Welcome to a Wedding Venue, Tours, Free Events, & History

PO Box 194, Mardela Springs, MD 21837, US

Westside Historical Society

Welcome to a Wedding Venue, Tours, Free Events, & History

Family History workshop

Family History Workshop – A hands-on workshop on how to find your ancestors and create your family history. Four classes, 18 hours of instruction and hand-on research, with supplementary visits to public libraries. Workbook included, & full use of WHS Research Library. Workshop begins in late February, extends through May; There is a registration fee. Register online - form below, or contact WHS for more information & instruction on mail-in registration.

Register Here

Family History workshop

saving our traditions

Saving Our Traditions programs recall and demonstrate bits of life on Delmarva from days past. A class, How to weave a woven wood splint Basket will be held in June; In July watch a re-creation of a genuine 1800s Vintage Baseball game at Pemberton Historical Park; and a workshop making natural Greenery Wreaths like those once made on Delmarva will be held in early December. Dates, with registration instruction and fees, will be posted soon .

RESERVATIONS NOT REQUIRED FOR BASEBALL GAME OR WREATH MAKING

RESERVE YOUR PLACE IN BASKET WEAVING CLASS

reeserve

Music,Mirth,& Mystery

Music,Mirth,& Mystery -Four programs will be held at Barren Creek

Church in the afternoon of the 4th Sunday in May,July,October,& November. Each program will feature an informal concert of organ music, guided walking tour of the historic graveyard, the Mason-Dixon Stone, and Mineral Water Spring House, and an informal talk about some special facet of life in the 19th century town. Programs are free, but donations will be appreciated.

RESERVATIONS NOT REQUIRED, BUT EARLY SIGN-UP HELPS US ENSURE WE HAVE ENOUGH GUIDES AND REFRESHMENTS

Hometown Heroes Banner Program

Home-town Heroes Banner Program – Every spring WHS hangs

banners on light poles lining the streets of Mardela Springs, each bearing photos and relevant military information of local heroes and heroines who have served in the U.S. military. Families of veterans pay the fee for creation of the banners and WHS maintains them for at least 3 years. Just our way of expressing our pride and saying thank you! For more information contact us by email, phone, or U.S. mail.

COMPLETE APPLICATION HERE FOR PURCHASE OF BANNER

COMING SOON

Find out more

Take a tour of the Victorian Village of Barren Creek Sp

Take a tour of the Victorian Village of Barren Creek Springs Begin with And the Church and Spring House, then Museum

Visit Barren Creek Heritage Museum -- 10 rooms of exhibits interpreting the rich heritage of not only the town of Barren Creek Springs (now known as Mardela Springs!), but of the “west side” of what is now Wicomico County, an area with 400 years of history. English settlers came here only a few years after the founding of Jamestown [Va]. The Nanticoke River, binding the area on the west, is part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the only water trail complex in the nation.

We will be open the 4th Sunday, April through September, from 2 to 5pm. Admission is $5 for families/groups of 4 or more (children under 12 free). Group tours are welcome for pre-arranged tours ! Call or email for information and reservations!

TO SIGN UP FOR GUIDED TOUR OF Barren Creek Springs Village

Church, Spring House, & Museum

the spring house

The Spring House has an interactive interpretive panel that can be accessed all year round. Near the entrance to the restored Barren Creek Springs Presbyterian Church is the historic Spring House, donated to Westside Historical Society, in 2002. The spring house was on the property of the original Barren Creek Springs Hotel, a haven for travelers from the 1770's until it burned in 1913. From the 1830's through the early 1900's the spring was an especially popular feature among hotel patrons who came from the upper Eastern Shore, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Norfolk to take the health-giving waters. About 1860 a wooden octagonal structure, twelve feet across, ornamented with Victorian gingerbread at the eaves and around the base was built. It had a brick floor and benches around the inside low walls. An artesian well was dug in the center of the spring house to tap into the spring, and a runoff pipe fed a small cistern. Visitors could sit in the Victorian structure and soak their feet and drink from the constantly running spring.

Westside Historical Society