Essex

Advertised in a 1909 sales brochure as �The Rising Suburb of the East,� Essex, Maryland, has seen its fate and fortune rise and fall and rise again. The town enjoyed its early reputation as a haven for city dwellers with picnic groves, hunting and fishing clubs, dance halls, and waterfront amusement parks. The boom continued with new jobs and prosperity until the 1950s, when a fire destroyed much of the town�s main street. Economic decay set in as a result of the loss of industry and an influx o