Solomons, also known as Solomons Island, is an unincorporated community and
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
(CDP) in
Calvert County, Maryland
Calvert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 92,783. Its county seat is Prince Frederick. The county's name is derived from the family name of the Barons of Baltim ...
Solomons is located at the southern tip of Calvert County at (38.336431, −76.464102). It includes Solomons Island and mainland on the north side of the mouth of
Patuxent River
The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeas ...
, where it meets the
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
. It is just across from the U.S. Naval Air Station Patuxent River (on the south side of the mouth of the Patuxent River). The city also included the west and south part of the Dowell Peninsula.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the Solomons CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 14.76%, is water, consisting mainly of Back Creek, a tidal inlet that extends north from the Patuxent River.
Climate
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the
Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Solomons has a
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. Monthly average temperatures on Solomons Island range from 36.7 °F in January to 78.7 °F in July
History
Early settlers
Originally called Bourne's Island (1680), then Somervell's Island (1740), Solomons takes its name from 19th century
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
businessman Isaac Solomon, who established a cannery there shortly after the
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
. Solomon's home still stands on the front of the island.
The area has been inhabited since colonial times.
Shipbuilding and maritime activity
In the 19th century, shipyards developed to support the island's fishing fleet. The Marsh Shipyard built
schooner
A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
s and sloops but became famous for its bugeyes, the forerunner of the skipjack. In the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
,
Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (India), in India
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ' ...
Joshua Barney's flotilla sailed from here to attack British vessels on
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
. The deep, protected harbor has been a busy marine center ever since. '' Kronprinzessin Cecilie'', a 1906-built German
ocean liner
An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...
which during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
was commandeered (and renamed ''Mount Vernon'' (ID-4508) by the US, was laid up at Solomons in 1920.
Supporting the U.S. Navy during World War II
During World War II, the island was chosen by the Allied command as the site for
Naval Amphibious Training Base Solomons
A map of Naval Amphibious Training Base Solomons
Naval Amphibious Training Base Solomons also called Naval Amphibious Training Base Solomons Island was a US Amphibious Training Base at Solomons, Maryland, on the Dowell Peninsula, from 1942 to 1 ...
. The lessons learned at Solomons proved invaluable on
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, at
Tarawa
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati ''
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second- ...
, and in numerous other military operations. Three naval bases were established at the mouth of the Patuxent River. These three facilities made a major contribution to the war effort and brought new jobs to local residents. Between 1942 and 1945, the population of Solomons increased from 263 to more than 2,600. Over 60,000 troops trained at Solomons during the war.
Coincidentally, many of the servicemen who trained at the Solomons base in Maryland were sent to fight in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...
Solomons was a rather isolated boat-building town housing the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
The Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) is a marine science laboratory on the Chesapeake Bay in Solomons, Maryland, and it is the oldest state-supported marine laboratory on the East Coast of the U.S. It was founded in 1925 in a small waterma ...
, until 1977 when the
Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge
The Governor Thomas Johnson Memorial Bridge (also referred to as the Thomas Johnson Bridge and the Solomons Bridge) is a bridge in Maryland over the lower Patuxent River joining Calvert and St. Mary's counties. The bridge, named for the first ...
The town now welcomes tourists with numerous marinas, seafood restaurants, gift shops, a boardwalk, a sculpture garden, the Calvert Marine Museum where visitors can climb atop a former lighthouse, board harbor cruises, and hear occasional outdoor concerts by famous performers. Solomons also has three major hotels, a
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
family recreation center, and a church retirement home. St. Peter's Chapel is an historic 1889
Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massin ...
-style church that is still in use.
The Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Solomons is a Smithsonian-affiliated forested sculpture park where creations of
Kenneth Snelson
Kenneth Duane Snelson (June 29, 1927 – December 22, 2016) was an American contemporary sculptor and photographer. His sculptural works, exemplified by ''Needle Tower'', are composed of flexible and rigid components arranged according to the i ...
,
George Rickey
George Warren Rickey (June 6, 1907 – July 17, 2002) was an American kinetic sculptor known for geometric abstractions, often large-scale, engineered to move in response to air currents.
Early life and education
Rickey was born on June 6, ...
,
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, and lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor.
Pomodoro designed a controversial fiberglass crucifix f ...
and other major sculptors are on exhibit. Most sculptures are on loan from the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
or the Hirshhorn Museum. The site is both a family-friendly place with educational activities for children and a host of world-class professional artwork, including pieces by
Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
,
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...
, and Miró; the three were highlights of the 2008 opening exhibit of the new gallery space, the Arts Building. In a
traffic circle
A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...
outside the Arts Building stands a landmark
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
fountain-sculpture made for Annmarie Garden which depicts a
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
waterman standing in a boat while holding oyster-harvesting tongs. During the warm season, water pumped through concealed ductwork emerges and cascades out of the tongs' jaws and also over a shellfish-sorting riprap on the ''Tongers boat. The fallen water pools around the boat in a map-shaped decorative basin where sometimes visiting children splash their feet. Since 1993, Annmarie Garden has hosted an outdoor national juried arts festival at which typically around 100 traveling artists encamp in display tents for a weekend to sell their wares.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,536 people, 689 households, and 378 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 881 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 90.69%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 6.64%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 0.78% of the population.
In 2000, 6.7% of Solomons residents identified as being of Welsh heritage. This was the highest percentage of Welsh Americans of any place in Maryland.
There were 689 households, out of which 15.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.8% were married couples living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 39.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 24.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.97 and the average family size was 2.56.
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 13.1% under the age of 18, 3.1% from 18 to 24, 21.0% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 41.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 56 years. For every 100 females, there were 80.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.8 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $48,532, and the median income for a family was $74,318. Males had a median income of $64,833 versus $34,313 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $33,049. About 2.1% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge
The Governor Thomas Johnson Memorial Bridge (also referred to as the Thomas Johnson Bridge and the Solomons Bridge) is a bridge in Maryland over the lower Patuxent River joining Calvert and St. Mary's counties. The bridge, named for the first ...
, December 2008
Image:Solomons_maryland_sailboat_dock_pier_peaceful_harbor.jpg, A peaceful pierside scene of calm water, February 2010
Image:Place marker of Solomon Island, Maryland.JPG, A visitors' wayfinding compass-marker on Solomons Island picturing a bugeye boat
File:Palmtree solomons.jpg, Mature palm tree in front of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory