Historic Bellevue, Maryland

A growing community with a nod toward history

Bellevue, Maryland is a historic working waterfront community, bringing together family legacies and new households in a safe, vibrant community.

INTRODUCTION

Talbot County’s development pattern reflects the traditional mix of farms interspersed with small settlements, villages and towns, and water-oriented residential enclaves. Maintaining this traditional pattern is important to protecting land for agricultural use, open space, and the conservation of fragile environmental resources.
The Village of Bellevue is one of twenty-two unincorporated villages within Talbot County (Map 1). Bellevue, a historically African American community, grew initially around employment provided by the W.H. Valliant Packing Co., which operated a large seafood and vegetable cannery and packing house in Bellevue from 1899 to 1946...

COMMUNITY CONTEXT

Although Bellevue is no longer a center of maritime commerce, the village’s significant African American maritime heritage is still evident and an important historical context that should continue to shape its future. Bellevue hosted two African American owned seafood operations (Bellevue Seafood and W.A. Turner and Sons), a rarity on the Eastern Shore. Family members, employees and their descendants are still active in the community and the Bellevue United Methodist Church continues to be the keeper of much of the community’s African American history and heritage.

Early Settlement

The modern day community of Bellevue evolved from its early history as a landing for the OxfordBellevue Ferry in 1683. Since then, Bellevue has hosted water dependent business including: a wharf for the Choptank Steamboat Company; the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railroad Company (from at least 1906 until at least 1921); W. H. Valliant Seafood and Packing (established in 1895); W.A. Turner and Sons (established in1945); .and Bellevue Seafood (established 1964). Today, Bellevue still serves as a landing for the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry, but is now a predominantly residential community with a community park and boat landing operated by Talbot County.

Shoreline Conditions

COMMUNITY PLANNING ISSUES AND CONCERNS

The plan includes recommendations to address the following issues as identified by the CAC and at the initial August 2016 community meeting:

Shoreline between Bellevue Landing
and Bellevue Gardens

Vacant Lots adjacent to former
Bellevue Seafood

Bellevue Gardens

Preserving Working Waterfront Assets Along Tar Creek and at Bellevue Landing

barge access is under consideration along with dredging on Tar Creek to maintain access to the Former Turner & Sons property, which is the only commercial land with waterfront access on Tar Creek.

Bellevue Gardens

redevelopment of the recorded subdivision (1955) has raised concerns about potential community impacts associated with views to the Tred Avon river, generation of traffic on local streets, and the impact of new home construction on the character of the community

Water Access at Bellevue Landing

– including pedestrian access, how to support working watermen that use the landing to access the Chesapeake Bay and the dawn to dusk hours of operation.

Manage Recreational Users

the landing is very popular for recreation (ferry users, bicycling, fishing, boating) and traffic backs up on weekends in season. Conflicts over the amount of trailer space available and the overflow, especially on peak weekends, causes problems on Bellevue Road. High vehicular operating speeds traveling in both directions where speed limits change from 25 to 50 mph are also a serious concern of local residents

Street Maintenance

the County only maintains roads originally accepted into the County system as public roads, leaving the community to maintain the remaining private streets. There is no organizational structure that is conducive to road maintenance funding or implementation. Upgrading private streets to a level that would allow them to be accepted into the County system would be very challenging.

Vacant Homes

an increasing number of vacant houses has raised concerns about deferred maintenance and upkeep.

Increased Development Pressure on Lot Consolidation

as Bellevue Gardens is built out, more attention to the community may likely come from real estate interests, resulting in more pressure for lot consolidation, tear downs, and new construction of large homes on multiple lots in Historic Bellevue.

Bellevue, Maryland

Upcoming Events

Join our small community in festivities for the whole family.

Event date : 24-07-2022

Events Heading

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Event date : 24-07-2022

Events Heading

Aliquet adipiscing vivamus ultrices ipsum, commodo vitae, elit nec ipsam luctus. Eget non vitae scelerisque eget sapiente libero, lorem nam quis vitae quis morbi, id consequat mauris massa.

Event date : 24-07-2022

Events Heading

Aliquet adipiscing vivamus ultrices ipsum, commodo vitae, elit nec ipsam luctus. Eget non vitae scelerisque eget sapiente libero, lorem nam quis vitae quis morbi, id consequat mauris massa.