| La Plata, Maryland | |
|---|---|
| — Town — | |
| Location of La Plata, Maryland | |
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Maryland |
| County | Charles |
| Area | |
| • Total | 6.9 sq mi (18.0 km2) |
| • Land | 6.9 sq mi (18.0 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 190 ft (58 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 6,551 |
| • Density | 942.7/sq mi (364.0/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 20646 |
| Area code(s) | 301 |
| FIPS code | 24-45750 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0585340 |
La Plata i/ləˈpleɪtə/[1] is a town in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 6,551 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Charles County.[2]
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According to one of several legends, the town was given its name by Colonel Samuel Chapman, whose family owned 6,000 acres (24 km2) of land in Southern Maryland, including what would become the areas of La Plata and Port Tobacco. The Colonel traveled to Central and South America with his son George, who had contracted tuberculosis, in search of a cure. In his travels, the Colonel was impressed with the La Plata River in Argentina, so he decided to name a portion of his property "La Plata" after the river.[3]
The town was founded approximately 1895 after the river flowing into the previous County seat, Port Tobacco (a few miles to the west), silted up, ending that town's utility as a port. At the same time, a new railroad line made La Plata attractive as a new county seat location. The Courthouse was built there after the Port Tobacco courthouse burned down (arson suspected, but unproven).[4] Christ Episcopal Church was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt in La Plata. In 1940, the opening of the then "Potomac River Bridge" (later renamed the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge), which carries U.S. Highway 301 over the Potomac River, provided a link to Virginia and brought many long-distance east coast thru-travelers through the town as an alternative to using urban U.S. 1 and, later, the often-congested Interstate 95.
According to the official town site: [1] this brief history is posted:
"The Town of La Plata is located in Southern Maryland about 30 miles southeast of Washington, DC, 60 miles south of Baltimore and 45 miles southwest of Annapolis. The Town of La Plata serves as the county seat for the Charles County Government and was originally founded in the 1870s as the Pennsylvania Railroad was granted a right of way to build its tracks and station. The Town of La Plata was incorporated on April 4, 1888. Since La Plata's inception, it has grown into a town with a population of approximately 9,500 people."
La Plata is located at (38.534258, -76.973377)[5].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 6.9 square miles (18 km2), all of it land.
As of the census[6] of 2000, there were 6,551 people, 2,223 households, and 1,578 families residing in the town. The population density was 942.7 people per square mile (363.9/km²). There were 2,308 housing units at an average density of 332.1 per square mile (128.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 72.72% White, 23.69% African American, 0.52% Native American, 1.56% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.38% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.30% of the population.
There were 2,223 households out of which 37.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.5% were married couples living together, 17.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.0% were non-families. 23.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.10.
In the town the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 93.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $56,490, and the median income for a family was $66,288. Males had a median income of $42,492 versus $32,125 for females. The per capita income for the town was $24,669. About 8.3% of families and 10.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.0% of those under age 18 and 18.1% of those age 65 or over.
La Plata is largely a residential community. Some residents work for the Charles County government, while others commute to Waldorf or the Washington, D.C. area for work, including to Andrews Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The town is experiencing a transformation into a thriving business and commercial center, thanks to development of office buildings and the town's recent reconstruction.
Historic Mount Carmel (1790), a Catholic convent, is just outside La Plata, near the main campus of College of Southern Maryland. [7]
La Plata has county offices, CIVISTA Medical Center (recently enlarged), a community theater (Port Tobacco Players), a large outdoor athletic complex, a large construction business, two nursing homes, and a host of stores and restaurants, in addition to a twice-weekly farmers' market.[8]. At the north edge of town are Wal-Mart and Target department stores, three supermarkets, a Lowe's home-improvement store, and two all-night drugstores.[9] Rosewick Road is connected with St. Charles Parkway to adjacent Waldorf providing drivers an alternative to using U.S. Route 301 (Maryland).
Public schools in La Plata include La Plata High School, Milton Somers Middle School, Walter Mitchell Elementary, and Mary Matula Elementary.
La Plata has been visited by two major tornadoes in its history, both of intensity F4 on the Fujita scale. An F4 is the second-highest intensity considered possible by meteorologists.
The first occurred on November 9, 1926. This tornado killed 16 people, thirteen of them in the La Plata Elementary School, which was destroyed.[10]
On April 28, 2002, an F4 tornado cut a 24-mile-long swath through Charles County, with areas around La Plata damaged most severely. This tornado caused four deaths. Local officials credited federal- and state-assisted new construction efforts with helping them to remodel the downtown area following the tornado,[11] as several new public buildings replaced some of those damaged there. A new La Plata Town Hall, for example, became Southern Maryland's first LEED certified building,[12] and an old building considered historic by local residents, which housed a CVS Pharmacy store at the time of the tornado, was rebuilt in a new location after the storm.
For details on the tornado outbreak of which the 2002 tornado was a part, see the information on the Midwest to Mid-Atlantic United States tornado outbreak of 2002.
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![[3]](http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/lwx/Historic_Events/apr28-2002/nasa-highres-LaPlata.jpg){kind=link}