Towson, Maryland Towson, Maryland Towson horizon from the south on York Road Towson horizon from the south on York Road Location of Towson, Maryland Location of Towson, Maryland Towson (/ ta s n/) is an unincorporated improve and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland.
It is the governmental center of county of Baltimore County and the second-most populated unincorporated governmental center of county in the United States (after Ellicott City, Maryland in close-by Howard County). 6.2 Towson Town Center 6.5 Towson Place 6.6 Towson Center & Unitas Stadium The historic 1854 Baltimore County Courthouse positioned in Towson, Maryland The first inhabitants of the future Towson and central Baltimore County region were the Susquehannock Indians who hunted in the area.
Towson was settled in 1752 when two Pennsylvania brothers, William and Thomas Towson, began farming an region of Sater's Hill, northeast of the present-day York and Joppa Roads. William's son, Ezekiel, opened the Towson Hotel to serve the increasing traffic of farmers bringing their produce and livestock to the port of Baltimore.
Towson positioned the hotel at current-day Shealy Avenue and York Road, near the area's chief crossroads. The village became known as "Towsontown". The property in West Towson came from two territory grants: 400 acre Gott's Hope in 1719 and Gunner's Range in 1706. In 1790, businessman Capt.
Grafton Bosley (1825-1901) and his wife Margaret Nicholson then assembled a new home in an region of the property known as 'Highlands' or 'Highland Park' that they titled 'Uplands'. After the ratification of the second Maryland Constitution of 1851, which provided for the jurisdictional separation of the former Baltimore Town, established 1729, which had served as the governmental center of county since 1767, now the City of Baltimore, since its incorporation in 1796 97 by the General Assembly of Maryland.
After a series of elections and popular votes, on February 13, 1854, Towson became the choice of the remaining, now mostly rural, eastern, northern and portions of the County as the new governmental center of county of Baltimore County by prominent vote. The Court House, still in use by 2015, with its various annexes (and the separate county courts and administrative building) was originally designed by the small-town town/city architectural firm of Dixon, Balbirnie and Dixon and instead of inside a year, constructed of limestone and marble donated by the well-known Ridgely family of close-by Hampton Mansion, on territory donated by Towson doctor Grafton Marsh Bosley. The County Courthouse was later enlarged in 1910 through additional designs for north and south wings by well-known and regarded town/city architects, Baldwin & Pennington.
An additional modernistic Baltimore County Courts Building, with room for the new charter government since 1956 and administration of a county executive and county council, plus administrative and executive departments was erected in 1970 71 athwart a plaza to the west of the older historic courthouse and series of additions The old Baltimore County Jail was assembled in 1855, and was later replaced by the 1980s by a new undivided Baltimore County Detention Center, north of the town on Kenilworth Avenue, with an addition constructed in the 2010s.
From 1850 to 1874, another notable territory owner, Amos Matthews, had a farm of 150 acres (0.61 km2) that with the exception of the 17-acre (69,000 m2) largely natural parcel where the Kelso Home for Girls (currently Towson YMCA), was later erected was wholly advanced into the neighborhoods of West Towson, Southland Hills and other subdivisions beginning in the middle 1920s. The former Grafton Bosley estate "Uplands", Towson Maryland.
Many of Towson's people were sympathetic to the southern Confederate cause, so much so that Ady's Hotel, (later the Towson Hotel) and the current site of the 1920s-era Towson Theatre (for movies) and presently the Recher Theatre, flew a Southern flag. The Union Army found it necessary to overtake the town by force on June 2, 1861. During the raid, the Union Army seized weapons from people at Ady's Hotel. A small-town paper, in jest, referred to Towson as the "strongly fortified and almost impregnable town/city of Towsontown" and downplays the need for the attack, stating, "the distinguished Straw, with only two hundred and fifty men, has taken a whole town/city and nearly frightened two old women out of their wits." The First and Second Maryland Cavalry, led by Baltimore County native and pre-war member of the Towson Horse Guards, Maj.
Gilmor, of "Glen Ellen", attacked strategic targets throughout Baltimore and Harford counties, including cutting telegraph wires along Harford Road, capturing two trains and a Union General, and destroying a barns bridge in Joppa, Maryland.
Following what became known as Gilmor's Raid, the cavalry encamped in Towson overnight at Ady's Hotel where his men rested and Gilmor met with friends. The next day, a large federal cavalry unit was dispatched from Baltimore to overtake Gilmor's forces.
Although outnumbered by more than two to one, the Confederate cavalry attacked the federal unit, breaking the federal unit and chasing them down York Road to around current day Woodbourne Avenue inside Baltimore City limits. Gilmor's forces traveled south along York Road as far south as Govans, before heading west to rejoin Gen.
The Towson fire of 1878 finished most of the 500 block along the York Turnpike causing an estimated $38,000 in damage. Most residences lay inside Towson proper: no homes existed west of Central Avenue along Allegheny or Pennsylvania avenues, and there were only three homes along the West Chesapeake Avenue corridor. In the 1910s, the Maryland State Normal School (now known as Towson University) was relocated to Towson.
The Maryland Legislature had established the MSNS in 1865 as Maryland's first teacher-training school, or normal school. This institution officially opened its doors on 15 January 1866, but as time passed, enrollment in the school interval exponentially, rendering the facilities inadequate.
In 1910, the General Assembly formed a committee to oversee site selection, budget, and design plans for the new campus, which settled on an 80-acre (320,000 m2) site in Towson and the General Assembly financed the $600,000 move in 1912. Construction began in 1913 on the Administration Building, now known as Stephens Hall.
In September 1915, the new campus, comprising Stephens Hall, Newell Hall, and the power plant, began classes. The college underwent various name changes, settling on Towson University in 1997.
As the expansion of Baltimore's suburbs became more pronounced after World War II, considerable office evolution took place in Towson's central core area.
In 1839, Epsom Chapel became the first Christian home of worship in Towson, used by various denominations. As the populace interval in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a several churches were assembled to serve the community, such as Calvary Baptist Church, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, First Methodist Church, and Towson Presbyterian Church.
Epsom Chapel was completed in 1950 when Goucher College sold a portion of its property for evolution of the Towson Plaza shopping center, now Towson Town Center.
First Methodist Church moved in 1958 to territory also acquired from Goucher College and is now Towson United Methodist Church. Author Robert Coston, who interval up in the region of Towson now called "Historic East Towson," recalled in an interview the unique black history of that region during the mid-century: "I think that the Towson, Maryland region that I am familiar with differs from other parts of Maryland because of the adjacency to one of the biggest slave plantations in the country.
The Ridgely Plantation which owned all of the property from Baltimore County to Baltimore City and other encircling areas.
Every African American school age child in Baltimore County had to attend school at some point at Carver in East Towson.
The improve is positioned immediately north of Baltimore City, inside the Beltway (I-695), east of I-83 and along York Road.
Major neighborhoods in Towson include Anneslie, Idlewylde, Greenbriar, Southland Hills, Rodgers Forge, Stoneleigh, Wiltondale, Towson Manor Village, Hunt Crest Estates, Knollwood-Donnybrook, East Towson, Loch Raven Village and West Towson.
Ruxton, which lies to the west, is sometimes considered a part of Towson.
The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is headquartered at Suite 1000 at 300 East Joppa Road in the Towson CDP. Major roads in Towson include: The Towson region has a several bus lines directed by the Maryland Transit Administration.
Route 48 Quick - Bus, which operates between Towson Town Center and downtown Baltimore along the same route as #8, except with limited stops for a speedier trip Towson also has light rail service to downtown Baltimore and BWI Airport along its periphery via the Lutherville and Falls Road stops, though there are no stops actually in Towson.
Towson University and Goucher College also operate bus services for their students, and the Collegetown Shuttle has a several stops in the area.
It will include the addition of bicycle lanes on a several major streets encircling the downtown area. The chief loop includes Bosley Avenue (which is part of Maryland Route 45 Bypass), Fairmount Avenue, and Goucher Boulevard; these three roads will receive full bike lanes.
"Ma & Pa" train crossing York Road, Towson, in the 1950s the bridge was removed in 1959 Railroad service began to Towson on April 17, 1882, with assembly of the Baltimore & Delta Railway Company, soon retitled the Baltimore & Lehigh Railroad and later reorganized as the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad.
The "Ma and Pa", as it was affectionately known locally, formerly directed between Baltimore and York, Pennsylvania, through Towson.
Passenger service was discontinued on August 31, 1954, and the barns line through Towson was finally abandoned altogether on June 11, 1958, leaving only the contemporary abutments where the tracks crossed York Road on a steel girder bridge. One passenger on the last passenger train recalled that many riders came from as far away as Boston and Washington, D.C., to participate in the historic event, along with members of the National Railway Historical Society. Historic Towson, a small-town group of history buffs, installed a bronze plaque on the west abutment in 1999, commemorating the defunct barns 's place in Towson's history. Towson features some of Baltimore County's biggest shopping centers as well as other prominent venues of interest.
Main article: Towson Town Center Towson Town Center is Baltimore County's biggest indoor mall with four stories of shops and a parking garage, which is also linked to some other shops athwart the street, including a Barnes & Noble, which structurally is beneath Joppa Road near the Towson Circle.
Also close-by is Allegheny Avenue, the chief street of downtown Towson, which offers a range of small-town eateries.
Main article: Towson Place Towson Place is a primary shopping region near Joppa Road, Goucher Boulevard, and Putty Hill Avenue.
Renovated in the early 1980s to an indoor mall and retitled Towson Marketplace, the locale was then redeveloped in 1998 as an open-air compilation of big box stores and other stores and restaurants, including a Walmart, Target, Marshall's, Sports Authority, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Towson Place is next to Calvert Hall College High School.
Towson Center & Unitas Stadium Main articles: Towson Center, Unitas Stadium, and SECU Arena Towson University's arena Towson Center and stadium Unitas Stadium are both chief venues for Towson Tiger athletics and other affairs.
Towson University is a enhance school in southern Towson.
Towson University's student populace is greater than 20,000, making it the second biggest institution in the University System of Maryland.
Towson High School Towson is served by the Baltimore County Public Schools district, and the Baltimore County Board of Education command posts is positioned here as well.
Towson High School was the first secondary school established and is Towson's largest, while Loch Raven High School dates from 1972.
Towson is served by seven enhance elementary schools: Rodgers Forge, Stoneleigh, Riderwood, Hampton, West Towson, Pleasant Plains and Cromwell Valley Regional Magnet School of Technology, which serves students from all over Baltimore County.
Towson is served by two enhance middle schools, Dumbarton Middle School and Loch Raven Technical Academy.
Also positioned in Towson is Ridge Ruxton School, a special education school serving the central region of Baltimore County, including Reisterstown, Owings Mills, Parkville, Cockeysville, and Hunt Valley.
The Towson region has a number of long-established private schools at the secondary school level, including Calvert Hall College High School, Loyola Blakefield, Concordia Preparatory School, Notre Dame Preparatory School.
Stoneleigh-Rodgers Forge, a former census-designated place positioned inside Towson amid the 1960 census.
"Towson, Maryland: A Great Place to Live, Work & Play! "Towson: A Pictorial History of a Maryland Town", page 13, by Henry George Hahn, Carl Behm, 1977, Donning Company, ISBN 0-915442-36-1 a b c d A Brief History of West Towson, by David A.
The Jeffersonian, Towson MD, Friday, November 16, 1945 (Vol.
Baltimore County Union March 20, 1869 a b Historical marker, Towson Courthouse, Baltimore County Historical Society.
Baltimore County Panorama, Brooks & Parsons, ISBN 0-937076-03-1, p.
Baltimore County Library A History of Baltimore County, Neal A.
A History of Baltimore County, Neal A.
A History of Baltimore County, Neal A.
"History - Towson At a Glance".
"Towson University".
"Chronology of Towson University History".
A History of Baltimore County, Neal A.
Climate Summary for Towson, Maryland "Towson CDP, Maryland." Enumeration Bureau - Fact Sheet: Towson CDP, Maryland "Towson's 'Bike Beltway' slated to open in June".
"Towson Bike Beltway to double in size".
Baltimore County Public Schools.
Baltimore County, Its History Progress and Opportunities, by T.
Towson Town Center Municipalities and communities of Baltimore County, Maryland, United States
Categories:
Populated places established in 1752 - Census-designated places in Baltimore County, Maryland - Census-designated places in Maryland - County seats in Maryland - Towson, Maryland - 1752 establishments in Maryland
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