Chapel Point State Park is an undeveloped public recreation area located on the Port Tobacco River, a tributary of the Potomac, in Charles County, Maryland. The state park offers fishing and hunting and is under the management of Charles County.

History

Chapel Point was once part of the 4000 acre St. Thomas Manor patented by the Roman Catholic Church in 1638. In the 1880s, the Jesuits, in partnership with J. C. and W. M. Howard, built a resort known as Hotel Belleview on Chapel Point, with guests brought in by steamboat from Washington, D.C. In 1924, the site hosted the first Charles County Fair. From about 1926 to 1948, Chapel Point was the site of an amusement park that offered picnicking, rollerskating, a restaurant, beach with bath houses, and hotel. The site was acquired from the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1972 to protect its scenic value and the open space associated with the state's early development.

Features

Adjacent to the park, St. Ignatius Church and cemetery, the oldest continuous Roman Catholic parish in the United States, offers a scenic river view.