Herring Bay has a rich history. The Piscataway tribe enjoyed its bounty for thousands of years before Captain John Smith in stopped here 1608. It was the site of the “lost town” of Herrington in the 1670s and was home to influential Quakers such as Samuel and Anna Chew in the 1770s. A few decades later, the Weems family built a resort known as the Fair Haven Hotel, which served passengers of their Baltimore steamship line until the early 1900s. Shortly thereafter, Fairhaven became a summer destination for families from the city and suburbs of Washington DC, who created neighborhoods that continue to thrive as communities of year-round and summertime residents.
AHB hopes to preserve this legacy by facilitating access to historical information and recording memories of current and past residents of the Fairhaven area. Related groups focus on the history of other areas in the Herring Bay watershed, including the Deale Area Historical Society and the Holland Point Civic Association.