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Towson, Maryland
Towson (/ˈtaʊsən/) is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorporated county seat in the United States (after Ellicott City, the seat of nearby Howard County, southwest of Baltimore).
The first inhabitants of the future Towson and central Baltimore County region were the Susquehannock people, who hunted in the area. Their region included all of Baltimore County, though their primary settlement was farther northeast along the Susquehanna River.
Towson was settled in 1752 when Pennsylvania brothers, William and Thomas Towson, began farming an area of Sater's Hill, northeast of the present-day York and Joppa roads. William's son, Ezekiel, opened the Towson Hotel to serve the growing number of farmers bringing their produce and livestock to the port of Baltimore. He built the hotel at current-day Shealy Avenue and York Road, near the area's main crossroads. The village became known as "Towsontown". The property in West Towson came from two land grants: 400-acre Gott's Hope in 1719, and Gunner's Range in 1706.
In 1790, businessman Charles Ridgely completed the Hampton Mansion just north of Towsontown, the largest private house in America at the time. The Ridgelys lived there for six generations, until 1948. It is now preserved as the Hampton National Historic Site and open to the public.
Grafton Marsh, a surgeon during the War of 1812, and his brother Josiah Marsh settled their families in a collection of early houses known as Gott's Hope that was part of a group along Joppa Road. They consolidated four of the structures into a larger dwelling that they called "Marshmont". The brothers went into business together as medical practitioners. Neither had any heirs but were joined in practice later by their nephew, Dr. Grafton Marsh Bosley, who eventually inherited the medical practice, the Marshmont compound, and a 140-acre farm. The farm extended west of York Road, south of Joppa Road, north of the Sheppard Pratt Hospital, and east of Woodbine Avenue. In 1869, Bosley and his wife Margaret Nicholson then built a new home in an area of the property known as "Highlands" or "Highland Park", which they named "Uplands".
The ratification of the second Maryland Constitution of 1851 provided for the jurisdictional separation of the city of Baltimore. Since 1767, the city (then Baltimore Town), had served as the county seat. Several tortured sets of negotiations occurred to divide the various assets of the city and the county, such as the downtown courthouse of 1805, the city/county jail of 1801 along the Jones Falls (at East Madison Street) and the almshouse, which was also jointly owned. After a series of elections and referendums, on February 13, 1854, Towson became, by popular vote, the choice of the remaining, now mostly rural, eastern, northern and western portions of the county as the new county seat of Baltimore County.
The Baltimore County Courthouse, still in use by 2015, with its various annexes (and the separate county courts and administrative building), was originally designed by the local city architectural firm of Dixon, Balbirnie and Dixon. It was completed within a year, constructed of limestone and marble donated by the well-known Ridgely family of nearby Hampton Mansion, on land donated by Towson doctor Grafton Marsh Bosley. The courthouse was subsequently enlarged in 1910 through additional designs for north and south wings by well-known and regarded city architects, Baldwin & Pennington. Additional expansions later in 1926 and 1958 eventually created an H-shaped plan for the courthouse. 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 across a plaza to the west of the older historic courthouse.
The old Baltimore County Jail was built in 1855, and was later replaced in the 1980s by a new modern Baltimore County Detention Center, north of the town on Kenilworth Drive, with an addition constructed in the 2010s.
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Towson, Maryland
Towson (/ˈtaʊsən/) is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorporated county seat in the United States (after Ellicott City, the seat of nearby Howard County, southwest of Baltimore).
The first inhabitants of the future Towson and central Baltimore County region were the Susquehannock people, who hunted in the area. Their region included all of Baltimore County, though their primary settlement was farther northeast along the Susquehanna River.
Towson was settled in 1752 when Pennsylvania brothers, William and Thomas Towson, began farming an area of Sater's Hill, northeast of the present-day York and Joppa roads. William's son, Ezekiel, opened the Towson Hotel to serve the growing number of farmers bringing their produce and livestock to the port of Baltimore. He built the hotel at current-day Shealy Avenue and York Road, near the area's main crossroads. The village became known as "Towsontown". The property in West Towson came from two land grants: 400-acre Gott's Hope in 1719, and Gunner's Range in 1706.
In 1790, businessman Charles Ridgely completed the Hampton Mansion just north of Towsontown, the largest private house in America at the time. The Ridgelys lived there for six generations, until 1948. It is now preserved as the Hampton National Historic Site and open to the public.
Grafton Marsh, a surgeon during the War of 1812, and his brother Josiah Marsh settled their families in a collection of early houses known as Gott's Hope that was part of a group along Joppa Road. They consolidated four of the structures into a larger dwelling that they called "Marshmont". The brothers went into business together as medical practitioners. Neither had any heirs but were joined in practice later by their nephew, Dr. Grafton Marsh Bosley, who eventually inherited the medical practice, the Marshmont compound, and a 140-acre farm. The farm extended west of York Road, south of Joppa Road, north of the Sheppard Pratt Hospital, and east of Woodbine Avenue. In 1869, Bosley and his wife Margaret Nicholson then built a new home in an area of the property known as "Highlands" or "Highland Park", which they named "Uplands".
The ratification of the second Maryland Constitution of 1851 provided for the jurisdictional separation of the city of Baltimore. Since 1767, the city (then Baltimore Town), had served as the county seat. Several tortured sets of negotiations occurred to divide the various assets of the city and the county, such as the downtown courthouse of 1805, the city/county jail of 1801 along the Jones Falls (at East Madison Street) and the almshouse, which was also jointly owned. After a series of elections and referendums, on February 13, 1854, Towson became, by popular vote, the choice of the remaining, now mostly rural, eastern, northern and western portions of the county as the new county seat of Baltimore County.
The Baltimore County Courthouse, still in use by 2015, with its various annexes (and the separate county courts and administrative building), was originally designed by the local city architectural firm of Dixon, Balbirnie and Dixon. It was completed within a year, constructed of limestone and marble donated by the well-known Ridgely family of nearby Hampton Mansion, on land donated by Towson doctor Grafton Marsh Bosley. The courthouse was subsequently enlarged in 1910 through additional designs for north and south wings by well-known and regarded city architects, Baldwin & Pennington. Additional expansions later in 1926 and 1958 eventually created an H-shaped plan for the courthouse. 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 across a plaza to the west of the older historic courthouse.
The old Baltimore County Jail was built in 1855, and was later replaced in the 1980s by a new modern Baltimore County Detention Center, north of the town on Kenilworth Drive, with an addition constructed in the 2010s.