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Eagle Harbor & Cedar Haven: African American Resorts at the Twilight of the Steamboat Era
October 21, 2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:45 pm
On the Patuxent River in Prince George’s County, the beach resorts of Eagle Harbor and Cedar Haven were founded in the late 1920s for African Americans during a time legal segregation of public spaces in the United States. This talk will discuss the ways the resorts, nestled close to the wharf at Trueman Point, touted the ease of access offered by steamboat service and promoted the health benefits and recreational offerings of its waterfront location to become successful summer communities that attracted generations of city dwelling African Americans.
This event is generously sponsored by the Upper Shore Regional Folklife Center.
About the Speaker: Tim Kerr is a principal of Robinson & Associates, a research and consulting firm specializing in architectural, landscape, and cultural history in Washington, D.C. He has previously documented historic resources in two projects in Colonial Beach, Virginia, a resort along the Potomac River. In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, he established a historic context related to migration into and through the county, from Native American settlements to immigration patterns in the mid-twentieth century, including the phenomena of beach resorts that developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Tim is the primary author of the Eagle Harbor Historic District National Register of Historic Places nomination.
Eagle Harbor & Cedar Haven: African American Resorts at the Twilight of the Steamboat Era
Date/Time: Tuesday, Oct. 21, 5:30pm
Location: Van Lennep Auditorium & available virtually
Cost: Suggested ticket price of $8 per participant
