Charles Sumner Post No. 25, Grand Army of the Republic | |
Location: | 206 S. Queen St., Chestertown, Maryland |
Coordinates: | 39.2069°N -76.0652°W |
Built: | 1908 |
Architecture: | Front-gabled Wood Frame |
Added: | July 6, 2005 |
Refnum: | 05000655 |
Charles Sumner Post #25, Grand Army of the Republic is a historic fraternal lodge building located in Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland. Named after Charles Sumner, it was constructed as a meeting hall about 1908 and is a two-story gable-front frame building, built on brick piers, with a rectangular floor plan. It is located in the Scotts Point area, a historically black area within the Chestertown Historic District, and was abandoned between 1985 and 2002. It is one of only two Grand Army of the Republic halls for African-American veterans known to survive in the Nation.[1]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. In 2012, Preservation Maryland placed the Charles Sumner Post #25 on its list of threatened historic properties.[2]
The building has been restored by the Kent County Arts Council and opened to the public in 2014 as a museum of American Civil War history and the role of African-Americans in the war.[3] [4]