Marshall Hall
Located in Piscataway Park, along the shore of the Potomac in Southern Maryland, is the remnants of the Marshall family mansion, which sits on the former 959-acre tobacco plantation that was maintained by the labor of as many as 80 slaves. By the 1700s, the family was Maryland’s wealthiest and most influential.
By the mid 1800s, however, the estate had greatly diminished. The land was sold in 1866 and by the end of the century was redeveloped as Marshall Hall Amusement Park, which ran until the late 1970s. Much of its traffic was attributed to out of state gamblers, which was the case for much of the area. Between 1949 and 1968 Charles County was the only place outside of Nevada with legal slot machines. As the park grew, the colonial buildings that were still standing were demolished to make room for new attractions. Two building were left up; the mansion and the kitchen.
It was not long before Congress, responding to pressure from Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association and other local groups, would authorize purchase of the land by The National Park Service in 1975. Marshall Hall sits across from Mount Vernon and can be seen from there as part of the iconic view from the estate, and there was a significant push to preserve the natural landscape along the shoreline to resemble what George Washington would have seen in his time. The park was allowed to operate until the end of 1979. In 1980, it was town down. Two year after that, the mansion went up in flames in what was suspected to be an act of arson. The brick structure still stands in disrepair, held behind wire fencing.
