Step back in time to the 18th century. Imagine a prosperous plantation growing grain, tobacco and flax, operating small industries and shipping the products to colonial ports and to England. This was Pemberton Hall Plantation in the mid 1700s.
Colonel Isaac Handy (1706-1762) owned the plantation. He bought the 970-acre undeveloped property from Joseph Pemberton in 1726, the same year Handy married Anne Dashiell. The plantation remained in the Handy family for over 100 years.
Colonel Handy was a man of many talents. Not only was he a plantation owner, but he was also a ship captain, merchant, justice of the peace, member of the Provincial Assembly, colonel in the Somerset County militia, and a founder of the Town of Salisbury. Pemberton Hall reflects Colonel Handy's social status as a wealthy Chesapeake Bay landowner in the colonial period.
Pemberton Hall and the surrounding two acres are now owned and are under restoration by the Pemberton Hall Foundation, Inc. The surrounding grounds, owned by Wicomico County form Pemberton Historical Park. The park's more than 250 acres are enclosed by three of the plantation's original 1750 boundaries.
Pemberton Park presents a rare historic landscape looking much as it did when it was maintained by scythes, sickles and grazing animals. Five miles of nature trails invite you to explore a diverse range of tidal and fresh water wetlands, freshwater ponds, a river island, forests, and meadows. Please help preserve this special place. Leave only footprints and take home only memories.
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