Cambridge, Maryland

Cambridge born-and-bred James Wallace was trained in the law and member of the Maryland house of delegates  in the 1850s. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he helped raise the First Maryland Volunteers (Eastern Shore) in August 1861 and took command as its colonel. The unit was intended to protect Union interests on the Eastern shore and elsewhere in Maryland but in July 1863, the First found itself at Gettysburg fighting on the third day of the battle around Culp’s Hill. In the regiment’s only day of pitched battle during its entire service, and with Wallace in command, it met and mauled the First Maryland Regiment of the Confederate States Army that contained many of their friends and neighbors from coastal Maryland. The regiment, and its colonel, ended its enlistment and mustered out two days before Christmas in 1863.

By the late 1800s Colonel James Wallace began packing oysters. He was the first to start raw shucking and steam packing of oysters in Cambridge, building, with his son, a nationally known business. The Wallace family mansion stood here on heights known as “The Hill.” The property was acquired in 1838 and remained in the family for 70 years. The City purchased the mansion in 1940 and eventually razed it for office space and the Rescue Fire Company. The Colonial Revival building was erected in 1949, dominated by a three-tier tower.The first tier is made of brick with stone quoins embellishing the corners. There is a balustrade with turned spindles around the upper edge of this tier. The second tier is also wooden with a spindle-turned balustrade. Above this is an octagonally-shaped tier with tall, narrow arched openings.