Dorchester

Formed January 1, 1669 (9^th county)

Dorchester County (32,530), Cambridge (13,094)

A masonry Italianate/Georgian Revival/Queen Anne courthouse in Cambridge was constructed in 1854 and remodeled/enlarged in 1931.  The courthouse is at High Street and Court Lane.  United States Highway 50 is seven blocks to the east.  Richard Upjohn provided the courthouse designs.  An Administration Building was built in 1968.  An augmenting District Courthouse is a converted Guard Armory.  The courthouse grounds have a Liberty Bell and Lady Justice.  Cambridge is the only county seat.  The county was created on January 1, 1669 as the 9^th county.  The county is named for the Earl of Dorset.  Cambridge is named for Cambridge, England.  Dorchester County was the birthplace of 5 Maryland Governors, John Henry, Charles Goldsborough, Thomas H. Hicks, Henry Lloyd, and Emerson C. Harrington. 

Dorchester County government consists of an administrator, and a sheriff (executive).  It has 5 Council Members (legislative.)  Seven Circuit Court Judges and Five District Court Judges serve Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties and a court clerk and county attorney serve Dorchester County (judicial.) Dorchester County is in southeast Maryland.  The Chesapeake Bay is on its western border.  The county center is 13.5 miles Southwest of Cambridge nearer Church Creek.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Caroline County and Delaware and Wicomico, Somerset, Saint Mary’s, Calvert, and Talbot counties. 

The area of the county is 983 square miles.  It is 1 out of 24 in the state.  It ranks 21 out of 24 in population in the state.  It has a density of 33.1 persons per square mile making it 24 out of 24 in the state.  Dorchester County has 51.0% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 50 enters the county from the north, Talbot County, and exits to the east, Wicomico County.  The county is in eastern Maryland.  The county is shaped like a ghost floating northeast.  Cambridge is on the northern border of the county.  Cambridge is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 40.3% of the county population.  This county is in the Cambridge Micropolitan Statistical Area.