Aside from a chartered yacht, there’s no better place from which to appreciate the blue sweep of the Chesapeake than the Wades Point Inn. Halfway between St. Michael’s and Tilghman Island, this rambling bed-and-breakfast on 120 acres is surrounded on three sides by the bay.
The oldest section of the inn was built in 1819 by shipwright Thomas Kemp, whose sleek Baltimore clippers were credited with winning the War of 1812. On the land side, this glowing white Georgian house has porches on two floors and chimneys at either end; an observation nook attached to one chimney was Thomas Kemp’s lookout and is reached through a trapdoor in one of three rooms in the old portion of the house.
In 1890 Kemp built an addition to the house on the bay side and opened the place as an inn. The present owners, Betsy and John Feiler, call this addition the Bay Room and have put it to use as a common area; it’s large enough to hold a cotillion and is lined with windows and furnished with white wicker. Above the Bay Room is the Summer Wing, which holds six small chambers. These aren’t air-conditioned, but given their proximity to the water and multitude of win-dows, they don’t need it. There are washbasins in all of the Summer Wing rooms, as well as pastel prints and dancing white curtains that catch the rejuvenating breeze. Maybe that’s why Mildred Kemp, the last of the family to occupy Wades Point, looked so hearty at age 90, when Betsy Feiler met her. “If living at Wades Point made her look like that,” Betsy says, “I wanted to buy the place.”
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