Historic Sotterley Visitors' Center and Museum Store Start Here! Check-in!

Historic Sotterley Visitors' Center is where you park and check-in to the museum. The center is open during guided tour season, May-Oct. Thursdays-Saturdays from 10 AM -4 PM and Sundays from 12-4 PM. You can buy admission to the grounds, add a guided tour to your experience, browse the Museum Store, watch an introductory video, become a supporter to help us preserve history, and more. Please check Historic Sotterley's website, www.sotterley.org and Facebook page for holiday, weather, or special event related closures before your visit. Historic Sotterley's grounds are open seven days a week throughout the year, 10 AM-4 PM. When the visitor center is closed, please help us maintain the site by depositing your grounds fees into the donation box provided. Pick up some informational brochures about Historic Sotterley and download this Sotterley tour on your Clio app.

An introduction to the history of the site:

Sotterley's History

When James Bowles had a cypress post sunk into the ground in 1703 to begin construction of a two-room home on the shore of the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland, he couldn't have known that he was on the first page of a long, rich, American story.

Bowles, a plantation owner, merchant, and slave trader, was Sotterley Plantation's first owner; Mabel Ingalls, a bacteriologist, its last. In the nearly 300 years that separated his first year as an owner and her last came a fascinating line of individuals who presided over Sotterley. They included one of the wealthiest women in the Maryland colony; a governor; a physician who ran a boarding school at Sotterley, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy and his wife, the daughter of one of the nation's most powerful financiers.

Supporting the ambition of these American aristocrats from Sotterley's beginning until the mid-19th century was a community of enslaved persons whose talents and labor developed Sotterley into one of the largest plantations in the Tidewater region.

Sotterley's location in the Patuxent gave its 18th and 19th century owners access to the valuable shipping lanes of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Tobacco was a key export, as were corn and lumber. Many ships brought luxury goods from Europe to Sotterley's wharf. Others delivered captive Africans. Still other ships brought letters from Americans whose names fill our history books.

Sotterley was its own, self-contained world for most of its history. During the colonial era, plantation owners resisted the formation of towns, preferring to govern their property and those who lived on it without interference from local authorities. Sotterley's owners were active politically and enjoyed privileges of the well-connected. But there was tension between the growing wealth of Sotterley's 18th and 19th century owners and the way that wealth was created and sustained. The harshness of chattel slavery prompted the enslaved to resist and some to take their freedom. During a British raid during the War of 1812, nearly 50 enslaved people escaped, disrupting the plantation's economy. Maryland outlawed slavery in 1864, and the Federal government did so the following year. With that, the plantation system collapsed, taking the fortunes of Sotterleys' owners with it.

 But Sotterley survived. In 1910, during what is now known as the Colonial Revival movement, the rundown property was purchased by New York attorney Herbert Satterlee. Herbert, with his wife, Louisa, embarked on a plan to restore the Manor House, outbuildings, and farming operations to his vision of the 18th century. Sotterley bloomed again, with beautiful gardens and productive fields. Sotterley became a museum by 1961. Since then, it has been guided by a Board of Trustees and operated by a small staff with the help of dedicated volunteers. They continue to care for this magnificent National Historic Landmark and its educational and cultural programs.

Sotterley's Visitors' Center is housed in one of its historic structures. Known as the Knott House, the original section of the house and porch that faces Wharf Road, was built in 1910 by the owner of Sotterley as a home for the family of Charles and India Knott. Charles Knott was the site farm manager from 1910-1960. As the years passed and the family grew, the house expanded. The house was surrounded by a large farm complex. Most of these farm buildings have since either been moved or torn down. Look around the perimeter of the house and see if you can spot some of the old farm buildings that remain. The museum has used this structure to house other families, and it was once used as an education center. Since 2009, it has been home to Historic Sotterley's Visitors' Center and Museum Store. Historic Sotterley is a non-profit 501(c)3 public charity. Recently, Historic Sotterley has received a grant with funding that will be used to turn one of the newer buildings on site into an interpretive center that is closer to the historic core, includes a museum store, exhibits, and serves as the entry point for exploring the site.

Pirtle, Jeanne K.. Sotterley Plantation. Images of America. Charleston, South Carolina. Arcadia Publishing, 2013.

Historic Sotterley. Accessed April 17th 2020.