The Charles County Commissioners, in partnership with the Town of Port Tobacco and the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco, have been awarded a $55,000 grant from the Maryland Heritage Area Authority Financing Fund. The grant will be used to rehabilitate Catslide, or Burch House, and provide interpretive signage in the Port Tobacco Historic District—listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989.
Burch House is historically significant as possibly the only surviving 18th century commercial building in the County and one of only three surviving buildings from that century located in the former County seat of Port Tobacco. The Heritage Area Grant represents a important partnership targeted at preservation and promotion of the County's most significant historic and cultural resources. The addition of Burch House to the other civic buildings currently open to the public in Port Tobacco—a 19th century one-room schoolhouse and the reconstructed 1819 courthouse—will provide visitors a much better look into the history and lives of our County's former citizens.