Chestertown, Maryland

One of the most important acts in establishing a port of Chestertown in 1706 was the provision for a court house. The earliest known plat of the town shows the 18th-century, apsidal-ended court house in the center of a large area of public ground with Emmanuel Church in one corner and the cemetery or church yard using much of the rest. A small jail stood behind the court house, the latter being of about the same size as the church in the late eighteenth century. The front section of the present Kent County court house was built in 1860, using a T-shaped plan whose main axis faces High Street. This, the oldest surviving part, is in essentially Italianate style, solidly built of hard, dark brick, with typically low roof, wide eaves, and elongated brackets along the cornice and on the doorframe. With the cemetery gone and the need for interior space pressing, a Colonial Revival addition was attached to the rear, with access from Cross Street, in 1969.