resulted in the Holland Point Citizens Association receiving an $800 grant from the Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, Inc. to clear away bushes and briars and erect an iron enclosure around the marker.
Treasurer Sherri Marsh on behalf of the Trust commended the Association for the "concern and initiative related to the preservation of this tangible piece of history." To see the boundary stone, one has only to walk west on Cedar Avenue in Holland Point to the end of the road and into the woods where a trail heading northwest leads directly to the stone now protected by a wrought-iron fence modeled after those protecting structures in Washington, D.C.
Coincidentally, a bit of history relating to the placement of the stone in 1824 can be found in the Spring 2000 issue of the Calvert County Historian, a twice-yearly publication of the Calvert County Historical Society. From records, maps and archives of the time, author Daniel P. Lehan pieces together the events leading up to the placement of the marker.
Lord Baltimore, having been given the rights to the colony in Maryland, in 1650 laid out Anne Arundel County from South Creek (now only the marshland west and south of Holland Point into Calvert County) to Herring Creek (now Tracys Creek). Through 1654, land grants were then made to certain individuals by Lord Baltimore.
These grants, several of which were known as Bonnerstone, Hollands Charge and Majors Choice, comprised the area along the Bay from Tracys Creek and Town Point to the north and Fishing Creek and Chesapeake Beach to the south. According to the article, in 1655, the Puritans wrested control from Lord Baltimore and among other things established the boundary of Anne Arundel County to be from Traceys Creek to Fishing Creek where Calvert County began.
Everything went along fine for a couple hundred years until 1777 when the first of several controversies erupted in the normal course of government over the district boundaries to the point that people from both districts refused to pay taxes until the issue was resolved. Finally, in 1822 the General Assembly agreed (as laid out in the Laws of 1823) to order up a new survey which would establish the boundary between Anne Arundel and Calvert County.
Posted: 10-26-2000
