Calvert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 92,783. Its county seat is Prince Frederick. The county's name is derived from the family name of the Barons of Baltimore, the proprietors of the English Colony of Maryland. Calvert County is included in the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria metropolitan statistical area. It occupies the Calvert Peninsula, which is bordered on the east by the Chesapeake Bay and on the west by the Patuxent River. The county has one of the highest median household incomes in the United States.Highest-income counties in the United States#Counties with populations 65,000-250,000 It is one of the older counties in Maryland, after St. Mary's, Kent, and Anne Arundel counties. The county is part of the Southern Maryland region of the state.
History Early history In 1608, Captain John Smith was the first European to sail past what is now Calvert County while exploring the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. On his map, he accurately represented the Patuxent River, as well as several Native-American villages. The area was described as wooded and had been occupied by the Patuxent people, who were overall peaceful to the early Europeans. Their diet was composed of fish from the river and corn cultivated in man-made clearings with a supplement of game from the forests. These clearings were very desirable, and conflict occurred when the settlers attempted to seize these areas from the Native Americans. Leonard Calvert, the first governor of Maryland, organized troops of armed men in 1639 to protect the settlers.Stein Charles Francis. 1977-1976. A History of Calvert County Maryland. 3d ed. Baltimore Md: Published by the author in cooperation with the Calvert County Historical Society
The first written mention of European settlers on the northern shore of the Patuxent River is found in the records of the Maryland Assembly in 1642. A Henry Bishop "stood up in the Assembly and exhibited himself as a Burgess of St. Leonard's and pleaded that it be acknowledged as a Hundred" near St. Leonard's Creek. This shows that European settlement along the river and its tributaries had been taking place for several years already.
By 1646, the colonists had spread all along the Patuxent River and along the bay side of Calvert County. Most of the transportation of goods and people took place on the water, as the land was occupied by dense forests. Large creeks were navigated by sailing boats, and plantations used their wharves to ship goods. Ferry services were set up to cross the river and the bay, with rates fixed by law.
Creation of Charles County The county was originally named Charles County (much larger and unrelated to the present-day Charles County)Arnett, pp 92, discusses role of Robert Brooke, Sr. in 1650 when Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore established it with Robert Brooke as its "commander". It was named after Charles I of England. At the time, the new county included the current area of Calvert County, as well as the southern and western shores of the Patuxent River up to its headwaters. The county seat was called Calverton (sometimes called Battle Town) and was located on the north shore at the mouth of Battle Creek until 1725.African-Americans in Calvert County - A Brief History https://www.calvertcountymd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6107/African-American-History?bidId= In 1658, the county was renamed Calvert County.Maryland Online Encyclopedia Calvert County It also included all of Prince George's County and parts of Montgomery County.
Puritans coming from Virginia had settled in Anne Arundel County and overflowed into Calvert County. All new settlers in Maryland were required to take an oath of allegiance to Lord Baltimore per the "Conditions of Plantation". This was a major point of tension between the Puritan settlers and Lord Baltimore. The civil war was ongoing in Britain, where the Puritans had gained control. Oliver Cromwell dismissed Parliament there and assumed the role of Lord Protector. In 1652, he sent a force of 750 men to subdue the plantations of the Chesapeake Bay under the new government. Virginia and Maryland surrendered to the Puritans and Robert Brooke cooperated with the Puritans.
On July 3, 1654, Lord Baltimore abolished Charles County and removed all authority from Brooke. He re-established the county as Calvert County with the same territory, but the Puritan Assembly was in power and changed the name to Patuxent County on October 20, 1654, after the Patuxent River and to remove any connection with the Calvert family. The county kept this name under the Puritan regime until 1658, when the name of Calvert County was restored.
According to the local "Trail of Souls Project", in 1860, 4,609 enslaved people and 1,841 free people of color lived there, with a total county population around 10,000 people.Trail of Souls at Middleham and St. Peters: Uncovering the History of Slavery in Southern Calvert County http://ccd7fae51be7d3e9b11f-7a238febfb6dc77c392de145b8e7a053.r7.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/t/0e4716290_1449286479_trail-of-souls-full-story.pdf#page=5
Once made up primarily of farms and tobacco fields, the county's agriculture transformed in the mid-1990s. The prices for tobacco were declining. The State of Maryland instituted a tobacco buyout program, which offered farmers to transition to different crops and away from tobacco; 195 contracts were signed between Calvert County farmers and property owners and the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission. The funds were used for infrastructure and equipment upgrades. Today, the county produces fruits, vegetables, and meat, as well as other crops.Calvert County Agriculture - https://www.calvertag.com/3153/Agriculture
The county has become a fast-growing exurban neighbor of Washington, D.C. Many home prices have nearly quadrupled in the past decade, with many four-bedroom homes in the northern half of the county costing over $1,000,000. The popular weekend resort towns of Solomons, Chesapeake Beach, and North Beach are notable.
The county has numerous properties on the National Register of Historic Places.
Politics and government County government Calvert County is governed by a board composed of five elected county commissioners, the traditional form of county government in Maryland. They meet in Prince Frederick, the county seat.Calvert County website - Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) https://www.calvertcountymd.gov/137/Board-of-County-Commissioners-BOCC
+Board of County Commissioners Position Name Affiliation District President Earl "Buddy" Hance Republican At-large Vice PresidentMike Hart Republican 1 Commissioner Catherine Grasso Republican 3 Commissioner Todd Ireland Republican At-large Commissioner Mark Cox Republican 2
Emergency services Calvert County fire, rescue, and EMS stations include:
Co. 1 - North Beach Volunteer Fire Department Co. 2 - Prince Frederick Volunteer Fire Department Co. 3 - Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department Co. 4 - Prince Frederick Volunteer Rescue Squad Co.5 - Dunkirk Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad Co. 6 - Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad Co. 7 - St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad Co. 10 - Calvert Advanced Life Support Co. 12 - Calvert Rescue Dive Team
Until 2018, Calvert County was the only county in Maryland that still had a 100% all-volunteer fire, rescue, and EMS service. On January 20, 2018, the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners approved a phased-in approach of hiring paramedics, starting in fiscal year 2019.
The county also maintains a sheriff's office. The Calvert County Sheriff's Office was established in 1654, and is the primary law enforcement agency for Calvert County. The current sheriff is Ricky Cox. The agency is supported by the Maryland State Police and Maryland Natural Resources Police.
National politics
In the early 19th century, in the contests between the Hamiltonian Federalist and Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican parties of the First Party System, it backed the Federalists four out of seven times, only going for the Democratic-Republicans in their greatest landslides of 1804 and 1816, as well as the 1820 election in which President James Monroe ran effectively unopposed.
In the 1824 election, which began the second party system, the people of Calvert County voted for John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, who went on to help found the Democratic Party before the 1828 election. Until the Civil War, Calvert County voted only for the candidates of the Whig Party, the Democrat's primary opposition. After that party's dissolution in the early 1850s, it supported the Nativist Know-Nothing party in 1856 and the largely Whiggish Constitutional Union party in 1860.
In the Civil War election of 1864, Calvert swung sharply along with the rest of southern Maryland to give over 90% of the vote to Democratic challenger George McClellan, and again to the Democratic standard-bearer Horatio Seymour four years later. The brief Democratic era was likely due to strong Confederate sympathy in southern Maryland.
In presidential elections, Calvert County has historically and at present leaned strongly towards the Republican Party. It was won by that party in every election from 1884 to 1936 – with the sequence broken in 1940 due to local support for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's efforts at helping Britain in World War IIMenendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, pp. 67–68 – and in modern times, no Democratic presidential nominee has won Calvert County since Jimmy Carter did so in 1976.
Since then, Calvert County has remained mostly aligned with the Republican Party. It briefly turned in favor of the Democrats in the dealigned 1960s and 70s, after which it became a Republican stronghold in the 1980s. In modern elections, it leans Republican though Democrats have gained votes. President Joe Biden came only 5% from winning the county in 2020, the closest any Democrat has come since Jimmy Carter carried it in 1976.
It is part of the 5th Congressional District, along with much of southern Maryland. The current representative is Democratic former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Voter registration and party enrollment as of March 2024 Republican Democratic Unaffiliated Libertarian Other parties Total
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which , or 38%, are covered by water. It is the smallest county in Maryland by land area and third-smallest by total area. The county also includes five islands: Solomons Island, Broomes Island, Buzzard Island, Hog Island, and Molly's Leg.
The county's coast along the Chesapeake Bay is a long, relatively smooth bight, a feature that is unique in the Chesapeake Bay.
Geology A geological formation spanning across Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware is named after the county, the Calvert Formation. It is visible within the Calvert Cliffs State Park, where it is exposed in cliffs. Located on the western shore of the county, the Calvert Cliffs are famous for their fossil deposits and are a popular collecting location of marine vertebrates, shark teeth, and birds, as well as freshwater and marine turtles and tortoises. Some crocodile teeth have also been found, which indicates that they may have been nesting in the sands at the time the formation was created.Calvert Cliffs Fossils - Maryland Geological Survey http://www.mgs.md.gov/geology/fossils/calvert_cliffs_fs.html