This section of the Tred Avon River shoreline directly below you was once the location of the Steamboat Dock, where large steamships running up and down the Bay and the Choptank River would stop to gather cargo and passengers heading to and from Baltimore. Other commercial buildings including packing houses and canneries were also located here, as was an ice house. Ice, which was essential to the growing oyster trade, was delivered to individual businesses and homeowners until refrigeration became widely available in the nineteen twenties. Blocks of ice were cut from ponds in Maine and brought down to Oxford by ship and kept packed in sawdust throughout the summer. This ice house burned to the ground in 1904 and was never replaced.
Originally established as the “Kap Dun Club,” (a play on the word Captain) in 1931, the name was changed to the Tred Avon Yacht Club in 1939. The current clubhouse was opened in 1991. The club is a very active center for recreational and competitive yachting, and still sponsors annual competition among the Chesapeake Bay’s unique sailing log canoes. Here is one description from 1871 that could as easily be from a year ago:
“At Oxford a number of gentlemen have for a number of months past been making arrangements for a grand regatta from that place. Schooners, yachts and canoes will participate, and if the wind should be favorable one of the most beautiful and exciting scenes that can be imagined may be expected. Besides there will be a large concourse of people from this and adjoining counties present, and social and rural sports indulged in to an unlimited extent. A dinner including all the luxuries of land and water will be provided, and furnishings at a reasonable price. Ice cream and other refreshment will also be furnished in abundance.”
Now continue to your left, down Lover’s Lane to the bench at the end of West Strand.
