18:00 15.05.2006 | All news from "Real Estate News"
Watery Eden Resists the Resort Feel
The day's eel catch was down, but the crab haul was up.
For Gary Schnaitman, 51, and Jesse Jump, 53, two of the last full-time watermen still living in St. Michaels on Maryland's Eastern Shore, there is no predicting how each season will go. It's a gamble.
Welcoming porches line the side streets in St. Michaels, where native Amy Berry says, "You return to . . . refresh your soul." (By Ann Cameron Siegal For The Washington Post) ST. MICHAELSBy St. MichaelsBOUNDARIES: The town sits on the Miles River; streets extend east and west from Talbot Street (Route 33). Many people describe all of Zip code 21663, including the portion outside the official town boundaries, as St. Michaels. WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE: In town, there are stores, restaurants, inns, library, numerous docks and boat-launch sites and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. WITHIN 20 MINUTES BY CAR: Oxford/Belleview ferry; Easton, where there is a hospital, Avalon Theater, malls, county offices, courts and the Easton airport OTHER DISTANCES : Annapolis is about an hour away and Washington two hours. HOME SALES: In the past 12 months, 59 homes have been sold in town at prices from $155,000 to $2.2 million, said Amy Berry of Meredith Real Estate. There are 29 homes listed for sale at prices from $199,000 to $950,000, and seven under contract with list prices from $159,900 to $750,000. var technorati = new Technorati() ;technorati.setProperty('url','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042100922_Technorati.html') ;technorati.article = new item('Watery Eden Resists the Resort Feel','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042100922.html','The day\'s eel catch was down, but the crab haul was up.','Ann Cameron Siegal') ;document.write( technorati.getDisplaySidebar() );#delicious_display {display:none ;color:#333333 ;background-color:#EEEEEE ;padding:4px ;padding-top:0px ;border:1px dotted #0D3159 ;}Save & ShareSaving options1. Save to description: Headline (required) Subheadline Byline2. Save to notes (255 character max): Subheadline Blurb None 3. Tag This ArticlesetTimeout('update_delicious_form(delicious_cookie)',1) |
Both men reside within blocks of where they were raised. Using skills learned from their grandfathers, they set out before dawn each day in the classic Chesapeake Bay workboats known as deadrises.
Jump is optimistic this season because he brought in more than seven bushels of crabs on his first day out. Last year, his first-day haul was just one bushel.
"The sun goes behind a cloud and the crab haul drops off," he said. "Sun comes back, so do the crabs."
Just like the tourists.
"For St. Michaels to come alive, all you need is sunshine," said Bob Porter, president of the town's business association. Day trippers and weekenders raft up their boats in the harbor, devour blue crabs at waterside restaurants and browse for mementos in quaint shops. History buffs flock to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and its landmark lighthouse, one of only three "screwpile" lighthouses remaining in the country. Part-time residents create waterside escapes from hectic lives.
"Most people are not here long enough to get to know what St. Michaels is about," said Porter, an eighth-generation resident who grew up along the Miles River. "They never see the back streets."
Amy Berry, 51, a St. Michaels native, recalled how she and her childhood friends enjoyed endless days "adventuring" on those back streets -- building cedar tree houses and poking around in creeks, heading home only when the lights came on.
"I had a flat-bottom rowboat before I had a bicycle," Berry said.
During her teenage years, Berry admits, she couldn't wait to get out of St. Michaels. At 25, "I left here thinking there had to be more," she said. Berry eventually settled in the D.C. area, married and began raising a family. In 1999, the Berrys moved back to her home town. "You return to St. Michaels to refresh your soul," she said.
"If everybody had their choice, this is what they would design their environment to be," Porter said, admitting that full-timers tend to become blasé about St. Michaels' setting, where most houses are within a few blocks of the water. "Sometimes we take it for granted."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/