Nanticoke is a quiet community between two rivers
Nanticoke's secluded setting between the Wicomico and Nanticoke rivers allows for a slow-paced lifestyle. Locals can spend their days riding bikes to public beaches and boating in Nanticoke Harbor. The eastern part of the community is hemmed in by a needlerush-covered marshland, where hunting, fishing, and kayaking are popular. While there aren’t any stores or restaurants in town, this solitude is why people from the nearby city of Salisbury tend to relocate here. “I have so many friends who have purchased a house and retired in Nanticoke,” says Ann Hammond, a Realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate who has sold homes in the area since the 1980s. “Even I want to retire there one day. All you do is fish, boat and go to the beach.”
Waterfront homes and working farms coexist in Nanticoke
Houses built between the late 1800s and early 2000s dot Nanticoke’s asphalt roads. Farmhouses, ranch styles and New Traditional homes are all common here. Waterfront houses often have docks or boat slips. Some properties are working farms with soybean and wheat fields. Fixer-uppers and inland homes can cost between around $50,000 and $365,000, while waterfront houses typically sell in the $550,000 to $875,000 range. Heavy rainfall and tropical storms can cause the rivers to overflow. Parts of Nanticoke are in FEMA-designated, high-risk flood zones, where homeowners must have flood insurance.
Nanticoke has a harbor, beaches and marshland
Commercial fishermen and recreational boaters dock at Nanticoke Harbor, which has 68 slips available to rent at daily and annual rates. A rocky jetty stretches alongside the harbor’s small sandy beach, where people often catch yellow perch and largemouth bass. Several paddleboat launches are in the Ellis Bay Wildlife Management Area, a 3,200-acre marshland that offers rabbit, duck and deer hunting. As kayakers paddle through the area’s winding creeks, they may see crabbing pots peeking out of the water and bald eagle nests perched atop pine trees. Shallow water gently laps against the sandy shoreline at Shady Point Park, another public beach in the area. The adjacent Roaring Point Waterfront Campground has 130 RV campsites. “There aren’t really any rental houses, so that’s where vacationers stay,” Hammond says. “But nobody considers this a tourist-heavy place because campers usually just stay on-site and take their boats out.” Nanticoke United Methodist Church is in a Gothic Revival-style building next to the post office.
Public schools earn B-minus grades or higher
Wicomico County Public Schools serve the area. Kids can attend Westside Primary for prekindergarten through second grade and Westside Intermediate from second to fifth grade. Both schools earn B grades from Niche. Students may continue to B-minus-rated Salisbury Middle and B-rated James M. Bennett High, where career pathway programs include accounting, graphic design and marketing. Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore are both less than 25 miles away.
Boaters can dock at The Red Roost
There’s a gas pump at Nanticoke’s Napa AutoCare Center, but that’s the only commercial space in the community. “People here actually love taking their boats to different waterfront bars anyway, so the lack of restaurants and stores isn’t a big deal,” Hammond says. Boaters can cruise east on the Wicomico River to reach The Red Roost, a crab shack with a lively waterfront bar. The restaurant is less than 9 miles away by car. Cedar Hill General Store, about 2 miles north, sells a few items, but Salisbury, 20 miles east, has big-box grocery stores like Walmart Supercenter and Food Lion.
Horses, bikes and golf carts share the road here
Though locals often take golf carts or ride bikes to the beach and harbor, people who live in Nanticoke rely on cars. Drivers frequently share the road with horseback riders. “A lot of people who have land also have a horse and just ride them around town for fun,” Hammond says. State Route 349, locally called Nanticoke Road, reaches Salisbury, home to the Salisbury Regional Airport and the TidalHealth Peninsula Regional hospital. The Whitehaven Ferry, about 10 miles east, carries drivers over the Wicomico River into southwest Salisbury. “If you need to get to that part of the city, the ferry saves like 20 minutes,” Hammond says.
