Savage, Maryland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Savage is an historic town located in Howard County, Maryland, about 12 miles south of Baltimore and 20 miles north of Washington, D.C. It is situated close to the city of Laurel and to the planned community of Columbia. According to City-Data.com, the combined population of Savage and neighbor Guilford, in 2000 was 12,918. (See Savage-Guilford, Maryland.)
Named for John Savage, a Philadelphia textiles merchant who helped charter the Savage Manufacturing Company, Savage was an important manufacturing center during the textile industry boom. The Savage Mill was a textile factory constructed circa 1820. It harnessed the power of the nearby Little Patuxent River, and is also said to have once housed an iron foundry that produced machinery used for manufacturing textiles. In 1880, the Mill's operations were expanded greatly by the introduction of steam power.
In 1835, the Savage Station was established on the Washington Branch of the B&O Railroad. In 1887, the Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge was relocated to Savage. Originally built in 1869, it was one of about 100 on the B&O line.
Today the town remains steeped in history. Renovated in the 1980s and 1990s, Savage Mill is now the home to several antique vendors, artists' galleries, and specialty shops. It still contains some of the original architecture and machinery of the heyday of textile manufacturing, though much of the building has been expanded and updated. Up until a few years ago, the historic Carroll Baldwin Hall (built in the 1920s and named for a former president of the manufacturing company) was still home to the Savage Branch of the Howard County Public Library.
Savage also contains the last remaining Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge in the world, newly restored and overlooking the Little Patuxent River, just yards away from the Savage Mill Marketplace. Along with the mill, Bollman Bridge can be found on the National Register of Historic Places.
Singer/songwriter Benny Mardones — who holds an unusual place in United States recording history as a "one-hit wonder" who actually hit the Top 10 twice, in 1980 and 1989, with the same recording of the same song, "Into the Night" — was raised in Savage (but was born in Cleveland, Ohio).
Savage gained notoriety in September 1992 when resident Pam Basu was carjacked at a stop sign in the town. She became tangled in her seatbelt and was dragged to her death. Her baby daughter was later thrown from the car but was not seriously injured. The gruesome crime gained national attention and was the impetus for carjacking's being made a federal crime.
