The 2025 Ornament

The 2025 Christmas in St. Michaels Collectors Ornament is the 22nd in the series and depicts the Teetotum Building at the St. Michaels Museum at St. Mary’s Square. The image was provided by local artist Maggii Sarfaty.

The distinctive Teetotum Building, the central of three buildings comprising the St. Michaels Museum, was moved to its current site at the corner of East Chestnut Street and St. Mary’s Square in 1968. The building dates to the 1850s and was given its unusual name because its roof structure resembled a “Teetotum” spinning top.  A teetotum refers to a gambling spinning top –a stick on which was mounted a four, six or eight-sided disk that was spun with the object of winning a pool. It has also been called the “teetotal” because it is a totally square building.

Around 1940 the building was remodeled into a single room and local barber Eugene Harrison located “Gene’s Barber Shop” there from 1937 – 1968. The barber’s chair and shoeshine remain in their original places today. The building was given to the Museum by the bank and moved to its current location. Museum exhibits tell of key periods of history in St. Michaels including life on St. Mary’s Square, the original heart of the town, two attacks by the British in 1813 and the life and times of Frederick Douglass.