Historically this waterfront was known as Brown’s Point and was the terminal of the Old Post Road on the west side of the river. It was also a rail ferrying site, the City Wharf (or City Dock) and then a transfer facility for railroad cars to a steam ferry, which for a period during winter 1852 necessitated laying tracks across the ice for the trains. The Ferry Wharf (or Mr. Brown’s Wharf) was constructed in March 1831, before the Seneca Cannery was built at St. John Street.

A steam-powered ferry boat transported the rail cars (but not the locomotives) across the river to Perryville and back from 1837 until 1866. The first ferry used was the 453-ton “Susquehanna” under Captain William W. Virdin (1803-1871), with 1,200-person capacity, replaced in 1853 by the “Maryland.” The “Maryland” was the first steel ferry boat to transfer the complete train and was large enough to transport passengers also. After the first bridge was built across the Susquehanna River in 1866, the “Maryland” was no longer needed and eventually was sold to a company in New York where it continued to transport railroad cars across the East River until she caught fire and burned in 1888.

The Havre de Grace/Perryville Rail Ferry Service was the first operational Railroad Ferry in the United States. The relatively light cars were pulled by horses onto the ferry boats. Early spring flooding of the river often delayed traffic, as did storms and ice flows. However, this brought hotel and tavern trade to the town, a big factor in developing the city.

To get to the ferry a single track railroad was built from west of the city to the River to carry passengers and freight. “The Cut,” as it was called, was the section of the railroad spur that ran west to east along St. Clair Street from 1836 beneath retaining walls and dropping below wooden bridges on Stokes Street, Washington Street, and Union Avenue. The Cut allowed trains to travel from west of the city from 1836 to the water. The Cut was filled in during 1958 (because the trains had stopped running) with dirt that came from the Hebditch property on the north side of US Route 40 at Lewis Lane. It took 2,700 truckloads by 20-ton dump trucks to fill in The Cut. Once The Cut was filled in, bridges were removed and the streets were leveled and paved.

A previous building at the water, rebuilt in 1815, was used for many years as the First National Bank of Havre de Grace. In 1836 Abraham Jarrett Thomas sold the building to John Donahoo (1786-1858), a sergeant in the militia in 1812 and builder of the Concord Point Lightstation. He established the United States Hotel here with three stories and river-facing double chimneys. “U.S. Hotel” appears in this location on the Jennings and Herrick 1858 Map of Harford County. It also had piers for finished goods to be ferried by boat or train across the river (a photo shows the United States Hotel building on the left). In 1838, Donahoo sold the hotel to the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore (PW&B) Railroad Company. In 1878 the United States Hotel was refitted and renovated by R.T. Clayton but just one year later a huge fire ravaged it. The PW&B Railroad had to pull down the remaining walls and remove debris.

There were four bulkhead wharves below the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad Bridge in 1913; Pusey & Company owned one at 300 by 100 feet; Vanneman 200 by 100 feet; and S.J. Seneca, fruit packer, 100 by 50 feet. All wharves were improved by small frame buildings that were five feet above mean low water. The Tolchester Steamboat Company owned one that was 500 feet long by 125 feet wide. [Water Terminal and Transfer Facilities, Letter from the Acting Secretary of War, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Doc 228, September 5, 1913.]

In 1961, the former “St. Clair Street” was renamed “Pennington Avenue” in honor of George T. Pennington (1871-1947), an undertaker, who was mayor of Havre de Grace from 1923-1936. The foot of Pennington Avenue at the water is now the location of Seneca Point Condominiums, built in 1995-1997. Some of the condos were built on landfill.