Historic Port Deposit
Jacob Tome was born August 13, 1810 in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania. In 1839, Tome moved to Port Deposit where he lived until his death in 1898.
In Port Deposit, Tome established himself as a merchant and ultimately owned large wharves where lumber was transferred from the river works to trading ships of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1859, Tome built a home on the upper side of Main Street. This location offered some protection from the ice gorges and floods that the river periodically brought to the town.
Tome ultimately became involved in banking and established the Cecil National Bank. The bank was located in the Tome mansion until 1906 when a new bank building was constructed at the corner of Center and Main streets. In the 1870s, Tome remodeled his home in the then popular Second Empire Style, an interpretation of earlier French tradition of architecture. The remodeled mansion included elaborate wrought iron balconies, mansard roof and a substantial tower which housed the bank Mr. Tome's office.
When the house was demolished in 1948, major portions of the front porch — lintels, columns, steps, walls — were salvaged. Several of these pieces were incorporated into Artifact Garden where you are now standing.
Jacob Tome devoted considerable energy and money to education in Maryland.
The Jacob Tome Institute, a co-educational elementary and high school opened in 1894, in Port Deposit, and moved to the town of North East in 1971.
The Tome School, a college preparatory boarding school for boys, opened on the bluff overlooking town in 1902, and was acquired by the US Navy, operating as the United States Naval Academy Preparatory School until 1972.
The four columns of the Artifact Garden stood on a porch one floor above the street and supported a carved stone ceiling. The ceiling stones have been used in this garden to form the retaining wall against the parking lot. The curved pieces at either end of the retaining wall were cheek walls at the front steps of the mansion. The benches were created by laying two of the front porch foundation posts on their sides.
In memory of Ella Tome Masteller and Dorothy Masteller Burke
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