Easton is on the cusp of change, but it is not entirely clear what that change is. The town is becoming more sophisticated, but at what cost? As world-class restaurants, stores, and the arts begin to flourish, will Easton become just another resort town? More simply put, should Easton become a Hamptons or Nantucket wanna-be? If so, is that a bad thing?
I am writing this column in Nantucket while looking out at Nantucket harbor. I have been taking daily walks through the historic town center. The streets are paved with cobblestones. The stores are a mixture of high-end clothing and middle-tier souvenir shops. Nantucket sweatshirts can be had for $60. Hundreds of choices for Nantucket refrigerator magnets are available.
Frankly, the downtown is more reminiscent of an historic town than an actual historic town. Dozens of old buildings, some dating to the 18th century remain standing, but now house real estate offices, restaurants, or boutique shops. The whaling museum reminds me of one of the attractions included in a mega-shopping mall to give people something to do other than shop. It’s interesting and worth a visit, but it competes with opportunities to look at multi-million-dollar yachts in the harbor.
Mind you, I’m not complaining about Nantucket, but don’t go there for the history. If you enjoy shopping and mingling with rich people, Nantucket should be on your list. The restaurants are plentiful and high quality.
The question for those of us in Talbot County, and, for that matter, the entire Eastern Shore, is whether we want to imitate the best-known east coast premier resort destinations. Easton already has started down that path. Bluepoint Hospitality has converted old, sometimes vacant storefronts into establishments that are beautiful, well-run, and expensive.
I confess to patronizing the “New Easton” and enjoying it. I am thrilled by the Prager Center for the Arts. And I’m glad that the Chesapeake Music Festival now has a home. I believe that these new establishments are good for Easton despite their representing change. They are part of a revitalization of Easton that, in my view, is good for everyone here, including those of us who are unlikely to buy anything from one of the new, premium-priced, businesses.
The remaking of Easton is part of a larger evolution of the Eastern Shore, which should be more than agriculture and beach towns. If Easton thrives because of this evolution, it means more and better jobs. It is also likely to result in better schools, improved healthcare facilities, and opportunities for growth in things like the Waterfowl Festival and other community activities to better engage us with each other.
Should there be limits on the degree to which Easton and other parts of the Eastern Shore “gentrify?” I would say yes, but I’m not sure how these limits are set. Do we want to discourage new investments and job creation?
Should Talbot County hold a special series of forums on what our future should look like? Many forums on the county’s future, of course, already happen, but perhaps something focused on the rapid changes occurring in the town of Easton might be a good idea. Among many things, such a discussion should ensure that if a future other than the current “gradual gentrification” of Easton is to be chosen, the alternative future needs to be fully understood.
I also worry about what happens to Easton if the Bluepoint Hospitality investments don’t work out. If the high-end businesses now being established fail, what will Federal Street and the rest of Easton look like? Will there be other entrepreneurs anxious to take over these businesses? I’m not sure.
What do you think? Are you worried or excited about Easton’s future?
J.E. Dean of Oxford is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, birds, and occasionally goldendoodles.
Cornelius “Jerry” Aben, Jr. says
Easton was a nice town before King Prager arrived,
and it will be still a great town if he leaves.
The Four Sisters give free meals every Thursday.
These fine ladies do not have the King’s assets
but they do have the spirit of generosity.
Noblesse oblige.
Jonathon Powers says
Mr. Alben: While none of us knows how this will all turn out, let’s go easy on a man investing in an environment he obviously enjoys. I am sure he would cringe at the term “King Prager”. He and his family have done more for Easton and the surrounding area (who put up all of the beautiful blooming trees along the Saint Michaels Road as one enters Saint Michaels)? I understand Mr. King (opps) Prager did it. He just seems to like improving properties and making a few bucks. Let’s relax and enjoy his exceptional taste and largesse.
Besides, according to The Washingtonian, he likes gnocchi.
Jon Powers
Ian David Stenzel says
“Beware when wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck as bad character, for this is how idealogues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime, nor a character flaw. Stigmatise those who let others die, not those who struggle to live.” – Sarah Kendzior
The above statement is particularly relevant in the discourse surrounding Eastons future. For I find myself looking back through this towns history for direction moving forward, with special attention to the industry that gave rise to this place, that is no longer an affordable investment of ones time due to gentrification. Let us not convert our town into a village of paupers scrounging for handouts from the obscenely wealthy, simply because the very wealthy enjoy our backyards, when we can transform this place, this home, into a place of prosperity on the merits of our own labors. Ask of these wealthy newcomers that they invest in what is already here, and not just the arts, invest in what made this town that they enjoy the look of so much.
John Dean says
Thanks for reading the piece. As you know from my piece, I believe there are benefits from the type of development Prager is bringing to Easton. I share your respect and admiration for the Four Sisters, but do not see this as an either-or situation.
In any case, I appreciate your comment.
Richard Skinner says
You are right to suggest the need for some forethought and historical reflection. My hometown of Savannah became an enclave of wealth cheek-to-Joel with mostly Black residences of poor people who could find only sub-minimum wage jobs in the tourist trade. It was, quite literally, a tale of two cities. To be sustainable and capable of making investments in people, Easton will need superb schools, affordable housing, broadband capacity, and a strategy for attracting the entire socio-economic spectrum of trades and professions. Investment bankers need superb carpenters to build homes and other buildings to high standards and those carpenters must earn wages sufficient to allow them to own homes, send children to college (at least two years if pursuing a trade), purchase the goods and services. Young people need to see a ladder they can climb to a level of sufficiency. Too often, tourism produces a few “winners” and consigns “losers” to lives of living on the margins.
Al DiCenso says
World-class restaurants and arts, absolutely, but stores? Please name one. I can’t find a decent men’s clothing store anywhere, except for the one small one aimed at the carriage trade.
John Dean says
Thank you for reading the article.
You are right about the men’s stores. I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Eva M. Smorzaniuk, M.D. says
Agree with all your points, particularly the one involving community involvement in envisioning its own future. Yes, Bluepoint Hospitality adds upper scale offerings for dining and shopping in downtown Easton, that are accessible to a small sub-segment of our population. The question is, will the presence of businesses sustainable only because of the ample assets of their owner, be a catalyst for the development of diverse and sustainable businesses? Or, will some small business owners be forced out because they can no longer afford to be located in downtown Easton? I suppose there are economic incentives for the town to have a posh downtown that caters to the wealthy that either live or visit here. But it doesn’t bode well for the more organic “home-grown” businesses and business owners that many of us who live here love and appreciate!
Eva M. Smorzaniuk, M.D. says
Agree with all your points, particularly the one regarding community involvement in envisioning its own future. Yes, Bluepoint Hospitality adds upper scale offerings for dining and shopping in downtown Easton, that are accessible to a small sub-segment of our population. The question is, will the presence of businesses sustainable only because of the ample assets of their owner, be a catalyst for the development of diverse and sustainable businesses? Or, will some small business owners be forced out because they can no longer afford to be located in downtown Easton? I suppose there are economic incentives for the town to have a posh downtown that caters to the wealthy that either live or visit here. But it doesn’t bode well for the more organic “home-grown” businesses and business owners that many of us who live here love and appreciate!
John Dean says
Thank you for your comment.
I admit to not understanding why groups other than Bluepoint are not investing in the downtown. I would welcome it. I also suspect that Bluepoint would.
Hopefully, Easton will develop a vision for the future that preserves an Easton everyone can enjoy.
David Tull says
It is a discussion that should be had in
an open forum for the community to consider the future of Easton.
Stephen Schaare says
Mr. Dean, I share your concerns over a changing Easton.
Hard to imagine Easton morphing into Nantucket or the Hamptons of Long Island. One huge element missing-the Atlantic Ocean, with it’s beaches and roaring surf.
I suppose Easton will change to the extent that Mr. Prager’s efforts are popular and financially successful. Do we have any data on whether his businesses and eateries(allowing for Covid) are “holding their own”? This would be very helpful.
Even someone with unlimited resources does not like to see his offerings less than popular and busy.
John Dean says
Thank you for commenting.
I have not seen any data on the economics of the Bluepoint businesses. It would make for interesting reasing. As I indicated in the article, I worry that the businesses may not be profitable. How do you run a restaurant like Bas Rouge in Easton and make money?
Marian Murphy says
I lived in Healdsburg, CA for thirty years and saw it transition from a small farm town into a popular tourist town built on it’s location of being surrounded by over 150 wineries. I can’t imagine what the “draw” would be to bring a huge influx of tourists into Easton although I agree it’s a beautiful town that I’m happy to live in. Healdsburg eventually became a reflection of how our whole society is going – a stark division of wealth. The people who came to Healdsburg had money to spend on fine wine, restaurants, stores, entertainment while the employees of these establishments worked mainly minimum wages and couldn’t afford to either rent or buy in town because the rents and home prices escalated with the town’s popularity.. I would just hope that Easton learns from the mistakes of popular tourist towns and remember the employees are locals who make the businesses work and they should be able to afford to live a comfortable life in their own town.
John Dean says
Thank you for your thoughtful comment–a good addition to the conversation.
I appreciate your reading the article.
Thomas Schoenbeck says
I certainly appreciate all that Blue Point is doing. It’s a boost in the downtown economy and vitalization is an important aspect of any town. I too am concerned about what happens with all the beautiful establishments in the event something happens to Paul or BPH group. Over development can certainly kill the golden goose, look at Lewes DE as an example. While it’s a vibrant town, the tourism has overshadowed the residents ability to enjoy all it has to offer.
Alan Boisvert says
St. Michaels stands a remote chance of becoming a Nantucket. However, Easton without a water focal point/centerpiece, NOT a chance. Just as well, as the stogy county commissioners do NOT want such growth. Talbot county and Easton is in desperate need of young, forward-looking thinking. Otherwise, the thundering, oversized pickup trucks will continue to pound the blacktop through downtown. Yipeeeeee.
John Dean says
Thanks for reading the article and for your comment. I appreciate it.
Jay Corvan Architect says
Well, from the tenor of these comments , it’s good to see that people care enough about the future direction to the town of Easton, and see it taking a weird turn.
We all know that Easton has beautiful architectural bones to begin with. It’s a rate thing to have a great historic urban core of a city to start with. Easton, Be careful you don’t destroy it ! That’s what we have to loose .
Years ago, When the city Cambridge participated in a “Rudat ” (which is a rural community design meeting Conducted by design, finance, and marketing professionals ) , the consensus all professionals told Cambridge citizens: you already have a great Townscape with terrific historic fabric. This fabric would be a huge competitive advantage to your citizens , so plan to keep the town largely as it is, and don’t change much. Don’t make the same mistake so many other towns have made by surrounding the great historic core with franchise junk. But Easton has already made that mistake.
This sprawl mistake that virtuality all northern Virginia towns have made ( leesburg, Arlington, Rockville, Charlottesville, etc etc.). Maryland planning has been No better in halting suburban sprawl. Look at Annapolis as an example of a great city engulfed by sprawl . Paying attention only to the core of the town is a virtual death wish. Many people who travel route fifty have never seen the historic downtown of Easton.
With real estate prices accelerating in the historic core, soon the workers needed to run the town services will be outsourced to other worker towns like Trappe, Denton, or Cambridge where prices are lower and more reasonable. Maybe you’ve seen the line of cars from Denton at 7:45 funneling into Easton and wondered what’s happening. It’s already happened. Workers and service people are already excluded ( by price) from the Easton market.
Yes , Easton is headed for tale of two cities and the city administrators seem to be very comfortable with that. Good intentions may pave the road ….but you have to know when you need help and where and when to get it. Now is the time.
But without a “honest to Goodness” master plan for the city , city Planners are leaving the city open to an invasion of gentrification and bad suburban sprawl. Without the right tools and knowledge the city is left flat footed and unprepared. Easton needs professional help. There are better ways to approach these problems and with the assistance of experts outside the area know what they are doing.
I have worked for two years with a prominent national firm in Pittsburgh , Urban Design Associates, to create a regional plan using the Denton pattern book as a start ( google Denton planning department, pattern Book ) We need seed money to fund that all important regional master plan and people to push the project who think it’s important enough, who care enough. For the price of one house (200k) the future of the area could be managed and assured. This does not seem too much to ask and maybe the community foundation or Mr Praeger May think it’s important enough to take on. I sure hope so.
To fix Easton’s problems you must look at the whole area in entirety and get a master plan for the area. Without this marginal development with find the weakest link and attack. We have been Working to get such a grant from the state , working with the Mid shore community foundation. The Mid shore foundation could help finance this effort if they had the best interests in the future of the area at heart. Using a time tested regional Pattern book approach we could hold day long meetings in a community design sessions, discuss options and possible pathways to a better future with citizens , community activists, administrators , and with the help of brilliant professionals that know how manage growth in historic towns we could devise a plan .
It’s money well spent if you care enough about the future of Talbot County. As wise men say , you’d better have a plan for the future or so he future has a plan for you ( that you may not like). Let’s try to get action on a master plan before it’s too
Late, andbits getting late.
Jay Corvan Architect
[email protected]
John Dean says
Thank you for this excellent, substantive comment. I hope the right people read your comment and get you involved in the process.
Thanks for enhancing the conversation.
James Brennan says
I live in Easton and have attended many Town Council and Zoning Board meetings with the intention of trying to preserve what I found when I relocated here: a beautiful community with a livable town center. You don’t find that in many small towns anymore, and Easton’s most central neighborhoods (adjacent to the County Courthouse), are diverse in terms of resident age, economic status, ethnicity, and livelihood. The way most small towns were 65 years ago when I was young.
I don’t think Blue Point Hospitality has had much of an impact on the Town except to restore and repurpose some underutilized storefronts on Federal, Dover, and Washington streets. I don’t frequent these luxury goods and services establishments, but I think BPH has had a net positive effect on its downtown neighbors, and I applaud it for that.
I think the success or failure of Easton as a community will instead be driven by how it addresses and plans for more “Big Box Stores” and high density housing which, like the predators that have consumed so many other lovely cities and towns in our State, are coming soon to our nice little Mid Shore town. As Jay Corvan might have said, “We’re soon going to need a bigger Master Plan”.
John Dean says
Thank you for adding to the conversation. For what it’s worth, I agree with you.
I appreciate you reading the article and commenting.
Jay Corvan says
Of course this interests me to no end . I truly want to leave Easton a better place than it is now, but my experience is most people react instantly to a big bad thing and adapt too easily to minor “flux “Changes in the town force. They accept too much. I only wish people would stop wondering and start really rattling the windows of town hall. Unless council is made to do something , Wondering leads no where and is entirely too passive and only embraces the status quo. There’s more ire evoked by one Talbot boys statue than by a whole nasty sprawl being built around Easton.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Apples and oranges. Both need dedicated citizens to fight for a just county for all its citizens. That is what makes a “community”, right?!
Deirdre LaMotte says
Yes, I agree with you. Chestertown is, I believe,
the only town in the US to stop Walmart from building. It was tough and took a lot of money and organizing. Many locals who had not seen what
happens when big box stores arrived elsewhere, wanted
the convenience of the store. They did not realize that the local person who can own, say a hunting store, is the first one put out of business. A job at Walmart would be minimum wage and zero advancement. Also, Walmart is the anchor for
all the other chains; the flood gates open.
Burlington, VT did it correctly: demanded if Walmart was given the OK, the store had to move into an abandoned warehouse down town. And…not exceed a certain square foot so that local businesses could compete. Walmart jumped at the chance.
If localities demand that from developers, not cave in, a community can save its character.
And livability.
Jay Corvan says
Yes Mr Brennan. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m not aware of a single town on the eastern shore with a real Working Master plan. They are required by state law to have comprehensive plans ( updated every six years) but that kind of warm fuzzy plan is far from the power and depth of planning tool and actual legal force that a master plan can create. If it’s not in the master plan it doesn’t get built.
So Isn’t it time some town did the right thing? Short of that a regional plan that could do a master plan coop style for many towns. Kinda makes you wonder why towns leave themselves open to such obvious invasions by developers . Almost like they think they can outwit them. But not so ! They are arriving with too little and always too late.
James Brennan says
I like the idea of requiring redevelopment of empty storefronts as part of a comprehensive plan, and protecting the “walkable” nature of our downtown. Easton had an ordinance (until recently) that limited the size of retail space that could be built on a “stand-alone” basis, which a least allowed smaller shops in strip centers to take advantage of the foot traffic generated by large retailers. Our Zoning Boards must be made to serve their citizens, not prospective developers.
Jill Poe says
I grew up on Tilghman Island. Sixty years later I reside in St. Michaels after living in many other parts of the country. Seeing the change in the entire Bay Hundred region is interesting to say the least. There has been a shift away from being a community for everyone living and working here and those visiting.