02-16-2023 Howard Mag - Flipbook - Page 10
WELCOME
forest in the early 1700s.
Once farms were established, mills for cotton,
lumber and corn, and furnaces for iron dredged
from the riverbanks were built. The Ellicott
brothers, Quakers from Pennsylvania, arrived
in 1772 with a mission to convert farmers from
tobacco to wheat. They settled in a hollow on
the Patapsco River and sparked a vast number
of changes in the county.
Through their leadership, a road from Baltimore to Frederick was started — appropriately
named Frederick Road. The Ellicott brothers
also aided the beginning of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, with its first terminus in Ellicott
City.
During the Civil War, Howard County sent
its sons to both Confederate and Union armies,
splitting families and communities. A portion
of the Underground Railroad ran along U.S. 1 to
Baltimore.
Heavily guarded by Union soldiers, the
Thomas Viaduct Railroad Bridge in Elkridge
served as part of the only rail line into Washington, D.C. In the late 1880s, the railroad brought
the Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge, the sole
surviving example of an evolutionary design in
the history of American bridge engineering, to
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| Winter 2023 | howardmagazine.com
Savage Mill.
In the 19th century, the county became a
haven for wealthy Baltimore and Washington
residents who built summer homes, searching
for relief in the fresh country air.
THE NEW CITY
AND BEYOND
Until the 1950s, the county didn’t change
much from its established agrarian lifestyle. It
was then that suburban development — restaurants, motels and shops — began to appear along
main arteries, attracting more residents.
In 1965, the county accepted the ambitious
plans of developer James W. Rouse to buy
14,000 acres and build a planned city of 110,000
people. Rouse’s vision included the values of
racial, religious and economic diversity and harmony, as well as a convenient and aesthetically
pleasing place to live and work.
His plan included 10 villages, each with its
own shopping area, recreation sites and school.
Business parks would fringe the city, and a
commercial downtown area would center on an
indoor shopping mall and lakefront entertainment center.
Today, Columbia boasts hundreds of eateries,
along with lakefront festivals and Merriweather
Post Pavilion, a nationally known amphitheater
that draws about 250,000 people to concerts
each year. The Columbia Association, the city’s
quasi-governmental organization, runs a network of pools, gyms, recreation sites and more.
The city’s core is being redeveloped as part of
a 30-year master plan approved in 2010 to add
up to 5,500 homes and 6 million square feet of
office and retail space, along with new cultural
amenities.
In recent years, The Mall in Columbia
expanded its shopping and dining options and
opened a new wing of shops and restaurants
with outdoor entrances.
As Columbia has grown and developed, so
have the surrounding areas of Ellicott City,
Elkridge, Clarksville, Highland, Fulton, North
Laurel, Savage and western Howard County.
Howard’s population has grown around
15.9% between 2010 and 2021. The thriving
atmosphere for housing, jobs, places of worship,
schools, parks, shopping centers and recreational areas makes Howard County a valued place to
live and work.