Performers

Poplar Hill Mansion is an historic house museum located near beautiful historic Downtown Salisbury, Maryland, built as the manor house of a farm outside the small eighteenth century town of Salisbury, which had slowly expanded since 1732 from a port landing site at the head of the Wicomico River, more than a half mile away. The museum interprets the Federal Period in American history, through the lives of the individuals who lived in the 1805 manor house. Those people include Dr. John Huston, Salisbury’s first surgeon, who had his medical practice in the home making Poplar Hill Mansion

Dr. John Huston tried to raise the funds to build a hospital in Salisbury to no avail. Instead, he had to practice his trade in his home. This room was probably originally intended to be a study or drawing room when the house was being built. Dr. Huston attended classes at the University of Pennsylvania, the best medical school in America at the time, and his techniques would have been considered cutting edge.

There would have been a pine table near the window, probably a painted canvas floor covering, his desk, a chair, and a small cabinet for his equipment, which would have consisted of items like a bone saw, bleeding bowl, bandages, and a myriad of other items considered crude by today’s standards. Dr. Huston would have been ready to leave at a moments notice in case of an emergency. His hat and coat would have been at the ready for him, as well as his walking cane. Surgeons wore their very best when performing operations, as it was considered a matter of status, only using a butcher’s apron to keep blood and other bodily fluids from staining their clothes. During the War of 1812, homes of prominent citizens up and down the Chesapeake Bay were burned by the British; however, Poplar Hill was spared. More than likely this is due to the status of Dr. Huston being a surgeon and his Hippocratic oath to treat any and all people in need, even enemies. British soldiers would have known this was the house of a surgeon and could bring their wounded here for treatment if need be.

Salisbury’s first hospital; Dr. Huston’s wife, Sarah, and his four daughters; and the enslaved people of Poplar Hill including Levin Huston and Solomon Huston among sixteen others.