John W. Blades House (108 E. Chestnut Street)

Although it has its origins rooted in the 17th-century Anglican parish that gave the town its name, Saint Michaels grew up as a shipbuilding town just after the American Revolution. Shipbuilding declined after 1819, and by the end of the Civil War, a growing oyster industry was taking its place. The large, yellow house at 108 East Chestnut Street with the turret decorated with snow-flake sawn medallions was built about 1857 by oysterman John W. Blades, though the turret was added after 1893. Most of the surrounding houses were likewise built from the 1850s through the 1870s by local oystermen.