Glen Burnie, Maryland

Glen Burnie is a census-designated place located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 38,922.

History

The groundwork for Glen Burnie was laid nearly two centuries ago, when, in 1812, a district attorney by the name of Elias Glenn established a county seat near what is currently known as Harlem Park in Baltimore City. He named his property "Glennsburne."

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The name was changed to "Glennsbourne Farm," and eventually "Glenburnie," as the property was passed through Glenn's descendants. Records also show the name as "Tracey's Station" and "Myrtle," after local postmaster Samuel Sewell Tracey and one of Tracey's boarders, before the final decision was made.

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In 1854, William Wilkins Glenn, Elias Glenn's grandson, incorporated the Curtis Creek Mining, Furnace and Manufacturing Co. into his family's property. The business flourished during the 19th century, and with it came several thousand acres of land in northern Anne Arundel County.

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Upon the death of William Wilkins Glenn, his son, brother and nephew began to manage the family's business affairs, and Glenburnie became an official state subdivision in 1888. It wouldn't be until 1930 that postmaster Louis J. DeAlba decided two words were better than one, and gave the town a final name change to the current Glen Burnie.

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Building through history

Among the earliest Glen Burnie schools was First Avenue Elementary, built in 1899. The oldest area church is St. Alban's Episcopal, which was built in 1904, with many of its bricks dating back to Marley Chapel, an early Maryland parish from the 1730s. Crain Highway, one of Glen Burnie's main thoroughfares (named after Senator Robert Crain), opened in 1927 and Ritchie Highway (named for Albert C. Ritchie, the state's 52nd governor) followed in 1939.

Related Topics:
1899 - 1904 - Albert C. Ritchie - 1939

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Schools and churches were built in the ensuing decades, and construction was completed on Harundale Mall, the first enclosed shopping center east of the Mississippi River, in 1958; it was one of the first shopping centers to be called a "mall" and was developed by James W. Rouse of the Rouse Company (which also developed nearby Columbia, Maryland). Glen Burnie Mall followed in 1962. Marley Station, Glen Burnie's most prominent shopping center, opened in the mid-1980s.

Related Topics:
Shopping center - Mississippi River - 1958 - James W. Rouse - Rouse Company - Columbia, Maryland - 1962 - Marley Station - 1980s

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