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Betterton’s location at
the head of the Chesapeake Bay is the key to its past and its
future. Overlooking the confluence of the Sassafras, Elk, and
Susquehanna Rivers and taking advantage of a topography that
provides easy access to the Bay via a broad sandy beach,
Betterton was founded as a fishing village in the mid 1700s. A
century later, the development of the steamboat and the digging
of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal found Betterton ideally
situated as a point of shipment for the produce of the Eastern
Shore to markets in Baltimore, Wilmington, and Philadelphia.
When it was incorporated in 1906, Betterton was a bustling and
prosperous commercial center with dozens of hotels and
commercial establishments and daily scheduled steamship service
by several lines. Ericsson Avenue, a major thoroughfare, was
named after the Ericsson Steamship Line, which in turn took its
name from John Ericsson, the inventor of the screw propeller. It
was that invention that made steamship service possible through
the C&D Canal, a waterway that was too narrow for paddlewheel
vessels.
As the century progressed, the easy water access and
established hostelries made Betterton a natural summer resort
for people seeking to escape the hot, humid, pre-air conditioned
cities. Betterton evolved into a beach resort, with arcades,
amusements, restaurants, and a regular clientele. But the same
location that was convenient for travel by steamship became
remote and inconvenient when it became possible to travel by
automobile over paved roads and the Bay Bridge to ocean beaches.
The resort economy of Betterton perished.
Remnants of the hotels and summer cottages still provide an
interesting architectural variety to the streetscape, but
Betterton’s future again lies in its location. The broad vista
from the headlands across the Susquehanna flats is matched by
very few places on the Bay. The fishing beach has become a
public park and swimming beach. The three rivers keep the waters
fresh enough to repel the stinging nettles that are so
troublesome elsewhere on the Bay. Betterton’s future appears
bright as the town reinvents itself as a quiet, small, and
beautiful residential community far removed from
suburbanization.
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