History of Havre de Grace

20th century

Many patents followed the opening of the S. J. Seneca Cannery. 1901 The Baling-press. 1905 The Cooker 1905 The Tomato-scalder. 1917 Improved Tomato-scalder. 1917 The Can-opener. 1918 The Machine for peeling tomatoes.

Havre de Grace was known as "The Graw" from 1912 through the 1950s, and it prospered as a stop for travelers. These included gangsters and gamblers en route to New York City from the South following the "pony routes". The Havre de Grace Racetrack operated from 1912-1950. Al Capone was reported to have spent some time at the former "Chesapeake Hotel" (now known as "Chiapparelli's Restaurant"). At the end of the 1950s, the state removed the horse track, and its race and betting rights were bought by the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

An incident during 1949, when the city denied a license to use a city park and arrested a Jehovah's Witnesses preacher, led to the US Supreme Court case of Niemotko v. Maryland (1951). The court ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses were protected by constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion and the city should have granted them the permit to speak in the park.

A few tenant farmhouses remain from the large Mitchel plantation that overlooked the city. In the 1980s, Havre de Grace began to undergo extensive redevelopment, with renovation of historic properties and adaptation for new uses, as well as construction of new houses and townhouse communities on former farmland. It was becoming a destination for people with second homes for vacations on the bay and retirees. Historic lands and older forests are being cleared, and upscale homes are now extending and growing along Chapel Road northwest towards Webster Village. The city