Poplar Hill Mansion voted 2024 Best Museum in Wicomico County!!!!
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OUR MISSION
Using its historic site and collections, Poplar Hill Mansion Museum is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of historic objects, buildings and landscapes, which tell the story of the people who lived and labored at Poplar Hill throughout the 19th Century, in order to foster a commitment to preserving local heritage, inspire an appreciation for the broader historical narrative, and reach diverse communities through inclusive, accessible, educational, and innovative exhibits and programming.
Poplar Hill Mansion is an historic house museum located near beautiful historic Downtown Salisbury, Maryland, built as the manor house of a farm outside the small eighteenth century town of Salisbury, which had slowly expanded since 1732 from a port landing site at the head of the Wicomico River, more than a half mile away. The museum interprets the Federal Period in American history, through the lives of the individuals who lived in the 1805 manor house. Those people include: Dr. John Huston, Salisbury’s first surgeon, who had his medical practice in the home making Poplar Hill Mansion Salisbury’s first hospital; Dr. Huston’s wife, Sarah, and his four daughters; and the enslaved people of Poplar Hill including Levin Huston and Solomon Huston among sixteen others. See furnishings of the early 1800s, learn about medicine of the time period, and see the exhibits about life in the period of the nation’s early history.
PEMBERTON’S GOOD WILL
In 1795, Major Levin Handy took out a deed for 357 acres of the original 700 acre land patent called “Pembertons Good Will.” The house Handy began in 1795-96 was an ambitious Federal-style structure, outdistancing most buildings in the area in size and fine detail. When Handy died, the unfinished house was eventually sold to Dr. John Huston, Salisbury’s first surgeon, who moved in with his family and completed the home by 1805. Dr. Huston lived in the house until his death in 1828. It is the Huston Period of the home, we interpret today. The house did not acquire the nickname of Poplar Hill Mansion until the mid-1800s when the neighborhood of Newtown was constructed. The original drive of the house was lined with Lombardy Poplar trees and residents referred to the property as the Farm on Poplar Hill. After the farmland was all but gone, the house remained as one of the largest in the neighborhood and the name Poplar Hill Mansion was soon used to describe the house.
Poplar Hill Mansion
117 Elizabeth St.
Salisbury, MD 21801
410-749-1776
curator@poplarhillmansion.org