History

In 1983, Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson donated to the public one of the most important archaeological properties in the Chesapeake Bay region. Her gift to the State of Maryland of the Point Farm Estate, the largest land gift the State has ever been given, created the Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum. Long before the Pattersons, people found this property with its 2.5 miles of shoreline an excellent place to live. The archaeological sites thoroughly document a remarkable and varied history that goes back thousands of years. Some of the sites, and the people and events associated with them, are known through documentary evidence, oral histories, and archaeological research. However, even after twenty five years of excavations, museum archaeologists have explored less than one percent of the potential sites on the property.

Property History

The Pattersons

War of 1812​