Cannon - From Shady Side's Rural Home Hotel

A War of 1812 cannon stood on the grounds of Shady Side's Rural Home Hotel for seven decades, during the period when visitors came to Shady Side for summer stays on the Chesapeake. In the 1890s, James Nowell found the cannon in a surface well near Fairhaven while working for Maryland's Oyster Navy and gave it to his brother Robert, who set it prominently on the lawn of his home and boarding house. After the family sold the hotel in 1967, the cannon was moved to the home of Howard and Glorious Shenton, where it remained until 2005. The cannon became part of village life, inspiring pranks and holiday celebrations. Flora "Miss Ethel" Andrews, Robert Nowell's daughter and hotel proprietor from 1932 to 1967, recalled her father and two brothers loading it with powder and firing it so that the blast echoed through the village to announce Christmas. Youngsters were said to fire croquet balls from it and tip it from its carriage at Halloween. In time, when the Nowells tried to fire it during one holiday, they found the bung hole plugged with a leaden file, and the cannon fell silent.

Shady Side, Maryland · United States