Other names: Dupont Hunting Lodge
Horn Point is located nearly due south of Chlora Point, on the south bank of the Choptank in Dorchester County, at the end of Horn Point Road off Maryland Route 343, about nine miles west of Cambridge.
Charles Goldsbrough, Maryland Congressman and later governor of Maryland, occupied a farm at Horn Point (see also Shoal Creek and Sharps Island). During the War of 1812 he reported the following incident:
…by and by arrival at Cambridge of 15 or 20 shallops, or bay craft, as we call them, seeking refuge in our river from the British fleet, which was advancing up the bay…On the 13th the fleet got as far up the bay as the mouth of our river, and on the afternoon of the 14th,…three of their vessels, viz. a 16 Gun Brig. one very large and one small schooner, advanced up Choptank and on Thursday morning at 7 o’clock they were about two miles from Cambridge, directly opposite my farm at Horn’s point, where they came to anchor. They remained in that reach of the river, as space of two or three miles, during Thursday and Friday, molested no one, made no attempt to land, never fired a gun, altho they saw the Banks of the river lined with militia, permitted Captn. R.H. Goldsborough, and some of his troop and other officers to dine undisturbed in the house of Major Danl. Martin, directly on the river side, and within half a mile of the Brig, and on Friday ev.g about sun-set got under way, and stood down the River, to the great Joy and relief of us all (Charles Goldsborough, April 2, 1813).
Here was located the hunting preserve and lodge called the Moors built by U.S. Senator Coleman Du Pont (1863-1930). DuPont used the original house which dates from circa 1750 as a part time residence. That house burnt in 1948. The present house was built to replace it. The property is now home to the Horn Point Environmental Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies.
The Dorchester Heritage Museum is located in the former airport hanger of the DuPont hunting preserve. It is a “hands on” museum directed toward “young people” giving the visitor a “slice of life in Dorchester County.” Open weekends mid April through October or by appointment.
Side Bar: On the entrance gateposts to the former Du Pont estate at Horn Point are concrete casts of a sheep breed called Merinos which were first brought to America from Spain by the original American Du Pont ancestor, E.I. Du Pont. A ram named Don Pedro, greatly valued by its owner, was carved in wood from which concrete castings were installed at the entrance to a Wilmington, Delaware, park before being taken to Horn Point. This is a cast of one of these castings.
(Choptank River Cultural Resources Inventory, 1999-2002)