Maryland Daily PhotoEvery Week Day a New Picture from MD

By far my favorite of the three covered bridges in Frederick County, the Roddy Run Bridge is also the smallest.   It is only40 feet long, but it packs all the charm you would expect from any 155 year old bridge.

Sorry for the missed post yesterday.   I thought I had set a picture to come up  but apparently I set it for June second 2012.  So you all have that to look forward to next year.   Today, to wind down a short week of miscellaneous items, we have the Denton steamboat wharf.  As I mentioned before, it is a rebuilt wharf which today houses the Caroline Tourism office and a charter boat service.

Next week MDP will be back with bigger, newer, and historically significant posts.

This morning’s post was a bit delayed do to tiredness, which is widespread at MDP headquarters.   This is from Denton outside the rebuilt steamboat wharf which is now a tourism office

What does Baugh’s make?  What is this building?

It’s located not too far from yesterday’s picture.  This building was a steamboat warehouse and is supposedly one of three remaining along the bay.  Activity in this area of the Choptank was once centered around water accessible points and steamboats were the life blood of the area.

That was basically the rule until the railroad came.  In this case the railroad companies came and bought out the steam ship companies in a move that would today be a call to arms for antitrust lawyers.  The plan was to shut down the competition and the plan was effective.

So what about Baugh’s?   They did own this particular warehouse, though I can’t tell if they were the original owners.

What I can tell you about Baugh’s is that they are not based out of Denton.   The oldest brand in America, according to the building, was more elusive to research than you’d expect.  Baughs was effectively a company that ground and or burned and or processed animal bones.  That’s why the side of the warehouse features the insides of a cow.  They were a large company based out of Philadelphia but they had some local offices and undoubtedly required a significant supply chain to feed their factory in south Philadelphia.   Here are some things I’ve found:

Here’s a link to the county’s record of the building.

An add for Baugh’s from google books

And another, notice the change in address

An 1891 book about philadelphia and popular philadelphians shows the company’s full name as the Delaware river chemical works.

This boat has been sitting on this ramp in Denton for quite a while.

Across from the courthouse in Denton is the law building.   It has nothing to do with the court though.  It was named after the “Law Building and Realty Company”

Back East, this is the Caroline County courthouse, with the Caroline county flag flying in front.  I’ve killed two birds with one stone adding to my county courthouse collection and county flag collection.

The business end of this skipjack is revealing the MDP city of this week.  Welcome to Denton.  The county seat of Caroline county offers a bit of eastern shore charm and history.  It was as far upstream as one could get on the Choptank river during the days when rivers were the most imortant means of transportation, both for goods and people.   Like so many other towns it grew around and out from it’s waterfront.   The sites of denton today are a mix of original structures as well as  those that have been erected to mimic the town’s past.

If you’ve ever seen this building from the Eastern Shore before then you might know where we are spending the rest of our week.   If not, you are in for quite a pleasant suprise.

We’re going to transition out of the animal world with today’s post.  I found this in the window of a sign shop in Denton.