From Humble Beginnings to Modern Hub: A History of College Park

College Park's history is a tapestry woven from threads of early European settlement, agricultural endeavors, aviation milestones, and the transformative influence of the University of Maryland. From its roots as a sparsely populated area to its current status as a dynamic city, College Park's evolution reflects the broader trends of American history.

Early Inhabitants and European Settlement

The earliest signs of human presence in the College Park area date back millennia. Archaeological finds south of Archives II revealed projectile points from 3000 to 2600 B.C., indicating a more settled Native American population during the Late Archaic period due to increased food availability and social complexity.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, European settlers established large plantations, some originating from land grants under Lord Baltimore. Toaping Castle stands as a historical record of these early land holdings. The Rossborough Inn, dating back to 1798, remains the oldest standing building in College Park, a testament to this era.

The Birth of a College Town

The establishment of the Maryland Agricultural College in 1856, later to become the University of Maryland, marked a turning point. The original College Park subdivision was platted in 1872, with early maps referring to the local post office as "College Lawn." Although initially undeveloped, the area was re-platted in 1889 by Washington real estate developers, featuring a grid-street pattern and long, narrow building lots. Early College Park homes were constructed in styles like Shingle, Queen Anne, and Stick, alongside more modest vernacular dwellings. Neighborhoods developed, also influenced by the deployment of a streetcar along what is now Rhode Island Avenue.

Aviation Pioneer

College Park's contribution to aviation history is significant. The College Park Airport, established in 1909 by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, holds the distinction of being the world's oldest continuously operated airport. It served as a training ground for military officers learning to fly the government's first airplane under the instruction of Wilbur Wright.

Growth and Development in the Early 20th Century

Commercial development increased in the 1920s, fueled by growing automobile traffic and the expanding University of Maryland campus along Baltimore Avenue (Route 1). By the late 1930s, much of the original subdivision had been developed. Several fraternities and sororities from the University of Maryland built houses in the neighborhood. Post-World War II construction primarily involved infilling with ranch and split-level houses.

The Emergence of Distinct Neighborhoods

Several distinct neighborhoods contributed to College Park's identity:

Lakeland: Developed around the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1890 by Edwin Newman, envisioned as a resort community. However, due to flooding, it became a predominantly African-American settlement. By 1903, Lakeland had a school and two churches, becoming a central hub within a network of African American communities along Route 1. Lakeland High School, funded in part by the Rosenwald Fund, served African American students in the northern half of the county.
Berwyn: Established around 1885 by Francis Shannabrook, attracting moderate-income families seeking to move from Washington. The arrival of the City and Suburban Electric Railway after 1900 spurred further growth.
Daniels Park: Developed in 1905 by Edward Daniels, featuring single-family houses arranged along a grid pattern of streets.
Hollywood: Planned as a northern extension of Daniels Park, with development accelerating after World War II due to the efforts of Albert Turner, who built and marketed brick and frame bungalows.

College Park in Orlando, Florida

The College Park development, with its mostly affordable single-story houses, gave the new community its identity as a place for young families. College Park owes its beginning and much of its original growth to the Great Florida Land Boom of the 1920s. The end of the First World War, the booming economy, and the automobile brought a steady influx of people to Florida, many of them looking for adventure, but most looking for a new start. New residential developments all over Florida provided the housing the new arrivals needed.

Squatters and homesteaders opened the land just north of Orlando for town-builders who established Formosa north of Lake Ivanhoe and Fairvilla near Lake Fairview in the 1870s. Citrus groves, pineries, and vineyards thrived in the vacant land between the two towns. Railroads arrived in the 1880s, bringing settlers and tourists, and more importantly, the economic boost of improved shipping of citrus fruit to northern markets.

East of Fairvilla, in 1886, investors from New York state purchased 200 acres of land and planted Niagara white grapes, establishing the Niagara Vineyard in part of what is now the 14th, 15th, and 16th greens of the Dubsdread Golf Course. The venture failed when they found no market in Florida for grapes too fragile for shipment north. In 1910 the Wright-Rundell Company platted the property into the Villa Farms: 65 farm-lots of 5 acres each. Only a few of the parcels had sold in 1922, when the New York interests who still owned the property sold it to the Orlando Golfers Association. In 1924 it became part of Carl Dann’s Dubsdread Golf Course and the Golfview residential subdivision.

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In 1923 the Orlando City Council voted to extend the city limits to Par Street, taking in most of what became College Park. North of the city limits the acres of level ground and sparse population lent itself to such ventures as farms, vineyards, and golf courses, while to the south, the hilly land around Lakes Ivanhoe, Concord, and Adair, already annexed to Orlando in 1911, invited denser residential development. Concord Park, platted in 1909 between Lake Concord and Colonial Drive, became a large development extending south to Lake Dot. In 1925 the plat owners hired a developer to design and market a landscaped neighborhood of wide, curving streets that attracted affluent buyers and well-known architects.

The older settlements of Formosa and Fairvilla and the many newer residential developments surrounded the Cooper-Atha-Barr Company’s nine College Park Additions, which became the nucleus of the new community of College Park. In addition to its central location, CABCO’s developments dominated in sheer size and ambition. The company advertised that it would have more than a hundred houses completed and another hundred under construction by the end of 1925.

A strong sense of community developed early in College Park, with schools and churches established in the first year or two. Businesses clustered along Edgewater Drive, providing many of the services and necessities of daily life. The older towns and surrounding developments offered both stability and diversity to the first homebuyers in the CABCO neighborhoods, many of them families with young children who were new to Florida. In another year or two, the housing market had cooled after a devastating Miami hurricane in 1926 warned that Florida was not the paradise the realtors had advertised, and the looming Great Depression of the 1930s sent many companies and individuals into foreclosures and bankruptcies.

Key Figures and Institutions

Several individuals and institutions have played vital roles in shaping College Park:

Eugene Campbell, John O. Johnson, and Samuel Curriden: Early developers who platted and re-platted the original College Park subdivision.
Edwin Newman: The creator of the Lakeland neighborhood.
Francis Shannabrook: Founder of the Berwyn neighborhood.
Edward Daniels: Developer of Daniels Park and the Hollywood subdivision.
Albert Turner: Contributed significantly to the development of Hollywood after World War II.
The University of Maryland: Its presence has been a constant influence, driving growth and shaping the city's character.

Urban Renewal and Modern Development

During the 1960s through the 1980s, an Urban Renewal Project significantly altered the historic African American community of Lakeland, resulting in the redevelopment of approximately two-thirds of the neighborhood despite community opposition.

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The opening of the College Park-University of Maryland Metro station in 1993 provided a crucial link to Washington D.C., further integrating College Park into the broader metropolitan area.

In the early 21st century, College Park experienced significant development pressure, leading to the Route 1 Sector Plan in 2002, which encouraged mixed-use development along the city's main thoroughfare.

Recent Events

Recent events have also shaped College Park's narrative:

In 1943, due to World War II efforts to conserve rail transport, the Washington Senators relocated their spring training camp to College Park.
On June 9, 2020, the city government passed a "Resolution of the Mayor and Council of the City of College Park Renouncing Systemic Racism and Declaring Support of Black Lives," acknowledging harm done to the historic African American community of Lakeland.
On March 2, 2023, Patrick Wojahn, who had served as College Park's mayor since 2015, resigned after being arrested on child pornography charges.

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