D.C. commuter suburb in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay
Stevensville, paired with neighboring Chester, make up Kent Island, a Queen Anne’s County community notable for its position in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Though its location could lend itself to a seasonal population, Stevensville functions much like a typical outer-ring D.C. suburb, but for its collection of marinas, bayfront preserves and traffic-prone, bay-spanning sections of U.S. Route 50. Kathleen Higginbotham, team leader of the Keller Williams Shore Home Team who’s known to many as “Kent Island Kathy,” lays out the parts of everyday life that set Stevensville apart from landlocked locales: “Everybody realizes, ‘Why not live here, where I can go paddleboard on my lunch break.’ Our morning routine includes feeding the crab traps. We can take a boat to dinner and watch the sunset over Chesapeake Bay. It’s like living on vacation.”
Stevensville is a Bay front community on the outskirts of Baltimore and D.C.
Take out the paddle board and cruise around the Chesapeake Bay in Stevensville.
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Classic suburbs and Chesapeake Bay views in Stevensville
Stevensville’s residential blocks and winding subdivisions wouldn’t look out of place in any other Maryland suburb. Some lawn-lined streets are dominated by the ranch-style homes and colonials popular from the midcentury through the 1990s, while New Traditional designs characterize communities built in the last couple of decades. Townhouses and other condo complexes are also common. Proximity to the waterfront can cause home prices to soar into the millions, whether in the form of a condo or the rarer, custom-built luxury home. The median single-family home price is $600,000, higher than the national median.
Live in a beautiful townhome when you move to Stevensville.
New traditional homes are common around the Stevensville neighborhood.
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Boating, fishing and biking around Kent Island
Annapolis is often called the sailing capital of the world. Across the Chesapeake, kayaks, paddleboats and motorboats fill the same waters around Kent Island, launched from marinas, private docks and municipal slips. Chesapeake Bay beaches, fishing piers and tranquil trails fill waterfront parks and preserves like Matapeake Park and Terrapin Park. The Cross Island and South Island trails offer routes for walkers and bikers across the island. Old Love Point Park is a more typical suburban park, full of playground equipment and fields for youth league baseball games.
Matapeake State Park in Stevensville offers stunning views of the Chesapeake Bay.
Old Love Point Park includes walking trails for exercise and relaxation in Stevensville.
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Dual enrollment at Kent Island High
Stevensville is served by Queen Anne County Public Schools, which earns an A-minus from Niche. Kent Island has its own collection of public schools separate from the mainland, including the A-minus-rated Kent Island High School, which offers a dual enrollment program in partnership with Chesapeake College.
Chesapeake College near Stevensville offers students great 4 year programs.
Kent Island High School in Stevensville helps students excel in and outside the classroom.
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Shopping and dining on U.S. Route 50 and the Chesapeake Bay
Despite being on an island, Stevensville has its own strip mall district, and even its own Target, just off U.S. Route 50. Alongside plenty of landlocked restaurants, some of the community’s best-loved eateries offer fresh seafood, bayfront views and, sometimes, even boat parking at attached marinas. A handful of churches hold services throughout Stevensville.
Need some ingredients for dinner? Swing by Target in Stevensville.
Get drinks right on the water at Pour House Pub in Stevensville.
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First Saturdays and Kent Island Day in the Stevensville Historic District
Many of Stevensville’s frequent community events are full-island affairs. The Kent Island Farmers’ Market is open every Thursday afternoon. Many preserved buildings in the Stevensville Historic District offer First Saturday walking tours on afternoons through the warmer months. Each May, celebrants in colonial garb put on Kent Island Day, an event filled with historic reenactments, plenty of vendors and live music commemorating Kent Island’s role as the oldest English settlement in Maryland.
Bay Bridge commuting from Stevensville
Stevensville’s residents often travel to work in big cities across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. U.S. Route 50 starts commuters on a roughly 45-mile drive to Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Annapolis is just across the bridge, about 15 miles from home. The Stevensville Park & Ride offers access to County Ride buses and Maryland Transit Administration buses. The University of Maryland Medical System operates an urgent care center on the island and an emergency center less than 10 miles away near Queenstown. While Bay Bridge Airport is on the island, most will head to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport for commercial flights, about 35 miles from home.
Crime, weather, flooding and traffic patterns in Stevensville
Stevensville is served by the Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office which contributes crime data to the Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services. According to the 2023 Annual Report and Scorecard on Quantifiable Safety Indicators, the crime rate in the county was 1,062 per 100,000 people in 2022, among the lowest in the state and less than a third of Maryland’s overall crime rate.
Stevensville experiences four temperate seasons, including hot summers and freezing winters.
Despite sitting at the center of Chesapeake Bay, Stevensville is not especially flood-prone; Kent Island’s elevation and building requirements are such that most buyers will not require flood insurance. Summertime traffic on U.S. Route 50, thanks to tourists bound for Ocean City, is less avoidable. Higginbotham offers some tongue-in-cheek traffic avoidance advice: “We learn the ins and outs, that it’s good to go to the grocery store on Wednesday instead of Friday. Or you buy a boat.”
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