Maryland Route 20

Maryland Route 20
Maryland Route 20 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDSHA
Length:	13.77 mi (22.16 km)
Existed:	1927 – present
Tourist routes:	Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway
Major junctions
West end:	Beach Road / Lawton Avenue in Rock Hall
	MD 445 in Rock Hall MD 288 in Rock Hall MD 21 near Fairlee MD 298 at Fairlee MD 446 near Chestertown MD 514 in Chestertown MD 291 in Chestertown
East end:	High Street in Chestertown
Location
Counties:	Kent
Highway system
Maryland highway system Interstate US State Scenic Byways ← MD 19 MD 21 →

Maryland Route 20 (MD 20) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 13.77 miles (22.16 km) from Beach Road and Lawton Avenue in Rock Hall east to MD 291 in Chestertown. MD 20 connects Chestertown with several villages in western Kent County, including Fairlee. The highway was designated one of the original state roads to be improved by the Maryland State Roads Commission in 1909 and was built between the mid-1910s and early 1920s. MD 20 was widened in the late 1940s and received bypasses of Fairlee and in Rock Hall in the mid-1950s and late 1950s, respectively. The highway was removed from the center of Chestertown in the mid-1980s.

MD 20 begins at an intersection with Beach Road and Lawton Avenue just east of where Swan Creek empties into the Chesapeake Bay in the town of Rock Hall. The highway heads east as two-lane Rock Hall Avenue between a pair of harbors: The Haven to the north and Rock Hall Harbor to the south. MD 20 intersects MD 445 (Main Street) on the north end of downtown and gains a center turn lane between there and the east town limit at Grays Inn Creek. East of the creek, the highway's name becomes Rock Hall Road, and it meets the eastern end of MD 674 (Sharp Street) and the north end of MD 288 (Crosby Road). MD 20 heads northeast through the hamlet of Edesville and crosses Shipyard Creek. The highway passes to the west of St. Paul's Church, which is accessed via Ricauds Branch Road or Sandy Bottom Road; opposite the latter county highway is the eastern end of MD 21 (Tolchester Beach Road).