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Place Name
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Cambridge
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Pronunciation
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KAIM-brij
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Place Status (Type)
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city
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Capital Of
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Dorchester County
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Population
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11,514 (1990)
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Location
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Dorchester County, Maryland (MD), United States, North America
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Latitude
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38°34'N
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Longitude
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76°05'W
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Cambridge
(KAIM-brij), city (1990 pop. 11,514),
 Dorchester co., E Md., Eastern Shore, a port of entry on the
Choptank R. at its mouth on Chesapeake Bay; 38°34'N 76°05'W. It was
founded 1684 and named after the univ. town in England. A prosperous
canning and fishpacking area for many years, the closing of a major
company in 1962 put 1,200 out of work and exacerbated racial tensions.
In June 1963, demonstrations against restaurants that refused to serve
blacks triggered civil disorders, and caused the governor, Spiro Agnew,
later vice president of the U.S., to send in the Natl. Guard. The guard
remained for almost a year. A federal job-training program, in addition
to a governor's committee and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in
the summer of 1964, reduced tensions. Still a fishing and yachting
center, Cambridge now has a printing plant as well as electronics
firms. Five Md. governors are buried in the graveyard of Christ
Protestant Episcopal Church (c.1882), built after the original bldg.
dating from the 1690s was burned. Inc. 1745.
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