The Governor Smith House Historical Mansion in Picturesque Town
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Twenty minutes south of Salisbury and thirty-five minutes south-west of Ocean City, Maryland lies the small historic town of Snow Hill . It is located on the Pocomoke River, the deepest river for its width, east of the Mississippi. One of Maryland's designated scenic rivers, it is tree-lined with Cypress swamps and is the habitat for the Gar, a long-snouted pre-historic fish. The river's primeval aspects are reminiscent of another age.
The picturesque town of Snow Hill, Maryland is believed to be named after a section of London located just outside the old city walls in England. On a wall of the historic All Hallows Church in London, there is a distinguished plaque commemorating a trip to the Chesapeake by Captain John Smith, of Pocahontas fame, sponsored by the local parishioners and merchants of the time. There also exists an All Hallows Church in Snow Hill, Maryland founded in 1692. This leads many to believe that Captain John Smith may have honored his sponsoring community in England and been responsible for naming the site on the Pocomoke River in the New World, Snow Hill.
Snow Hill was settled in 1642, chartered in 1686, and declared a Royal Port in 1694. The port was served initially by schooners, then by steamboats carrying passengers, goods and, for a time, bog iron to the Western Shore. The town today functions as the Worcester County Seat.
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the town is the significant number of historic homes, over one hundred, of which the majority were built prior to 1877. This galaxy of impressive historic homes includes the grandest and most unique gem of them all. The John Walter Smith Mansion built in Snow Hill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
John Walter Smith was both a prominent local businessman and a successful politician. He owned at least a dozen local area farms, held large shares in two lumber companies and was the original President of the First National Bank in Snow Hill. He served in the Maryland State Senate from 1889-1897, in the United States House of Representatives in 1898, and then as Governor of Maryland from 1901-1904.
The future Maryland Governor began construction of the mansion in 1889, making elaborate preparations to the prominent site he had selected to build his home on. He directed that several tons of dirt be moved from a nearby hill, to cover the wagonloads of oyster shells that he brought into Snow Hill by barge, to raise the house's elevation to the point where it actually sat on a hill overlooking the surrounding area.
A quote in the June 19, 1889 issue of the Pocomoke City newspaper, The Record Gazette read: "The foundation for the palatial residence of Colonel J. Walter Smith is now being laid. The House when completed will undoubtedly be the handsomest residence on the Eastern Shore".
Smith chose to build a Queen Anne styled Victorian House. Designed by the noted Baltimore Architect, Jackson C. Gott, the three story, asymmetric structure is distinguished by towers, gables, dormers, second floor porch, slate roof, and a thirty-four column Tuscan-style wrap around porch on the first level. There are over twenty spacious rooms in the 10,000 square foot structure, which according to Paul Baker of Touart, represents "the highest level of household improvement and domestic comfort in the late nineteenth century".
Today, the grand mansion retains its original splendor. The private residence has been painstakingly restored to its original glorious luster by current owners Mr. And Mrs. Raymond A. Warren. Stained glass double doors, fabricated of oak, accent the main entrance to the historic Smith house. There is no escaping the grandeur of the entry hall. Dual crystal chandeliers, paneled oak wainscoting, and fireplace to warm the coldest of hearts, encase the 15'x 34' room space.
The reception room's hand-painted rose-laced ceiling has been meticulously restored and the original Heart of Pine wooden floors glisten in the morning light. The formal dining area boasts the original, hand-crafted dining room furniture imported from England. Stained glass windows, depicting various nature scenes, enhance the dining experience by creating a gem-like ambience. Accorded a sizable budget, these one-of-a-kind original stain glass windows were undoubtedly produced by the best craftsman available in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
The mansion, referred to locally as the "House of Windows", due to its numerous windows, enable this Victorian design to be unusually bright. There are eleven fireplaces, seven of which were crafted with mantels and overmantles with mirrors framed in either oak or cherry. The firebox inserts retain their original geometric and figurative designs accented by decorative tiles on the facade of the hearths.
The graceful mansion sits on a one-acre, richly landscaped lot with a wide variety of trees, shrubs and ground cover. The trees include a giant sycamore, very large magnolias, spruce, sequoia, weeping cherry, dogwood, oak, fig, pine, and crytomeria. The dramatic grounds include a diverse array of shrubs, including camellia, rhododendron, boxwood, holly, english wood hyacinth, violets, azalea, and money plants.
This estate truly provides grand living from an earlier era in a quaint historic town setting. Snow Hill's location is ideal for jaunts over to Assateague Island, Chincoteaque Bay, Ocean City and Salisbury. Not to mention access to two of North America's most unique wilderness areas, exquisite golf courses, world-class recreational activities and, of course, the ever-flowing Pocomoke River. It is difficult to conceive of life getting much better than this.
In her book, Historic Inns & Famous Homes of Maryland, Donna Goldsmith Day summed up her treatment of the house in this way, "This is a storybook kind of home, the kind of house of happy days and wondrous dreams". Come experience the storybook dream in Snow Hill.
