The James E. Kirwan Museum

The Kirwan House, built in 1879, was the home of former Maryland State Senator James E. Kirwan, who served from 1900 to 1908. The attached store, built in 1889, and his various business endeavors became the hub of the Chester and Dominion communities and served as a conduit for lumber and coal unloaded from boats at his wharf on Kirwan's Creek and delivered throughout Kent Island. In 1917, Kirwan earned the title "The Grand Old Man of Kent Island" when he and several prominent local leaders successfully led about 500 Eastern Shore delegates to Washington to protest the U.S. War Department's proposal to locate an armament testing site on Kent Island. In 1994, his granddaughter, Mary Catherine Kirwan, bequeathed the home, store, and farm to the Kent Island Heritage Society, Inc.

Maryland · United States