Davidsonville, Maryland
Encyclopedia
Davidsonville is an unincorporated community
in central Anne Arundel County
, Maryland
, USA
. It is a semi-rural community composed mostly of farm
s and suburb
an-like developments and is a good example of an "exurb." Davidsonville has relatively little commercial development and no high-density housing. The community is generally not served by public water, sewer or natural gas utilities
, so homes generally employ well-and-septic systems. The nominal, if not geographic, center of Davidsonville is the intersection of Maryland routes 424
(Davidsonville Rd.) and 214
(Central Ave.), located at 38.9229°N 76.6284°W. The Davidsonville Historic District
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1992.
, the Davidsonville zip code
(21035) had a median annual family income of US$154,132, and 2.1 percent of families had incomes below the poverty line
. As of the 2007 United States Census Bureau
's Economic Census, 13 year-round retail business establishments and three retail food establishments were located in Davidsonville. Davidsonville is also home to Davidsonville Elementary School, which has approximately 600 students in kindergarten
through fifth grade
.
colonists
settled in what is now Davidsonville, the area was the home to Algonquian
-speaking Native American
tribes. By the time Europeans began to arrive in central Anne Arundel County in numbers, the Algonquians may have vacated the area due to persistent raids by more battle-hearty members of the Susquehannock
tribe.
, under the Lord Proprietor Charles Calvert
, the Fifth Lord Baltimore, and his governor, passed "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning and Erecting Schools in the Several Counties," or the Free School Act. This law, one of the first in colonial America
providing for free, publicly supported primary education, mandated the construction of public schools in each of the 12 Maryland counties that existed at the time. The Free School of Anne Arrundell County
was built in what was to become Davidsonville sometime between 1724 and 1746, when it was under full operation with John Wilmot as schoolmaster. The original structure, expanded and restored, still stands today, is located in the community of Lavall, off Rutland Road, about one-half mile from Maryland Route 450
, and is open for tours.
Other examples of development in the 18th century also remain. During the late 18th century, for example, Major William Brogden, once a soldier in the American Revolution
, built the Roedown plantation, today the home of the Marlborough Hunt Races, an annual steeplechase
event attended by 5,000 spectators. George Washington
is reported to have stayed at the house in 1760. Roedown is located off Harwood Rd. in Davidsonville.
Perhaps the most prominent example of 18th century settlement in Davidsonville is the Middle Plantation. The plantation
itself dates to a 1664 land grant by Cecilius Calvert
, the Second Lord Baltimore, to Mareen Duvall
, a prominent French immigrant. The current house known as Middle Plantation, located on Davidsonville Rd., includes several stages of construction dating as far back as 1790.
The emergence of Davidsonville as a crossroads community
began in the mid-19th century. In 1839, Thomas Davidson, from whose family Davidsonville received its name, married Jane Welch. They built a home at what is now the corner of Davidsonville Road and Central Avenue that still stands today. Davidson, like virtually all plantation owners in central and southern Maryland at the time, owned slaves
. However, a staunch Methodist
who was instrumental in the founding of what is now the Davidsonville United Methodist Church, Davidson apparently was conflicted as to the morality
of slavery.
The Maryland Historical Trust states that "the Davidsonville Historic District is significant as a largely intact representative example of the type of crossroads community which characterized rural Anne Arundel County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Davidsonville is among the best preserved examples of this type of community remaining in the county; other comparable villages have been obliterated by subsequent development. The village has maintained substantial integrity despite increasingly intensive development pressure in the surrounding area."
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in central Anne Arundel County
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Anne Arundel County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is named for Anne Arundell , a member of the ancient family of Arundells in Cornwall, England and the wife of Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. Its county seat is Annapolis, which is also the capital of the state...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is a semi-rural community composed mostly of farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
s and suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an-like developments and is a good example of an "exurb." Davidsonville has relatively little commercial development and no high-density housing. The community is generally not served by public water, sewer or natural gas utilities
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...
, so homes generally employ well-and-septic systems. The nominal, if not geographic, center of Davidsonville is the intersection of Maryland routes 424
Maryland Route 424
Maryland Route 424 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Davidsonville Road, the state highway runs from MD 214 in Davidsonville north to MD 3 in Crofton.-Route description:...
(Davidsonville Rd.) and 214
Maryland Route 214
Maryland Route 214 is an east–west state highway that runs through Prince George's County and Anne Arundel County within the U.S. state of Maryland. Central Avenue runs along the center of Prince George's County and divides it into north and south...
(Central Ave.), located at 38.9229°N 76.6284°W. The Davidsonville Historic District
Davidsonville Historic District
Davidsonville Historic District is a national historic district at Davidsonville, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It is located around a rural crossroads at the intersection of Central Avenue and Davidsonville Road . The district consists of fifteen properties: three churches, one commercial...
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1992.
Demographics
As of the 2010 U.S. censusUnited States Census, 2010
The Twenty-third United States Census, known as Census 2010 or the 2010 Census, is the current national census of the United States. National Census Day was April 1, 2010 and is the reference date used in enumerating individuals...
, the Davidsonville zip code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
(21035) had a median annual family income of US$154,132, and 2.1 percent of families had incomes below the poverty line
Poverty threshold
The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country...
. As of the 2007 United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
's Economic Census, 13 year-round retail business establishments and three retail food establishments were located in Davidsonville. Davidsonville is also home to Davidsonville Elementary School, which has approximately 600 students in kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
through fifth grade
Fifth grade
Fifth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The fifth grade is the fifth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 10 – 11 years old, and are preteens...
.
Native Americans
Before EuropeanEuropean ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
colonists
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
settled in what is now Davidsonville, the area was the home to Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
-speaking Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes. By the time Europeans began to arrive in central Anne Arundel County in numbers, the Algonquians may have vacated the area due to persistent raids by more battle-hearty members of the Susquehannock
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...
tribe.
18th and 19th Centuries
Europeans and their descendants settled and developed farms and plantations in and around what came to be known as Davidsonville in the 17th and 18th centuries. Several good examples of 18th century development in the area remain today. One is the Anne Arundel Free School. On October 26, 1723 the Maryland Colonial AssemblyProvince of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...
, under the Lord Proprietor Charles Calvert
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, 3rd Proprietor and 17th Proprietary Governor of Maryland, FRS was a British nobleman and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland...
, the Fifth Lord Baltimore, and his governor, passed "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning and Erecting Schools in the Several Counties," or the Free School Act. This law, one of the first in colonial America
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
providing for free, publicly supported primary education, mandated the construction of public schools in each of the 12 Maryland counties that existed at the time. The Free School of Anne Arrundell County
Anne Arundel County Free School
Anne Arundel County Free School is a historic school building at Davidsonville, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The first Free School of Anne Arrundell County was established by an Act of the General Assembly of colonial Maryland in 1723. It was built somewhere between its contractual date of 1724...
was built in what was to become Davidsonville sometime between 1724 and 1746, when it was under full operation with John Wilmot as schoolmaster. The original structure, expanded and restored, still stands today, is located in the community of Lavall, off Rutland Road, about one-half mile from Maryland Route 450
Maryland Route 450
Maryland Route 450 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 1 Alternate in Bladensburg east to US 50, US 301, and MD 2 near Annapolis. MD 450 is the original alignment of US 50 in Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties...
, and is open for tours.
Other examples of development in the 18th century also remain. During the late 18th century, for example, Major William Brogden, once a soldier in the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, built the Roedown plantation, today the home of the Marlborough Hunt Races, an annual steeplechase
Steeplechase (horse racing)
The steeplechase is a form of horse racing and derives its name from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside...
event attended by 5,000 spectators. George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
is reported to have stayed at the house in 1760. Roedown is located off Harwood Rd. in Davidsonville.
Perhaps the most prominent example of 18th century settlement in Davidsonville is the Middle Plantation. The plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
itself dates to a 1664 land grant by Cecilius Calvert
Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, 1st Proprietor and 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland, 9th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland , was an English peer who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland. He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, the...
, the Second Lord Baltimore, to Mareen Duvall
Mareen Duvall
Mareen Duvall was a French Huguenot and an early American settler.-Background:He was born Marin duVal, at Nantes, France in 1625 and arrived in the Province of Maryland on August 28, 1650...
, a prominent French immigrant. The current house known as Middle Plantation, located on Davidsonville Rd., includes several stages of construction dating as far back as 1790.
The emergence of Davidsonville as a crossroads community
Crossroads village
Crossroads village is a term that refers to a settlement, primarily in U.S. American history, that was situated where two or more roads would intersect...
began in the mid-19th century. In 1839, Thomas Davidson, from whose family Davidsonville received its name, married Jane Welch. They built a home at what is now the corner of Davidsonville Road and Central Avenue that still stands today. Davidson, like virtually all plantation owners in central and southern Maryland at the time, owned slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. However, a staunch Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
who was instrumental in the founding of what is now the Davidsonville United Methodist Church, Davidson apparently was conflicted as to the morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
of slavery.
The Maryland Historical Trust states that "the Davidsonville Historic District is significant as a largely intact representative example of the type of crossroads community which characterized rural Anne Arundel County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Davidsonville is among the best preserved examples of this type of community remaining in the county; other comparable villages have been obliterated by subsequent development. The village has maintained substantial integrity despite increasingly intensive development pressure in the surrounding area."
Existing landmarks
- Free School of Anne Arundel CountyAnne Arundel County Free SchoolAnne Arundel County Free School is a historic school building at Davidsonville, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The first Free School of Anne Arrundell County was established by an Act of the General Assembly of colonial Maryland in 1723. It was built somewhere between its contractual date of 1724...
- first free school of Anne Arundel County, which then included what is now Howard CountyHoward County, Maryland-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*62.2% White*17.5% Black*0.3% Native American*14.4% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.6% Two or more races*2.0% Other races*5.8% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
and likely school for Johns HopkinsJohns HopkinsJohns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...
.
Notable People
- Travis PastranaTravis PastranaTravis Alan Pastrana is an American motorsports competitor and stunt performer who has won championships and X Games gold medals in several events, including supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing. He runs a show called Nitro Circus with some of his friends...
- Professional Motocross Rider and Rally Car Driver. - Michael Evans- Professional Lacrosse Player for the Chesapeake Bayhawks