Sitting right on Route 301 in Newburg is one of Southern Maryland’s most impressive military displays, made to honor veterans and give relics of conflict a place to be venerated.
The Maryland Veterans Museum at Patriot Park strives to recognize and honor all United States military veterans.
In January 2002, the Charles County commissioners established the Charles County Veterans Memorial Committee to develop a plan for locating, designing, funding and constructing a permanent memorial to honor the county’s veterans. This concept was amended in January 2008 to include all veterans, according to the museum’s website.
The commissioners authorized the leasing of the old Glasva Elementary School site for the museum. The site has a total of 7.7 acres located on the northbound side of Route 301.
“We want [visitors] to understand that it’s more than a memorial to veterans,” Lawrence Abell, the museum’s president, said. “It’s a location to celebrate those that have sacrificed, but more than anything to understand the lessons of all the conflicts that we had, how we got into them, why we got into them, why we possibly should not have gotten into them and have a different appreciation for how we got to where we are today.”