Religious Freedom Byway

Aboard a sailing vessel, actors and actresses in period costumes recount maritime tales, sing chanteys, and engage visitors in hands-on activities.

The stark white, reconstructed lighthouse appears almost exactly as it did in 1851 and recaptures some of the colonial history of St. Clement’s Island, which is covered with lush green vegetation and topped with a wide blue sky.

One archaeologist digs while another reviews notes in front of the Port Tobacco Courthouse, which was reconstructed in 1972.

Much as it looked like when the church was founded in 1641, the view from St. Ignatius Church and St. Thomas Manor, from the 120-foot bluff, overlooks the mouth of the Port Tobacco River and the various headstones in the church graveyard.

Bursting blooms and a colorful bird statue decorate the base of the small yet delightful museum overlooking the Potomac River.

Built by the Jesuits on “Chapel Land,” the wooden chapel and founding place of the Roman Catholic Church in English America is surrounded by scaffolding during its springtime reconstruction.

Beyond the grassy lawn and spring foliage, one of two original buildings stands at Mt. Carmel Monastery, the first religious community for women in America.

Exemplifying early manor sites during the settlement period, this red-and-gray-brick home, enclosed by leafy foliage, became home to General Smallwood.

The view from Friendship Farm Park is one of the finest in Southern Maryland, and it provides a very similar view to what early settlers would have seen-- lush greens and meandering waters-- from the bluff overlooking the Tobacco River.

The brick Old Durham Church and walled-in graveyard is framed by a clear blue sky.

The Episcopal Church steeple glows eerily white against a dusk blue sky, which highlights the church's Georgian or ‘Church Warden’ architecture. The Church was built in 1736 on land donated by Francis Scott Keys' grandfather.

Weathered headstones dot the grounds surrounding the St. Ignatius Church, the nation’s oldest active parish with a continual pastorate.

The Port Tobacco Courthouse, the imposing brick structure in the background, dates back to 1892. Although the original building no longer exists, a sense of colonial Port Tobacco emanates from the reconstructed Courthouse, completed in 1972, and from the museum inside and through the interpretive sign out front.

A crip storefront faces a hedge-trimmed public area with benches and cars at Leonardtown.

The dwindling sun causes the white, cylindrical Piney Point Lighthouse to cast dark shadows across the land. The lighthouse was constructed in 1836 and is one of only four in existence along the Potomac River.

Over the wire fence, St. Ignatius Church attracts a group of people who are interested in the building's stained glass windows and one of the oldest cemeteries in America.

A paved road lined with yellowed grasses stretches along the Potomac River on St. George's Island.

Point Lookout State Park reveals spectacular views of the mouth of the aquamarine Potomac River.

A gentle spring green dusts the tree-lined canopy of the Nanjemoy loop, an ideal low-volume road for bicycling interspersed with views of the Potomac.

On a gray day, snow dusts the red roof of Point Lookout Lighthouse as well as the rocks lining the road.

An expansive green lawn runs to the elegant, redbrick home of Thomas Stone, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.