Where We Live
Defending a Lifestyle, If Not a Republic
Like many Eastport residents, Jay and Elizabeth Kreitler (here with dogs Vox and Nero) keep their boat in the water year round.
(Photos By Marianne Kyriakos For The Washington Post)
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Saturday, November 4, 2006
Many house hunters in search of the perfect neighborhood make a list of amenities they would like. Just in case that list includes a community with its own anthem, passports, currency, navy, militia and flag, there is always Eastport.
Across the Spa Creek drawbridge from downtown Annapolis, Eastport's 1,200 residents share a chunk of land 12 blocks long and five blocks wide in Anne Arundel County. The town was settled a century ago by blue-collar boat builders and watermen.
The streets are narrow, with almost no off-street parking and none of the historic charm of Colonial Annapolis. Eastport's simple houses include single-story clapboard bungalows and Cape Cods.
"There isn't a grandeur here," said Ross Arnett, president of the Eastport Civic Association. "People almost think of the house where Grandma lived when they come over."
"We have a lot of little funky houses over here," Linda Brown said. "They're kind of like little detached row houses with nice porches on the front. They're skinny, 16-to-20-feet wide, with little lawns."
Those houses, though, "are being replaced, increasingly, by million-dollar, very narrow detached townhouses," said Roger Blau, a real estate agent with Prudential Carruthers.
Even so, Eastport still has its own flavor, said Kevin "Brother Shucker" Brooks, who describes himself as a longtime "Eastporterican and banjo/guitar guy." He and Jefferson Holland make up the neighborhood's own troubadour duo, "Them Eastport Oyster Boys."
"It is kind of a bohemian lifestyle, and we treasure and promote and protect it," he said.
Brooks and his wife, Jan, have lived in Eastport since 1989. "We have an old duplex, and the other side is two apartments that we rent to the boating community."
Many Eastport residents are year-round sailors who never take their boats out of the water.
"The crazy people put their boats away; I don't know any in Eastport that do," said Arnett, who retired from Washington and a career that included a role on the Clinton administration's health-care reform team. "We went from a house on Capitol Hill to a huge Colonial in Columbia." Then came Eastport. "We were looking to downsize, and boy did we ever -- from 4,600 square feet to 1,200 and one bathroom."
A sailor, Arnett has used his boat on Christmas and New Year's Day. "We have 'frostbite races' all year long," he said.
