High Street Chestertown Dock, Chestertown, Maryland
Located at the bottom of High Street in Historic Downtown Chestertown is the High Street Dock. This is where town outdoor events such as the Chestertown Tea Party Festival and Downrigging Weekend occur.
The Chestertown Tea Party Festival celebrates the events that led to the Revolutionary War, and most particularly the British Parliament's closing of the port of Boston, which led to the Boston Tea Party. Chestertown also joined in support of Boston and set forth “Resolves” forbidding importing, selling, or consuming tea in Chestertown, and according to local legend, residents then gathered at the town center, marched down High Street to the brigantine Geddes, which was anchored in the Chester River, and tossed her cargo of tea overboard. This event is reenacted every year on a Saturday in May in period costume at what is now called the Chestertown Tea Party Festival. This free event has many activities including a 10 Mile Run and 5k Run/Walk, outdoor booths with many handcrafted goods and food to eat for sale, as well as street performances, and much more. On Sunday the Festival moves to Wilmer Park featuring local craft brews, live music, artisan craft vendors, children’s activities and the infamous Raft Race!
The Downrigging Weekend features the schooner Sultana, which is a reproduction of a Boston-built merchant vessel that served for four years as the smallest schooner ever commissioned in the British Royal Navy. The modern reproduction, launched in 2001, sails as a school ship, taking students for hands-on programs in environmental science and history. The Downrigging Weekend's celebrates the end of the Sultana's sailing season. as downrigging refers to the process of taking down much of the rigging on a tall ship in the fall to prepare it for maintenance for the off-season. The Downrigging Weekend has evolved into one of the largest annual Tall Ship gatherings in North America and gives visitors the opportunity not only to see and explore these ships but to venture out on the water during scheduled sails. In addition to the ships, the festival also includes world-class musical performances, dynamite food from local restaurants, and the chance to try local spirits.
During the year, the Sultana docks at the Chestertown dock, and you can view it from the pier. Also stationed there is the Echo Hill Outdoor School's boats, which includes the skipjack Elsworth (110 years old), the work boat Twilight (100 years old), the workboat Spirit (67 years), the buy boat Annie D. (54 years), and the Chester River bateau Ric (39 years), which, if docked, you can also see. It makes for a pleasant afternoon's visit.
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