You are now entering the heart of the modern-day Hill Community.

Soon after the Civil War ended, the Maryland and Delaware Railroad came to Easton. The arrival of the new rail line in 1869 helped both the town and The Hill Community grow. Newly freed African Americans joined those already here, often taking employment in the factories, canneries, and warehouses supported by the railroad. Others worked in hospitality and construction.

This influx of new residents created the need for more housing. The National Folk Style architecture that you see here became the dominant influence on the construction of new houses in the United States during the 1870s through the 1910s and formed the cadence of the expansion of The Hill Community.

These houses were built in three types – the railroad house with a gabled front, the matchbox house with eaves front, and the duplex. Typically built along railroad lines, these houses were constructed with inexpensive, mass produced materials, as builders were no longer limited to local resources.

You will see many National Folk Style houses in The Hill Community, including Butlers Row, the duplexes that face Talbot Street and stretch down to Higgins Street. The houses were so named because many of the men living here worked as butlers to Easton’s Tidewater Inn. These structures are two stories and are clad with wood shingles. Each unit is two bays wide.

Today, Easton’s Rails-To-Trails pathway forms the eastern boundary of The Hill Community.