There is nothing artificial about the down home community atmosphere in this Eastern Shore town: this is the real deal. Along these streets and riverways, people seem to live in a forgotten era—knowing and helping each other in ways that often become lost in the fast-paced modern world. Old men tell stories and play checkers in a hardware store with wooden floors, and a person’s word and handshake are still a form of currency. Against this picturesque backdrop Snow Hill, like most of the Eastern Shore’s small towns, is striving to protect its history and charm, while managing growth, economic, and environmental pressures. Snow Hill calls itself “a town that can look so far back, we are looking forward as well.” Forward-looking entrepreneurs, visionaries, and government officials are mapping out a future for Snow Hill aimed at guaranteeing the town will continue to survive with the vitality it has known for the more than 300 years.
Yesteryear
It has been said that a walk through Snow Hill is a stroll through the centuries. The town is situated along the banks of the Pocomoke River, a waterway listed in Maryland’s Scenic and Wild River System, with deep, dark waters bounded by bald cypress and magnolia forests. For thousands of years this area was home to a large Native American population. In 1642 European colonists arrived, naming the settlement after a district of London. The Pocomoke’s abundant natural resources, depth, and easy access to the Chesapeake Bay played a key role as the settlement prospered into a river-based farming and business community. By 1742, Snow Hill became the Worcester County Seat. Prior to the turn of the 20th century, Snow Hill thrived as the business and cultural center. Prosperous business owners and ships’ captains built stately riverfront homes, many of which can be seen on house tours today. Although river trade has all but disappeared, the town still exists on the backbone of agriculture, small businesses, and river economics, including a growing recreation and ecotourist trade.
A New River Economy
Gus Payne opened his “authentic downtown hardware store with a little of everything” in 1951. Today, at age 79, his children and grandchildren help operate the business, but Payne still runs the register and greets customers, many of them local farmers. He has seen a lot of changes over the years, and remembers when there were 72 businesses in town, including a grocery store, butcher shop, toothpick manufacturer, antiques mall, three car dealers, three clothing stores, two jewelry stores, two shirt factories, five canneries, and a major fertilizer company. Payne says that when the American love affair with the automobile began in the 1950s, mom ‘n pop businesses began to decline with the trend toward shopping malls and larger stores, eventually leaving much of Snow Hill’s commercial district vacant.
For 55 years, Gus Payne has been telling his customers to “stop back.” Today his store is still here and Snow Hill is slowly coming back as an economic center. Although you’ll still find washboards, cast iron frying pans, old-fashioned die-cast metal toys, and locally hand-knitted baby items on Gus Payne’s selves, he knows that today’s business owner has to diversify. His store also offers a new line of candles, a wide variety of farm-inspired gift items from Massey, Deere, and International Harvester, and the latest must-haves with college girls: John Deere tee-shirts (Girls are farmers, too). “When I first opened, kids would work a paper route for 25 cents a week to pay off the bicycle they bought here. I sold them their first bike and now I’m still selling bikes to third or fourth generations of their children. I still carry a complete line of Radio Flyers wagons and scooters. Some items never go out of style.”
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