The Captain Salem Avery House reflects the history of Shady Side and the Chesapeake Bay region. In the mid-19th century, Captain Salem Avery came from New York to Shady Side to work as a waterman after over-dredging had exhausted Northern oyster beds, part of a larger movement of mariners drawn to the Chesapeake by its abundant oysters. He married Lucretia Weedon of Mayo, and in 1860 they built their home in "The Great Swamp," where they raised seven children. At the height of Chesapeake oystering, Avery worked as a buy boat captain, purchasing oysters from local tongers and taking them to market in Baltimore. He died in 1887, and his son Andrew and Andrew's wife Augusta remained in the home until 1921. After the house was acquired by the National Masonic Fishing and Country Club, the original one-story kitchen was removed and replaced with a large addition containing an assembly hall and eight private homes, while the old house was divided into boys' and girls' dormitories. In 1920 a group of Masons, mostly Jewish, from Washington, D.C. came together to establish a fishing club, seeking a place of their own on the water at a time when American Jews were denied access to many beach communities, and in 1923 they purchased the Avery house. Led by the sons of Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, a changing circle of extended families spent the next 65 years enjoying summer weekends there, with fishing, porch visits, children playing on the lawn or swimming from the pier, and, after 1957, an outdoor pool serving as a center of summer activity.