Solomons, Maryland

Solomons is located at the southern tip of Calvert County at 38°20′11″N 76°27′51″W (38.336431, −76.464102).[3] It includes Solomons Island and mainland on the north side of the mouth of Patuxent River, where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. It is just across from the U.S. Naval Air Station Patuxent River (on the south side of the mouth of the Patuxent River). The city also included the west and south part of the Dowell Peninsula.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Solomons CDP has a total area of 2.3 square miles (6.0 km²), of which 2.0 square miles (5.2 km²) is land and 0.35 square miles (0.9 km²), or 14.76%, is water,[2] consisting mainly of Back Creek, a tidal inlet that extends north from the Patuxent River.

The town now welcomes tourists with numerous marinas, seafood restaurants, gift shops, a boardwalk, a sculpture garden, the Calvert Marine Museum where visitors can climb atop a former lighthouse, board harbor cruises, and hear occasional outdoor concerts by famous performers. Solomons also has three major hotels, a U.S. Navy family recreation center, and a church retirement home. St. Peter's Chapel is an historic 1889 Carpenter Gothic-style church that is still in use.

The Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Solomons is a Smithsonian-affiliated forested sculpture park where creations of Kenneth Snelson, George Rickey, Arnaldo Pomodoro and other major sculptors are on exhibit.[9] Most sculptures are on loan from the National Gallery of Art or the Hirshhorn Museum.[10] The site is both a family-friendly place with educational activities for children[11] and a host of world-class professional artwork, including pieces by Picasso, Matisse, and Miró; the three were highlights of the 2008 opening exhibit of the new gallery space, the Arts Building.[12][13][14] In a traffic circle outside the Arts Building stands a landmark bronze fountain-sculpture made for Annmarie Garden which depicts a Chesapeake Bay waterman standing in a boat while holding oyster-harvesting tongs. During the warm season, water pumped through concealed ductwork emerges and cascades out of the tongs' jaws and also over a shellfish-sorting riprap on the Tonger's boat. The fallen water pools around the boat in a map-shaped decorative basin where sometimes visiting children splash their feet. Since 1993, Annmarie Garden has hosted an outdoor national juried arts festival at which typically around 100 traveling artists encamp in display tents for a weekend to sell their wares.[15]

As of the census[17] of 2000, there were 1,536 people, 689 households, and 378 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 856.1 inhabitants per square mile (330.5/km²). There were 881 housing units at an average density of 491.0 per square mile (189.6/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 90.69% White, 6.64% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.52% Asian, 0.33% from other races, and 1.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.78% of the population.

In 2000, 6.7% of Solomons residents identified as being of Welsh heritage. This was the highest percentage of Welsh Americans of any place in Maryland.[18]

There were 689 households, out of which 15.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.8% were married couples living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 39.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 24.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.97 and the average family size was 2.56.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 13.1% under the age of 18, 3.1% from 18 to 24, 21.0% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 41.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 56 years. For every 100 females, there were 80.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.8 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $48,532, and the median income for a family was $74,318. Males had a median income of $64,833 versus $34,313 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $33,049. About 2.1% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

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  Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, December 2008
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  Solomons United Methodist Church, December 2008
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  Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge, December 2008
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  A peaceful pierside scene of calm water, February 2010
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  A visitors' wayfinding compass-marker on Solomons Island picturing a bugeye boat
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  Mature palm tree in front of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory

• Cole, Merle T. (2007). "The First Aerial Photograph of Solomons?". Warship International. XLIV (4): 315–318. ISSN 0043-0374.

• Media related to Solomons, Maryland at Wikimedia Commons
• Solomons travel guide from Wikivoyage