Elkridge Landing

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Elkridge Landing
Location Elkridge, Maryland
Area 100 acres
Founded 1690
Official name: Elkridge Landing Historic District
Designated 2003
Reference No. HO-784

Elkridge Landing was a Patapsco River seaport in Maryland, and is now part of Elkridge, Maryland. The historic Elkridge Furnace Inn site resides within the Patapsco Valley State Park.

Geography

It is in present day Howard County, Maryland, west of the Patapsco River, south of Route 1 and with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B and O Railroad) running through the middle of the historic district. The historic roads are the old Washington Turnpike, now Main Street, Railroad Avenue, Paradise Avenue, Elkridge Heights Road and Furnace Avenue.[2]

History

The Elkridge site

Pottery has been found dating back to 1800 B.C.E. and there is evidence of settlement along the Patapsco River until 1500 C.E..[1]

Seaport

In 1690 the town and seaport of Elkridge Landing was settled in the Patapsco River Valley of the Colony of Maryland.[nb 1] It was a deep-water port, with a channel about 10 feet deep, that brought ships inland from the Chesapeake Bay. Tobacco casks, or hogsheads, were rolled down Rolling Hill to the port by "long strings of slaves" and boarded ships. Manufactured iron was also shipped out of the port.[3][4]

Native Americans lived north of the Elkridge Landing site in 1692 and rangers were appointed among the settlers to keep watch.[1]

The banks of the Patapsco River had been unearthed to mind for iron stone, which resulted in the displaced sand and earth being dumped into the river, affecting its navigability. In 1753 a law was enacted to prevent the further filling in of the Patapsco River's shipping channel at Elkridge Landing and up to Baltimore.[5] Ships were unable to sail to Elkridge Landing after the first half of the 1700s.[6]

Jansen-Town

On April 12, 1733 an act was passed by the Maryland General Assembly making Elkridge Landing the town of Jansen-Town in what was then the County of Ann-Arundel. At that time 40 lots were created on 30 acres of land purchased near or on the Patapasco River.[7][8]

Iron manufacturing

Elkridge Furnace House at the Elkridge Furnace Complex, which first began with Caleb Dorsey's Forge and then the Ellicott brother's Avalon Iron Works.

Caleb Dorsey, an ironmaster aware of iron ore found in the Patapsco River valley, established Dorsey's Forge in 1761. It ran on water power from the river and made nails and horseshoes. During the American Revolutionary War he made cannons and bayonets. As of 1787 there were 9 or more slaves that worked his operation.[9]

In 1822 the business was purchased by Thomas, James and Benjamin Ellicott from Pennsylvania. It was first named Avalon Iron Works, but then became a nail factory and rolling mill. More than 100 people worked at the complex by the 1850s. The forge, factory and mill were destroyed in a flood in 1868. Two structures that remained are in the Patapsco Valley State Park.[9]

Transportation

The town became more prosperous when the Washington Turnpike and the railroad traversed through the town, resulting in new residential and commercial construction.[6] During the American Civil War Union troops were deployed to protect both bridges.[10] In the 1930s when Route 1 skirted the city, many commercial buildings moved alongside the highway.[6]

Historic district

An application was submitted in 2003 to make it a historic district and is now on the Inventory of Historic Properties with the Maryland Historical Trust. There are business and residential properties built between the 1820s and 1920s within the district. It is one of the oldest settlements in Howard County, Maryland. Elkridge Landing is significant for its historic iron and shipping industries, role in development of the railroads in the 19th century, architecture and its archaeological potential.[11]

Notable people

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Quakers were living in the Elkridge area about 1670 when they began meeting at the Elkridge Meetinghouse.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Elizabeth Janney. Elkridge. Arcadia Publishing; 8 July 2013. ISBN 978-0-7385-9927-4. p. 12.
  2. ↑ Elkridge Landing Historic District. Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  3. ↑ Patasco Valley State Park. Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ John Martin Hammond. Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware. J.B. Lippincott company; 1914. p. 172.
  5. ↑ Maryland Act of 1753 Chap. 27. Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Inventory of Historic Properties. Maryland Historical Trust. p. 3. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  7. ↑ Bacon's Laws of Maryland. vol. 75. p. 419. (online version). Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Maryland Historical Trust". Elkridge Furnace Complex, Howard County. Maryland Historical Trust. 2008-11-21. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Elizabeth Janney. Elkridge. Arcadia Publishing; 8 July 2013. ISBN 978-0-7385-9927-4. p. 16.
  10. ↑ "LETTERS FROM THE ARMY.; FROM THE EIGHTH. THE MOVEMENT TO THE RELAY HOUSE. ELK RIDGE LANDING, ST. DENIS, 9 miles south of Baltimore,". The New York Times. 10 May 1861. Retrieved 27 January 2014. 
  11. ↑ Inventory of Historic Properties. Maryland Historical Trust. p. 1. Retrieved January 25, 2014.

External links

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