DENTON, Md. - Officials and neighbors gathered in Denton on Tuesday for the official groundbreaking of a new museum and visitor center near Denton in honor of an Eastern Shore trailblazer.
The Anna Murray Douglass Museum and Visitor Center is slated to be built on Meeting House Road and will pay tribute to abolitionist and first wife of Frederick Douglass.
The new facility will be the first African-American museum in Caroline County, according to Tarence Bailey, president and founder of the Bailey-Groce Family Foundation.
Anna Murray Douglass was born in Denton in 1813. In 1838, she met Frederick Bailey while he was still enslaved and she a free woman, ultimately helping him escape. The two later married and took the last name Douglass.
“We would not have Frederick Douglass if it was not for his wife,” Bailey continued. “She doesn’t get the recognition she deserves anywhere. The best place to start is in her own home.”
The Bailey-Groce Family Foundation thanked Governor Wes Moore’s administration and State Senator Johnny Mautz, who was in attendance for Tuesday’s groundbreaking, for their support of the new museum.
