Catonsville is in Baltimore County just outside Baltimore City. It's the home of the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus. Half of Catonsville is small town USA with an old fashioned Main Street, with many historic as well as quaint homes on beautiful lawns. Just around the corner is bustling traffic and business.
You'll have to go into Baltimore and Washington, D. C. to see area attractions. Catonsville is more about the past. It's about homes built in the 1800s and 1900s with well-trimmed lawns proudly and vibrantly green. It's about things made in 1812 when the settlement was established that have survived into modern times.
Catonsville's Beginnings
One of the first European villages began as Johnnycake, so named for the type of cornbread offered at its inn. The town was ideally situated because most roads leading to Baltimore and points south went right through Catonsville. Two of them, Johnnycake Road and Rolling Road, still exist today.
The Ellicott family built a road called the Frederick Turnpike so that they could move the product from their flour mills to the harbor in Baltimore for shipment. Charles Carroll was the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. He owned property beside Frederick Turnpike which survives today as Frederick Road. He asked his son-in-law, Richard Caton, to develop what would become Catonsville.
Catonsville began as a critical crossroads for traffic to Baltimore and southern routes for shipping items from up-country plantations and mills. Businesses were offering whatever travelers needed. The Baltimore wealthy built mansions in Catonsville to escape the summer heat, one of those mansions is now an apartment complex.
What You Will See Today
It's difficult to look at gridlocked Baltimore National Pike today and picture it as a grassy path 200 years ago. It's easier to imagine the tracks of the late 1800s with trolley cars filled with women in picture hats and bustled dresses seated next to mustachioed men wearing boater hats.
Trolley Line Number 9 Trail
The Baltimore, Catonsville, and Ellicott Mills Passenger Railway Company was established with horse-drawn vehicles that used the Baltimore and Frederick Turnpike right of way. Passengers traveled two hours from Ellicott City through Catonsville and Oella to Baltimore.
One hundred fifty-four years later, the two-mile track is a paved walking trail. It begins at Edmondson Avenue and goes through Oella to Ellicott City's Main Street. It's a shaded trail that features a bit of boardwalk beside stone walls that were hand-cut by the founders of the city.
Short Line Railroad Trail
In 1884, the Short Line Railroad was built, giving Catonsville residents eight trips into town, and the commuter lifestyle was born. By this time, electric trolley cars ran from Catonsville into Baltimore. Housing developments began to boom, so it became the thing to ride into Baltimore to work.
The three and one half mile paved trail begins off Maiden Choice Lane to the south of Baltimore National Cemetery at Charlestown Retirement Community. It winds through several streets in downtown Catonsville before ending on Frederick Road. It follows the old Baltimore and Potomac Railroad right of way.
Old Catonsville Historic District
When Baltimore residents built houses in Catonsville to escape the summer heat, and when founders built homes along the Frederick Turnpike, they made them here. Basically, between Edmondson, Frederick, Melvin, and Smithwood Avenues lies the oldest part of Catonsville. Its historic homes have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, architectural styles varied between Craftsman and Bungalow, Tudor and Queen Anne. You'll see a lot of stone and brick on the houses. You'll see minimal plantings and closely clipped bright green grass on the lawns. Lawn Love does a lot of historical lawns.
It's when visiting homeowners see historic homes like these that they want to go back home and make their lawns look the same. Lawn care is more than mowing, trimming, and spreading grass seed. It's knowing the type of soil, the kind of grass seed, what fertilizer is best, and if the drainage is adequate. It's knowing how low to set the mower blades. It's getting to thatch before it wipes out your lawn.
We know you work, take care of the family, and do your best to maintain your home. Lawn Love uses the latest technology and the best tools available to keep your lawn healthy and glowing. Try our services today.
