Stockton, on the Chincoteague Bay
Right off the bat I’m going to tell you: this trip from Stockton, New Jersey to Stockton, Maryland is going to be awesome! And if we were in my shoes for the duration of the trip. That’s what happens when us small-town Kansasfolks take to the fast-moving, multiple-lane freeways. It can be a real test of a marriage! I hope we make it.
If you remember last week, our location was along the Delaware River, and the state line of New Jersey/ Pennsylvania snakes along in the center of the river. So as we left New Jersey, we crossed the river and were immediately in Pennsylvania, and for quite a while, that is where we travelled. We had chosen a route that would keep us on the outskirts of Philadelphia rather than smack-dab through the business district of the city. If we were wanting to visit Philadelphia, which sometime I really want to do, it would be different. But we are hunting Stocktons, so we’ve chosen the most direct route to get us from one to the next.
To begin the trip, we started out on Highway 263, also called Upper York Road which then became simply York Road as we got into residential areas in the `burbs of Philadelphia. The name of one of those suburbs is King of Prussia. Yes, that’s a town. A little roadway research says King of Prussia, locally referred to as “KOP,” is a rapidly growing development, largely due to its location at the convergence of four major highways. The community took its name in the 18th century from a local tavern named the King of Prussia Inn, which was named after King Frederick the Great of Prussia. The current claim to fame is that one of the largest shopping malls in the United States is located there. But I digress... back to the road trip.
GoogleMap shows 208 miles between the two Stocktons, and it predicts we will arrive in less than four- andone-half hours. I don’t know who could get there that quickly, because the majority of our drive is through suburban areas, and we have already experienced congestion at times. As usual, we have to tack on a couple more hours, at least!
Not far past Philadelphia we noticed that we had crossed over a state line again, into Delaware. So that’s what that bump in the road was all about! Remember how the state line between New Jersey and Pennsylvania was going right down the Delaware River? Well now, the line in the river separates Delaware from New Jersey. I think you could catch a fish from New Jersey waters and throw it back in the waters of Delaware and never leave your fishing spot! The section of highway we were on is the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, and the drive is mostly through residential areas. I would not enjoy living right next to this busy interstate highway! It’s interesting to see tilled farmground mixed in with developed residential area. Obviously some land owners realize they are sitting on a gold mine.
This is a most fascinating drive, seeing places we have heard about. We skirt around Dover, Delaware and suddenly realized we were driving right past the sprawling Dover Air Force Base that we hear mentioned many times on the news. This would be a fascinating place to tour.
I'm shocked that I see the “White House Landing” on GoogleMaps. One would think that wouldn’t be so plainly labeled!
We knew we were getting close to Stockton when we bumped over the Delaware/Maryland state line. As I looked ahead, I couldn’t see any overnight lodging in Stockton, and no restaurants were marked on GoogleMaps, either. So we stopped at Berlin, Maryland to make arrangements for the night which would give us a full day to explore Stockton and more of the area the next day. We could go to Ocean City, which is a bit off of our route, but we find the Atlantic Hotel, described as “an 1895 property with an elegant eatery;’ and it did not disappoint. I felt like I should have been wearing a long dress with petticoats when we entered, as it looked exactly like it must have looked at the turn of that century. What a beautiful, classic, three-story hotel. And yes, an elegant eatery just as they boasted, which we planned on for breakfast. For dinner we walked down the street to the Burley Oak Brewing Co. Do you get the idea we like beer? You would be right! But I’ve realized one thing—this coastal region offers limited choices for a person who doesn’t eat fish! Me.
In the morning after our breakfast in that elegant eatery, we booked a second night and then headed on up the highway to find Stockton. We were only 23 miles away! We started out on Hwy. 113, the Worcester Highway, and just before we got to Snow Hill, Maryland, we noticed a little white church along the highway. This was a very interesting find—the Snow Hill Mennonite Church! Hav- ing been raised in the Mennonite church, finding this church just a stone’s throw from the Atlantic Ocean was truly a surprise, and we decided we would definitely hang around for the weekend to attend services there on Sunday!
After a beautiful morning drive, passing through the strangely-named town of Girdletree, we arrived in the town of Stockton, and quickly saw that there’s not much to it. But just to think that we were less than four miles from the Atlantic Ocean is amazing! Driving into town on Stockton Road, we saw some nice homes, St. Paul’s Church, St. John’s Holy Church, Episcopal Chapel of the Holy Cross, and the Wesley United Methodist Church, but really no businesses to speak of.
We couldn’t find anyone to talk to about the town or its history, so our information about Stockton had to come from the internet.
Stockton was originally called Sandy Hill until 1870 when the name of the town was officially changed by an act of the legislature, to Stockton, commemorating the Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, a prominent Methodist minister. In 1872 the Worcester County election district which took its name from Sandy Hill was renamed Stockton. Approximately two miles east of Stockton is an extensive network of manmade canals. The center of Stockton was destroyed by fire in 1906, but was soon rebuilt, with many of the new buildings constructed of brick During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Stockton boasted a hotel, five churches, a post office, three stores, a canning factory, two sawmills, and two barrel factories. However, the overfishing of Chincoteague Bay led to a permanent decline in the commercial seafood industry. We’re going to do some more exploring of this area, driving over to George Island Landing and then driving along the coast. It’s obvious that this used to be much more of a commercial hub than it is now.
For all it took to get here, we are anxious to get back to Snow Hill and start planning the next leg of the trip while we relax and wait for Sunday worship at the Snow Hill Mennonite Church! We’ve got quite a drive for our next location in Georgia! Join me here again next week!
