Photo caption

Maryland Historical Society

Established in 1877, Tolchester Beach was a popular Maryland resort located on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Kent County. A favorite amusement park among Baltimoreans, millions enjoyed family picnics, church outings and moonlight excursions to the park by steamboat. As many as twenty-thousand visitors came here on a peak weekend.

Tolchester Beach offered a wide sandy beach. A bluff behind the beach provided a breathtaking view of the upper bay. Facilities included a hotel, restaurant, bath house, stables, pavilions, a carousel with "Flying Horses," a "Lot of Swings," an elevated steam engine railroad connecting with the bluff, an "inclined Coasting Railway" (roller coaster), row boats, and picnic tables. In 1887 the resort had five hundred bathing suits that visitors could rent; by 1909 over two thousand suits were available. The one-piece men's knit suit stretched from the neck to mid-calf; the women's suit included a blouse with skirted bloomers which covered the body from the neck to the knee and shoulder to wrist. The outfit was completed with black stockings. Each suit was blue with white letters spelling out "TOLCHESTER" across the chest.

Also in 1909 a twin-towered Italian Renaissance villa pavilion greeted the steamboat passengers. On the ground level was the "lower dairy" where milkshakes were served. On the upper level visitors could sit and enjoy the views of the bay and listen to afternoon musicales. A new merry-go-round and new roller coaster called the "Whirlpool Dips" offered more thrills and faster speed than the older ones. Children could ride goats and pony carts. Other park attractions included bumper cars, a fun house, shooting gallery, tenpins bowling alley, bingo parlor, gardens, dance pavilion, souvenir stands, candy and food stands of all kinds, kewpie doll stands, and horse racing. Alcohol was not permitted. Despite the heat, the ladies wore long-sleeved dresses down to their ankles and fancy hats; some even brought parasols to shade the sun. Men wore vested suits with starched collar shirts, narrow black ties and straw hats.

Tolchester Beach

Maryland Historical Society

Tolchester Beach was popular as much for the enjoyable two-hour steamboat ride from Baltimore required to reach it as for the amusement park itself. The Tolchester Steamboat Company, incorporated in 1887, operated excursion steamers across the twenty-seven-mile crossing. Steamers such as the Louise, Emma Giles, Bear Mountain, and Tolchester (three different steamboats were named Tolchester) all operated between Baltimore's Light Street piers and Tolchester Beach.

After operating for eighty-five years, Tolchester Beach closed in 1962 when the amusement park was sold for development. Like other tidewater amusement parks, such as Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County; Marshall Hall on the Potomac River in Prince George's County; Bay Ridge at the mouth of the Severn River in Anne Arundel County; and Tivoli at the entrance to the Patapsco River in Baltimore County, Tolchester Beach succumbed to the era of the automobile, the struggle over segregation, and changing American life styles in the twentieth century.

Holly, David C. "Tolchester: The Delaware Connection" and "Tolchester the Golden Years," Steamboats on the Chesapeake. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1987.

Burgess, Robert H. "Tolchester of the Bay." This Was Chesapeake Bay. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1982 Third Printing.