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Chanceford Hall is a 1759 manor house furnished with antiques and books, and surrounded by lush gardens. Guests are greeted on arrival with wine and hors d’oeuvres. (209 W. Federal St., tel. 410-632-2900, www.chancefordhall.com, $$$)

Pet-friendly: The River House Inn offers lodgings in the 1860 Victorian country home, as well as two cottages, and a “little house” river hide-away. Dogs welcome with a charge of $10 per day, per pet. (201 E. Market Street, tel. 410-632-2722, www.riverhouseinn.com, $$$)

Information

Town of Snow Hill, tel. 410-632-2080, www.snowhillmd.com.

Worcester County Tourism, 113 Franklin Street, Unit 1, Snow Hill, tel. 800-852-0335 or 410-632-3110, www.visitworcester.org.

Event

The Blessing of the Combines and street fair is held the first Saturday in August along Green Street. (tel. 410-632-1334)

Trip Journal: Furnace Town

About five miles northwest of Snow Hill on Route 12 is a town where no one but a caretaker lives, but where the craft and industry of the 19th century are alive and well. The Furnace Town living heritage museum is on the site of a town that once was, where 300 people lived and worked for a brief 20 years. It was a town of laborers and craftsmen, built up around the towering brick Nassawango Iron Furnace, built in 1830 to smelt iron from ore dug up from the Maryland bogs. The furnace is the only remaining original structure left. When the Maryland Iron Company went bankrupt in 1850, most of the residents left and the frame buildings rotted and fell to ruin.

Furnace Town Foundation has relocated more than a dozen 19th-century buildings, roughly similar to the originals, and hired people to carry on the 19th-century skills that made life in a small town possible. Artisans work on site daily in the quaint buildings – broom makers, printers, weavers, gardeners – and they in turn pass down the skills to the younger generations. The youngest volunteers are only 14 years old.

Sixteen-year-old Stephen Lynch goes back and forth between the neighboring print shop and broom-making house, demonstrating the skills he learned here as a volunteer, and now a staff member. While we watched, he made us a “cat-teaser,” a miniature broom-like toy for kitties. In the garden, a young girl is tending examples of what would have been grown to sustain the 19th-century village: vegetables, and cooking and medicinal herbs. There’s also a company store, carpenter and blacksmith shops, and a smokehouse. At least two to four artisans are at work from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm on days the museum is open, and their handiwork is sold in the visitor center.

The ruins and foundations of the original structures, and a small museum in the Old Nazareth Church building tells the story of the town, from how they located bog ore (a blue, oily substance floating on swamp water), to the manufacture of iron tools and all kinds of other handy implements.

Furnace Town is in the middle of tranquil Pocomoke State Forest. The museum’s land is shared with the Nature Conservancy, which maintains a couple of hiking trails that leave from the parking lot. It is open daily, April-October, 11 am-5 pm. Admission is $4 for adults, $3.50 for seniors, and $2 for children ages two-18. (tel. 410-632-2032, www.furnacetown.com)

Event

The Chesapeake Celtic Festival is held at Furnace Town the first weekend in October. (www.celticfest.net)

Central Maryland

From hip Ellicott City, which is a stone’s throw from Baltimore, to Emmitsburg, the revered home of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton shrine, it’s difficult to generalize about Central Maryland. Urban sprawl from Baltimore and DC certainly influence the once small towns near those cities, but mere minutes north are rolling farmlands and downright sleepy small towns.

Getting Here

The east coast’s main transportation corridor, I-95, traverses the region, while interstates 83, 70, 295 and 97 spoke off from Baltimore in all directions.

Baltimore/Washington International Airport/BWIA (tel. 410-859-7111, www.bwiairport.com) serves Central