Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainCirca-1835 East Market Street Building, Closed Since 2005
104 East Market Street, Snow Hill, MD 21863
Research updated May 2026
Age
Public-road exterior viewing only; the building is currently vacant.
Cost
Free
Drive-by viewing of the building exterior is free. The Snow Hill Inn building has been vacant since 2005.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved town sidewalk
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1835 · Circa-1835 Snow Hill commercial building · Aydelotte family residence (early twentieth century) · Featured on National Geographic 'Is It Real?' (2005)
The building now known as the Snow Hill Inn was built circa 1835 at 104 East Market Street in the Eastern Shore town of Snow Hill, Maryland — the seat of Worcester County and one of Maryland's older surviving colonial-era towns. The building has gone through several uses over its roughly two-century history: private residence, post office, multi-family apartment building, restaurant, and small inn.
The most-documented family connection is to the Aydelottes, who occupied the property during the early twentieth century. William James Aydelotte, a 21-year-old University of Maryland School of Pharmacology student, died by suicide at the property in 1904 — a tragedy referenced in surviving Baltimore Sun coverage and in subsequent ghost-tour and local-history sources. The published accounts handle the death with clinical restraint; this listing follows that convention. The historical record does not support escalation beyond the documented facts.
The building operated as the Snow Hill Inn — a small inn and restaurant — through the late twentieth century and into the early 2000s. The 2005 National Geographic television program 'Is It Real?' featured the property in an episode on ghost-tourism establishments. The building was vacated shortly after that broadcast and has stood unoccupied on East Market Street since.
Chesapeake Ghost Tours and other licensed Snow Hill walking-tour operators include the building's exterior as a stop on town walks. Interior access is not available; the property is private and the public-facing engagement is exterior-only.
Sources
The Snow Hill Inn's paranormal reputation took shape during the inn-and-restaurant operational decades of the late twentieth century. Inn employees, owners, guests, contractors, children, and area residents all generated reports during the active period, and the published accounts converge on a consistent set of phenomena: doors locking, windows opening, lights cycling, fire alarms triggering, candles extinguishing, fireplaces igniting, reflections in mirrors, and beds shaking. The 1993 Baltimore Sun feature documents owner and staff reports from that period, and the property was the subject of a 2005 National Geographic 'Is It Real?' segment.
The figure attributed to the activity in local-tour interpretation is William Aydelotte, the pharmacology student who died at the property in 1904; the initials 'J.J.' are the locally-used designation, though the underlying derivation of that nickname is unclear in published sources. This listing presents the historical account with the same clinical restraint used in the Baltimore Sun and licensed-tour treatment of the case: the death occurred, the family was documented in Snow Hill town records, and the property's haunted reputation traces to that family history.
With the building unoccupied since 2005, current reports are limited to exterior observations from ghost-walk participants and town residents. The interior phenomena documented during the operational decades cannot be currently verified, and Chesapeake Ghost Tours presents the building's history rather than active paranormal investigation.
Media Appearances
Chesapeake Ghost Tours runs a guided Snow Hill walking program that includes the exterior of the Snow Hill Inn building as a stop. The walk discusses the Aydelotte family history of the building and the National Geographic 'Is It Real?' coverage from the 2000s. Public-road exterior viewing only; do not enter the property.
The Snow Hill Inn building stands on East Market Street in the Snow Hill town center, viewable from the public sidewalk during any daylight hours. The building has been unoccupied since shortly after the 2005 National Geographic broadcast.
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