Bowie

History

The city of Bowie owes its existence to the railway. In 1853, Colonel William Duckett Bowie obtained a charter from the Maryland legislature to construct a rail line into Southern Maryland. In 1869, the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Company began the construction of a railroad from Baltimore to Southern Maryland, terminating in Pope's Creek. The area had already been dotted with small farms and large tobacco plantations in an economy based on agriculture and slavery. In 1870, Ben Plumb, a land speculator and developer, sold building lots around the railroad junction and named the settlement Huntington City. By 1872, the line was completed, together with a "spur" to Washington, D.C., and the entire line through Southern Maryland was completed in 1873. In 1880, Huntington City was rechartered as Bowie, named for Colonel Bowie's son and business partner Oden Bowie, the former Governor of Maryland and then-president of the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad. In the early days the land was subdivided by developers into more than 500 residential building lots, to create a large town site at a junction of the Baltimore and Potomac's main line to southern Maryland, and the branch line to Washington, D.C. In 1957, the firm of Levitt and Sons acquired the nearby Belair Estate, the original colonial plantation of the Provincial Governor of Maryland, Samuel Ogle, and developed the residential community of Belair at Bowie. Two years later the town of Bowie annexed the Levitt properties and then re-incorporated the now-larger area as a city in 1963. The overwhelming majority of Bowie residents today live in this 1960s Levitt planned community, whose street names are arranged in alliterative sections. Levitt & Sons had a long history of prohibiting the sale of houses (including resale by…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bowie has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  66,681
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  58,045
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  51,300
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  47,434
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  43,791
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  39,598
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  39,120
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  38,586

Largest nearby schools

• Charles Herbert Flowers High
  High · Springdale · 2,569 students · 21.1:1 ratio
• Parkdale High
  High · Riverdale · 2,561 students · 16.3:1 ratio
• Eleanor Roosevelt High
  High · Greenbelt · 2,526 students · 20.7:1 ratio
• Duval High
  High · Lanham · 2,503 students · 19.7:1 ratio
• Bowie High
  High · Bowie · 2,460 students · 18.8:1 ratio
• Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High
  High · Upper Marlboro · 2,257 students · 17.2:1 ratio
• Bladensburg High
  High · Bladensburg · 2,164 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• Greenbelt Middle
  Middle · Greenbelt · 1,342 students · 13.7:1 ratio