The mill on Frederick Road

Library of Congress,
Historic American Buildings Survey

Ellicott City (population 2000 56,397) is an unincorporated town in northeastern Howard County that serves as the county seat. Although the term refers to a 32-square-mile area extending west from the Patapsco River, its focus is a small downtown area on either side of Frederick Road at the confluence of the Patapsco and Tiber Rivers. This area is near the site of the original Ellicott’s Mills.

A History of Floods
The rivers have been a source of both prosperity and danger--since its founding, Ellicott City has survived a number of very serious floods. Heavy rainfall in 1868 killed 36 people and caused approximately one million dollars in damages when the Patapsco River rose five feet in ten minutes. Another flood occurred in 1923, when water again rose to high levels. In 1952, during one of the worst floods to hit Ellicott City, several buildings near the river were washed away and a wall of water eight feet high swept through many of the buildings on Main Street. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes flooded Ellicott City’s historic main street, with water reaching the second story of some buildings; Hurricane Isabel also caused substantial damage in the city in 2003.

The Ellicott Brothers
Three brothers from Bucks County, Pennsylvania—John, Joseph, and Andrew Ellicott—founded Ellicott City. The Ellicotts were Quaker merchants who bought the land around the town in 1772 for $3.00 an acre and built a grist mill powered by the Patapsco’s swift current, also building a store to sell their products. Eventually, their business, Ellicott and Company, expanded to own several mills for producing flour and iron. The Ellicotts were instrumental in convincing local tobacco farmers to convert their crops to wheat. They also became friends with noted African-American astronomer and surveyor Benjamin Banneker, whose homestead is located nearby.

The Ellicotts constructed a bridge across the Patapsco and founded a settlement known as Ellicott’s Mills. The settlement lay between two major centers of trade, Baltimore and Frederick. To connect their settlement to these cities, the brothers helped build a network of roads that later became known as the Baltimore to Frederick Turnpike. The road connecting Ellicott’s Mills to Frederick was a project funded by local landowners along the way and carried out by means of a movable house drawn by horses--the first conveyance of its kind in Maryland. Through its prosperous wheat farms and its easy access to transportation routes, Ellicott City became the largest flour milling center in colonial America. Eventually, the roads built by the Ellicott brothers became a part of the National Road (today’s Route 40). In 1830, Ellicott’s Mills also gained distinction as the site of the first terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). The B&O was America’s first commercial railroad. Its network of tracks would eventually connect cities as distant as New York and St. Louis, but the B&O began as a 13-mile track that ran from Mt. Clare Station in Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills. Today, the Ellicott's Mills station has been converted into a museum and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

During the Civil War, the town was primarily pro-Union, although a number of families actively supported the Confederacy. Confederate prisoners were housed in the town and a small skirmish occurred there when Union forces under General Butler captured an experimental centrifuge gun being taken by southern sympathizers from Baltimore to Harper’s Ferry.

County Seat: From Ellicott’s Mills to Ellicott City
Originally, the area of today’s Howard County was part of Anne Arundel County. The Howard District of Anne Arundel County was established in 1839, and a courthouse for the district was built in Ellicott’s Mills between 1840 and 1843. When the Howard District was established as a separate county in 1851, Ellicott’s Mills became the county seat. Ellicott’s Mills became known as Ellicott City in 1867 when it was granted a city charter by Howard County.

By 1900, the town had become a thriving center of commerce and local government. Route 40 (Main Street) ran directly through the downtown area, as did a trolley line to Catonsville and a rail line to Baltimore. Stores on Main Street supplied the necessities of life until the end of World War II when the town began to decline. A new Route 40 was built north of the downtown area and new shopping centers opened, driving merchants away from Main Street. Veterans and their families, able to afford more modern homes, moved away.

In the 1960s, antique dealers began to occupy unused retail space along Main Street. They were soon followed by new restaurants and specialty stores. Today, Historic Ellicott City, as the downtown area is called, has become a major tourist attraction and many old buildings have been restored. It has become a favorite hangout for students and artists. Key attractions are the Ellicott City Railroad Station, the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute, the Mount Ida historic home, and the inevitable ghost tours.

Cramm, Joetta. Historic Ellicott City: A Walking Tour. Woodbine, Md.: K&D Limited, Inc., 1996.

Holland, Celia M. Ellicott City, Maryland: Mill Town, U.S.A. 1970. Updated by Janet P. Kusterer and Charlotte T. Holland. Ellicott City, Md.: Historic Ellicott City, Inc., 2003.

Mylander, Alison Ellicott. The Ellicotts: Striving for a Holy Community. Ellicott City, Md.: Historic Ellicott City, Inc., 1991.

Stover, John F. History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1987.