You are standing in front of a graphic panel titled “SERC’s Campus and the Surrounding Area: 1776 to 1865.” To your left is a reader rail titled “Window on the Past: Agricultural Boom.” To your right is a graphic panel titled “House History: 1841 House.” Behind you is an artifact case.

The panel in front of you includes text, two maps, and six images.

The larger of the two maps shows an aerial view of SERC’s campus and the surrounding area with markers showing the locations of seven historic sites. The aerial view shows grassy and forested areas and the Rhode River.

A smaller area map shows the location of SERC’s campus in relation to the Chesapeake Bay, London Town, Galesville, Annapolis, Washington, DC, and Baltimore.

The seven sites listed are:

1. YOU ARE HERE
Woodlawn House Addition (1841)
Alfred Sellman and his family enlarged the house in 1841. The accompanying photo shows the front of Woodlawn’s 1841 addition.

2. Slave Quarters (1860 or earlier)
According to oral history, this house originally served as slave quarters. Starting in 1905, it was occupied by the Asher family, who managed the Kirkpatrick-Howats’ farm. The accompanying photo shows a small wooden house with a red roof.

3. Java Mansion (1820)
In 1820, Lieutenant John Contee purchased the Squirrel Neck plantation and renamed it “Java” to commemorate a naval battle in which he fought. The accompanying black-and-white drawing shows the house in the background with a person working in the tobacco field in the foreground.

4. Contees Wharf
Ships docked at Contees Wharf to pick up tobacco and other agricultural products and deliver manufactured goods. The accompanying black-and-white drawing shows a steamboat arriving at a dock.

5. Chews Memorial United Methodist Church (original church ca. 1840s)
This historic African American congregation continues to serve the community today in a new location. The current church was built in 1947. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows a simple white church building with a dark roof.

6. Etowah Farm (ca. 1824)
Members of the Sellman family lived in this house in the early 1900s. It was built in a similar style to Woodlawn’s 1841 addition. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows a two-story brick house with an attached light-colored wing on the right.

7. Clifton
John Henry Sellman II, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, lived at this farm near Davidsonville (now called Willow Lake Farm).