Whiskey Bottom Road is a historic road north of Laurel, Maryland that traverses Anne Arundel and Howard Counties in an area that was first settled by English colonists in the mid-1600s. The road was named in the 1880s in association with one of its residents delivering whiskey after a prohibition vote. With increased residential development after World War II, it was designated a collector road in the 1960s; a community center and park are among the most recent roadside developments.
Route description Whiskey Bottom Road runs through North Laurel, Maryland starting at the later Maryland Route 198 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The road continues westward across U.S. Route 1 and terminates at a dead end just prior to the I-95 and Route 216 interchange in Howard County, Maryland, which were built long after this historic road.
Disused or renamed sections
Martenet's 1860 Map of Howard County Maryland, and the 1861 Map of Prince George's County, Maryland, from the Library of Congress, clearly depict the original road. Approximately 60% of that original has been renamed after being bisected by I-95, then further divided by Maryland Route 198 and I-295. Starting from the northwest to the southeast:
Whiskey Bottom Road once started at the site of the lime kilns at the intersection of modern-day Brown's Bridge Road and Lime Kiln Road in Howard County, Maryland. The original path continues on what is now labeled Scaggsville Road in Scaggsville, Maryland. Crossing the Columbia Turnpike built in 1810, the road continues Southeast until it terminates at the present I-95 and Route 216 interchange. The section of road overlapping the interchange was removed for the construction of Interstate Highway I-95 in the mid-1960s. This is the former location of the farm where the poet and scholar Sterling Allen Brown lived as a child. In 2009 an additional section of road was removed for the building of Emerson One by Ryan Development. In 2011, a County Council proposal was made that, as the remainder of Whiskey Bottom Road adjacent to I-95 and 64.664 acres of Howard County-owned, wooded open space is unusable by the public, it should be given to the Emerson Development HOA LLC, waiving bidding requirements.
Current road description Whiskey Bottom Road maintains its original historical path and name until meeting with Maryland route 198 in Anne Arundel County. The path continues to the southeast under several different names.
From Maryland Route 198 Southeastward the path takes on the name Old Annapolis Road running through Maryland City. Old Annapolis merges with a section of Red Clay Road, which changes its name shortly afterward to Hillside Road and terminates just prior to I-295 The path is bisected, starting again within the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center / Fort Meade complex with an unpaved section named Columbus Road and Combat Road. The last section of the path is a dirt road called Hill road. This wooded section was the location of "C.old Methodist Church", The J.H. Snowden Farm, and School House No.26 in 1861. At what is now the intersection of Switchboard Road, the original Whiskey Bottom Road merged with the Historic Davidsonville Road that ran through Davidsonville to Annapolis.
Intersections
IntersectionLocationNotesNorth Laurel Road Extended across Whiskey Bottom in 2007 as part of the Emerson Corporate Commons projectPromise CourtStephens RoadBuilt between 1795 and 1860. Roundabout installed 2004.Kings Grant RoadAll Saints RoadFormer location of All Saints Church in 1861, Roundabout installed 2004Harmony LaneWas named Snells Road or Snelltown Road. Home to "Snelltown", a small 1860s log home community of freed slaves including Benjamin Snell with a graveyard. First paved in 1996. Intersection moved North for Kings Arms development.Moonshine HollowEntrance to Whiskey Bottom town homesOld Lantern WayEntrance to Whiskey Bottom town homesLilac Park DriveLilac Park development Est. 1996Mellow CourtManorwood RoadGlen Ridge DriveKings Post CourtNorthgate RoadBuilt in 1981 for the 76 home development Northgate. A loop road with two entrances. Opposite of the intersection is the main entrance to the North Laurel Community Center built in 2011.Homestretch Court U.S. Route 1 The Washington Turnpike Road Company built Route 1 between 1796 and 1812. Savage Manufacturing Company land in 1820; part of the John Holland Farm from 1840 to 1875. Location of the Turf Motel and Edy's Grand Ice Cream Plant. Nicknamed "Death Highway" by LIFE magazine. Historic B&O Railroad (CSX) crossing.Railroad section built 1831–1835. Updated bridge built in 1990Laurel Racetrack RoadBack entrance to Laurel Park Racecourse, Founded 1911Brock Bridge RoadSpring RoadWoodland Hills WayLaurel View CourtA horseshoe shaped road that has two entrances to Whiskey Bottom.Yellow Flower RoadOld Camp Meade Road – Portland Road Maryland Route 198 Starting Gate Bar and Lounge, Starting Gate Service Center
History
Origins The North Laurel region has origins dating to 1650. In a passage from the book The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland, the author cites letters describing the conflict between the Native Americans and the new settlers of the area... In 1681, Robert Proctor, from his town on the Severn, Thomas Francis, from South River and Colonel Samuel Lane, from the same section, all wrote urgent letters stating that the Indians had killed and wounded both Negroes and English men "at a plantation of Major Welsh's," and "had attempted to enter the houses of Mr. Mareen Duvall and Richard Snowden." The farms and their owners described are shown later as being along the original starting point of Whiskey Bottom Road.
In the 1950s, inn owner Albert L. Dalton posted a sign along Route 1 which read "Historical Whiskey Bottom Road—Circa 1732 A.D." The majority of the modern road falls within "Robinhood's Forest", a land grant between Laurel and Sandy Spring, Maryland that was part of the accumulated Birmingham Manor estate of the Snowden family starting in 1669 with a patent purchased in exchange for of tobacco. A 1795 map of Anne Arundel County by Dennis Griffith shows the unnamed path that is now known as Whiskey Bottom Road starting at the Ridgley Farm in Highland, Maryland, passing south of Whites Mill in Savage, Maryland and terminating at the original Birmingham Manor site in South Laurel. Martenet's 1861 Map of Prince George's County and 1860 Map of Howard County show the route in more detail. The Howard County – District 6, Guilford, Savage Factory, Annapolis Junction, Laurel City map published by G. M. Hopkins in 1878 referenced the dirt road as Old Annapolis Road, the expanded 1878 county map from the same publisher contradicted this name and listed it as Laurel Road.Arundel Sun, January 19, 2002 The date when the road obtained its name is not well published. Its first newspaper mention was in 1892 as Whisky Bottom. One resident who lived on the road since the 1890s explained that the road name came from the low point near the railroad tracks where trains would pick up wagon-delivered barrels of Maryland Rye whiskey from a distillery near the Laurel Mill. Others have referenced the road as Sandy Bottom, and Rural Route No. 1. The Howard County School Board used Whiskey Bottom as the name rather than alternatives in 1939. Geographically, following the fall-line of the road, the "Bottom" of Whiskey Bottom would be the convergence of the Western and Southwestern Branches of the Patuxent River, where goods could be shipped to nearby Upper Marlboro, The Chesapeake Bay, or to Europe. A large section of the original road is now called Scaggsville Road or Maryland Route 216.
The 1600s Many roads of the region followed Native American footpaths, which themselves followed the most advantageous paths for travel over terrain. Despite the name, Whiskey Bottom follows the highest elevation between rivers to either side, making it the least prone path to flooding or muddy conditions. The path of the modern road very closely aligns with the fall line between the Patuxent River and its Northern branches. The fall line originates near modern New Carrollton to the convergence of the Southwest and Western branch of the Patuxent river near Crofton.
Prior to settlement by the English, the lands up and down the Patuxent river were occupied by various tribes of Algonquin speaking Native Americans. The Native American trails were not paved or marked, but were commonly cleared regularly of underbrush and saplings by controlled fires, creating wide corridors lined only with mature trees up to six feet in diameter. In the 1620s The Susquehannocks pushed tribes out to the Southeast to reduce competition occupying the area as far south as the Potomac River. The Susquehannocks were well armed hunters and profited from Beaver trading with the English. By 1632 Lord Baltimore claimed title to issue land grants in Maryland through Charles I of England. In 1652, the Susquehannocks treatied with Marylanders to keep trade flowing and receive arms to use against the Iroquois to the north. By 1675, efforts were underway to eliminate the Susquehannocks from the region. In 1666, Maryland issued its first road laws, with the path between Leonardtown to Port Tobacco as one of the earliest examples.
In 1685 Lord Baltimore granted Richard Snowden Sr. of land on the Patuxent River (Patented as Robinhood's Forest). The iron works would form the start of the road heading upriver to the northwest. Snowden built Birmingham Manor at the site in 1690 at the terminus of the old post road and the start of Whiskey Bottom. It lasted until a fire on August 20, 1891.
In 1686, the nearby Warfield's range was laid out. Overlook Farm was built on the site; its operators would later account that they would roll tobacco product down Whiskey Bottom Road in barrels toward the Patuxent for shipping. In 1696, Maryland ordered the construction of four "Rolling Roads" to move tobacco to Annapolis in "hogshead" barrels that would be hand rolled, or later pulled by oxen via rope with an axle through the center. This account would have made Old Annapolis (Whiskey Bottom) one of these work roads.
The 1700s In 1704, Maryland issued instructions to mark all trees along trails to Annapolis with a "AA" mark, and notches for paths that lead to a county seat or church.
In 1732, the Maryland Assembly voted to provide incentives to encourage the iron industry in Maryland. They enacted a law excluding iron workers from required road service. In 1750, this was modified to one in every ten iron laborers were required to perform road maintenance.
In 1736, roadside residents Richard Snowden III "Ironmaster" (1688–1763), Joseph Cowman, and three other partners founded "Patuxent Iron Work Company", Maryland's first ironworks. The ironworks were built on the site of an even older forge that predated it by some time. From the 1760s to the 1780s the ironworks were managed by Samuel, John and Thomas Snowden, employing a workforce of about 45 slaves. The ironworks peaked with an annual output of 1200 tons. The owners dismantled the furnace in 1856 due to a lack of wood and ore.
The 1800s
Most residents of Whiskey Bottom Road in this time were farmers. Typical crops that they would plant were butter beans and sugar corn, radishes, beets, eggplant, tobacco, and apple trees.
Slavery was in common practice among the farmers along the road until emancipation. Runaway slave ads were regularly placed by Whiskey Bottom residents in the Baltimore Sun newspaper.
In 1822, the Savage Manufacturing Company purchased 600 acres along the northwest corner of the crossroads with the Washington Turnpike to build the Savage Mill. 181 acres of mixed farm and forest that formed the crossroads with Whiskey Bottom and the Washington Turnpike were sold by the company to John Holland in 1841. The semi-formal stone house he bought still stands, with a Route 1 address due to subdivision.