Berlin’s main street follows the old Philadelphia post road, a principal stage route and land transportation corridor during the 18th and 19th centuries, and tradition holds that the town’s name came from a contraction of the Burley Inn that served early travelers. Its main street forms one of the best preserved late 19th century commercial districts, with essentially complete Victorian streetscapes in the downtown, and the district’s uniform architectural character resulted from its complete destruction by fire in 1895 and rebuilding in brick, leaving it much as it appeared more than 100 years ago. Snow Hill, named for a suburb in London, was settled in the 1670s as a port for ocean-going vessels, developed farming alongside its seaport, and became the Worcester County seat in 1742 when the county was formed. Schooners gave way to steamboats and then to the railroad, and more than 100 homes there predate 1875 along tree-shaded, brick-lined walks, with notable Victorian and colonial architecture. Furnace Town Historic Site preserves a former company town where between 1830 and 1850 a population of 300 made iron from bog iron ore, shells, and charcoal, centered on the Nassawango Iron Furnace and a restored village with a blacksmith shop, broom house, print shop, woodworker’s shop, weaver’s house, gardens, museum, and visitor center, along with nature trails, picnic areas, and educational activities and events. The Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum, built in 1891, served both the U.S. Life-Saving Service and U.S. Coast Guard, presents Ocean City’s history from a quaint fishing village to a large resort, and features unusual objects from shipwrecks, an exhibit on the Life-Saving Service on the Eastern Shore, aquariums, dolls’ houses, mermaids, and old-fashioned bathing suits.