Beltsville is a
census-designated placeA census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
(CDP) in northern
Prince George's County, MarylandPrince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation....
, United States. The population was 15,691 at the 2000 census. Beltsville includes the
unincorporated communityIn law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
of
VansvilleVansville is an unincorporated community in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. For statistical purposes, it is part of the Beltsville census-designated place ....
.
Geography
Beltsville is located at 39°2′15"N 76°55′4"W (39.037509, -76.917847), adjacent to the
Montgomery CountyMontgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
– Prince George's County line. It is about 7 miles northeast of the Maryland border with
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, Beltsville has a total area of 6.6 square miles (17.1 km²), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 15,690 people, 5,690 households, and 3,823 families residing in Beltsville. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,366.9 people per square mile (913.7/km²). There were 5,865 housing units at an average density of 884.8/sq mi (341.6/km²). The racial makeup of Beltsville is 48.20% White, 31.96% African American, 0.26% Native American, 10.75% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 5.42% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.84% of the population.
There were 5,690 households out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.0% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 13.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.27.
In Beltsville the population is spread out with 23.6% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 34.5% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 8.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.
The median income for a household in Beltsville is $57,722, and the median income for a family was $66,087. Males had a median income of $40,914 versus $35,645 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the CDP was $24,679. About 5.5% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.4% of those under age 18 and 7.2% of those age 65 or over.
History
Beltsville's history dates back to 1649, when the land was part of an 80000 acres (324 km²) land grant given to Richard Snowden I by Lord Baltimore of England. Snowden and his family were planters who established large plantations on which they built comfortable manor homes. Soon after, other settlers also moved into the area, but they were farmers who could only afford a few acres of land and whose families lived in small cabins. The principal crop was
tobaccoTobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, most of which was shipped to England. Because of the fertile soil and desirable growing conditions, the crops prospered.
Industry came to Beltsville in the early 18th century when iron ore was discovered in the area. The Muirkirk Iron Furnace on
US 1U.S. Route 1 is the easternmost and longest of the major north–south routes of the United States Numbered Highway System, running from Key West, Florida to Fort Kent, Maine. In the U.S...
was established by Andrew and Elias Elliott, who learned their iron-making skills in Muirkirk, Scotland. They produced some of the best-quality pig iron in the country and supplied the U.S. Army with cannons, shot, wheels, and other iron products during both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
By 1730, Post Road (now part of US 1) was the main thoroughfare through Beltsville. Though crude, it made
stagecoachA stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
travel possible. In 1783, Gabriel Peterson Van Horn established a stage line and built the Van Horn Tavern on Odell Road, where passengers could spend the night as they traveled between Baltimore and Washington. The trip took one and one-half days.
Beltsville boasts a distinguished Revolutionary War hero as its native son. General Rezin Beall, who was born on Turkey Flight Plantation on Old Gunpowder Road in 1723, prevented a British invasion at Drum Point on the Chesapeake Bay with only 100 men. He is credited with the fact that there are no Revolutionary War battlefields in Maryland.
In 1835 one of the first rail lines in the country, the Washington branch of the B&O Railroad, was built through Prince George's County. Coming from Baltimore, the line entered the county at Laurel and ran southwesterly to Bladensburg, then into Washington DC. B&O established a rail stop and freight depot on land purchased from a tobacco farmer named Trueman Belt, and they named the place after him. The new community of Beltsville was doubly blessed, for the Baltimore-Washington Turnpike crossed the rail line there. It soon became a thriving little trading center, eclipsing the older community of Vansville further north on the pike.
The original area developed haphazardly and consisted of a few residences, two churches, several small stores, a blacksmith, and a wheelwright. In 1891, the Beltsville Land Improvement Company was chartered and over the next thirty years developed the South Beltsville subdivision as a grid of streets. The developers sold the lots to individual owners and placed restrictive covenants on the deeds, including forbidding the manufacture or sale of alcohol and the sale of any property to an African-American. Beltsville was marketed to professionals who wanted to escape the congestion of Washington and was developed with a mixture of Victorian-era style houses and Colonial Revival houses. The community grew further when an electric railway was extended to Beltsville. The railway began as the Berwyn and Laurel Electric Railroad, but after suffering from financial difficulties, was acquired by the City and Suburban Railway. Located to the west of the railroad, along the line of present-day Rhode Island Avenue, the streetcar line served as the nucleus for additional subdivisions. These areas continued to develop slowly throughout the 1930s and 1940s with the construction of modest sidegable residences. Development continued after the introduction of the automobile, but it was not until after the World War II that intensive development came to the Beltsville area.
As the Federal Government grew, in 1910 the
United States Department of AgricultureThe United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
(USDA) began to purchase land in Beltsville for its
Agricultural Research ServiceThe Agricultural Research Service is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture . ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area...
(ARS), the main in-house research arm of the United States Department of Agriculture. The land now houses the
Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research CenterThe Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, is a unit of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It is located at in Beltsville, Maryland, and is named for Henry A. Wallace, former United States vice president and secretary of...
(BARC). The first parcel acquired was 375 acres (1.5 km²) of the Walnut Grange Plantation with its historic
"Butterfly House". The Center eventually encompassed 14600 acres (59 km²) and became the largest and most prominent center of agricultural science research in the world.
There are a number of historic homes and buildings still standing in Beltsville. The oldest home was built in 1773. One of the largest of the older buildings, built in 1880, was the three-story
"Ammendale Normal Institute" which was destroyed by fire in 1998.
ExperimentalExperimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique....
post-hardcorePost-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
band
ThriceThrice is an American rock band from Irvine, California, formed in 1998. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi while they were in high school....
recorded The Illusion of Safety here and dedicated a song to the city, named "The Beltsville Crucible". The town also has a house paint factory.
Historic sites
The following is a list of historic sites in Beltsville and identified by the
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning CommissionThe Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is a bi-county agency that administers parks and planning in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland.-History:...
: African-American Heritage Sites at nearby Rossville are listed at
Muirkirk, MarylandMuirkirk is an unincorporated area in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. in the central part of the state.It is located along U.S. 1 between Beltsville and Laurel...
.
|
Site Name |
Image |
Location |
M-NCPPC Inventory Number |
Comment |
| 1 |
Abraham Hall |
 |
7612 Old Muirkirk Rd. |
62-023-07 |
Located at Rossville. Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, 2005-03-14 |
| 2 |
Ammendale Normal InstituteThe Ammendale Normal Institute is a U.S. historic location in Beltsville, Maryland. It was a school and novitiate operated by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The Ammendale area is named after Daniel Ammen, a local landowner and naval officer.- History :Also known as...
|
 |
Jct. of Ammendale Rd. and U.S. 1 |
60-004 |
Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, 1975-04-14; demolished 2006 |
| 3 |
Briarley Academy (Old Hotel) |
|
11777 Old Baltimore Pike |
62-010 |
|
| 4 |
Orme-Shaw House |
|
11601 Caverly Avenue |
61-002 |
|
| 5 |
McLeod House |
|
11034 Montgomery Road |
61-011 |
|
| 6 |
Dr. Charles Fox House (Coffin House) |
|
4931 Powder Mill Road |
61-007 |
|
| 7 |
Sellman House |
|
Building 023, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center The Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, is a unit of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It is located at in Beltsville, Maryland, and is named for Henry A. Wallace, former United States vice president and secretary of...
West |
61-012 |
|
| 8 |
St. John’s Episcopal Church |
|
11040 Baltimore Avenue |
61-009 |
|
| 9 |
St. Joseph’s Catholic ChapelThe Ammendale Normal Institute is a U.S. historic location in Beltsville, Maryland. It was a school and novitiate operated by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The Ammendale area is named after Daniel Ammen, a local landowner and naval officer.- History :Also known as...
|
|
6011 Ammendale Road |
60-007 |
Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
with Ammendale Normal Institute, 1975-04-14 |
| 10 |
Walnut Grange |
|
Powder Mill Road (Building 209), Beltsville Agricultural Research Center The Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, is a unit of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It is located at in Beltsville, Maryland, and is named for Henry A. Wallace, former United States vice president and secretary of...
|
62-013 |
|
Public schools
Beltsville's public schools are a part of the
Prince George's County Public SchoolsThe Prince George's County Public Schools system is a large school district administered by the government of Prince George's County, Maryland, United States and is overseen by the Maryland State Department of Education...
system.
Public elementary schools include:
Public middle schools include:
Public high schools include:
Private schools
There are also three parochial schools in Beltsville: Augsburg Academy (Lutheran), St Joseph's School (Roman Catholic), and Beltsville Seventh-day Adventist (SDA).
Notable businesses
- Ritz Camera Centers
Ritz Camera & Image is a photographic retail and photofinishing specialty store, headquartered in Beltsville, Maryland. The company currently owns and operates a chain of approximately 300 locations throughout the United States...
. The chain includes Ritz Camera, Wolf Camera, Kit's Camera, Inkley's, Cameras West, and The Camera Shop. The company also owns Boater's World Marine Centers, which is headquartered in the same building. http://www.ritzpix.com
- Beltsville Speedway
The Beltsville Speedway was an asphalt oval track in the American community of Beltsvile, Maryland; it spanned .-Summary:It was specially designed with banked turns for stock car racing. Originally known as the Baltimore-Washington Speedway, this track would receive its final name in its 19th month...
, defunct NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
track
- Behnke Nurseries, Opened in 1930 by Albert and Rose Behnke. Behnke Nurseries today reflects the same old-fashioned principles set by their founders. They offer the widest practical selection of top quality plants, with knowledgeable staff to assist in plant choices and educate in plant care.sells a full range of ornamental and edible gardening plants, for outdoors and indoors,and everything you need to make them grow.
Notable residents
- Frank Cho
Frank Cho, born Duk Hyun Cho, is a Korean-American comic strip and comic book writer and illustrator, known for his series Liberty Meadows, as well as for books such as Shanna the She-Devil, Mighty Avengers and Hulk for Marvel Comics, and Jungle Girl for Dynamite Entertainment...
, comic book writer and illustrator. He grew up in Beltsville, and often draws his characters with T-shirts sporting the town's name.
- Cameron Wake
Derek Cameron Wake is an American football linebacker for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was signed by the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2005. He played college football at Penn State....
, defensive end for the Miami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, was born in Beltsville.
External links