St. Michaels Museum's Chaney House keeps the 1851 home three free Black brothers built

ST. MICHAELS, MARYLAND — In 1851, three free Black brothers, George Chaney Jr., Charles Chaney and Samuel Chaney, built a two-room frame house in St. Michaels. Their mother was free. Their father was enslaved, and the brothers bought his freedom; when he was freed he moved in with them, according to the St. Michaels Museum, which now keeps the house on its campus. A sister and her family moved in, too, when they gained their freedom.

The family added on to the original two rooms over the years to fit everyone. The house was moved to St. Mary's Square in 2003 to become part of the museum complex. Before the move, the later additions were removed so the house kept its original form. The museum calls the one-and-a-half-story house a rare surviving example of a 19th-century St. Michaels African American home.

The museum sets the house inside a longer local record. Since the Colonial era, it says, St. Michaels has had a significant African American population, first a mix of enslaved and free Black residents, then people living under Jim Crow laws after emancipation. The Chaney House exhibit, in the museum's words, affords a view of how free African Americans might have lived in St. Michaels before, during and after the Civil War.

The house is one of three 19th-century buildings moved onto St. Mary's Square for the museum, at 201 E. Chestnut St., one block east of Talbot Street. The museum's posted 2026 season runs through Oct. 31, with hours Fridays 1 to 4 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 4 p.m. Its homepage also carries an undated notice saying the museum is closed and will reopen May 1; visitors should call 410-745-9561 to confirm opening hours. Admission is free; donations are appreciated.

The two rooms the brothers raised in 1851 are the part that was kept.