Warm weather and time in a boat on the water equal a perfect Southern Maryland day. Visitors to St. Clement’s Island Museum in Colton’s Point on weekends during the summer months can experience just that with a boat ride from the museum to its namesake island where Maryland was founded in 1634.

But there’s also an opportunity for volunteers that incorporates the same experience and so much more. The main attraction on St. Clement’s Island is the reconstructed Blackistone Lighthouse. St. Clement’s Hundred, a volunteer organization, is in charge of conducting the lighthouse tours. Volunteers take that same boat. But they also have the opportunity to lounge on the lighthouse porch between tours, soak in the view downriver and imagine what it might have been like on March 24, 1634 with the ships the Ark and Dove sailing towards you with Maryland’s first settlers on board.

Recently current and prospective volunteers assembled at the St. Peter’s conference room of the Dorsey Law Firm in Leonardtown for an orientation of the upcoming season. They also were treated to a lecture from historian Pete Himmelheber about the original carving up of the colony into “hundreds’ which were plots of land large enough to sustain a family and their workers.

St. Clement’s Hundred, the organizations namesake, was established in 1639, the second behind St. Mary’s Hundred. The configuration of St. Clement’s Hundred changed over time and included most of the southwest portion of the county. It encompassed the current Seventh District, home of the museum and the island.

For the first time at the event a Volunteer of the Year Award was handed out. This year’s recipient was Ed Hogan, a new, enthusiastic volunteer last year. The award was present by St. Clement’s Hundred President Beverly Bailey Wood.

Wood also announced the inaugural scholarships for student volunteers of the organization. They are called the Dr. John and Mary Zearfoss Public Service Scholarship, named after the donors.

Also speaking at the orientation were St. Mary’s County Museum Division Director Debra Pence. She said the operation of lighthouse was made possible by a unique partnership between the state (which owns the island) the county (which owns the museum) and the non-profit organization (which operates the lighthouse).

 

St. Clement’s Hundred board member Tony “Joe” St. Clair told the volunteers, “Most of all we want you to have fun. There is no such thing as a mistake.”

The organization, through a massive volunteer effort, reconstructed the lighthouse which burned down in 1956 after standing on the island as a beacon for navigators of the river since 1851. The replica was opened in 2008.

The lighthouse museum tells the story of Josephine McWilliams Freeman, who was lighthouse keeper from 1875 to 1912. Her granddaughter Mary Josephine Mattingly’s donation of $5,000 provided the seed money for the lighthouse’s replica to be built.

St. Clement’s Hundred was originally formed for 100 donors to give $100 each for the upkeep of the island. By the time it was stabilized by the state it had shrunk for its original 400 acres down to 40 acres. .

Anyone interested in finding out more about the volunteer opportunities with St. Clements Hundred can contact Wood at 301-481-4335.

For more information about the lighthouse visit the website: http://www.lighthousefrien