College Park

History

The earliest evidence of human activity in the College Park area was found at an archeological site just south of Archives II. Projectile points of Clagett and Vernon styles dating from 3000 to 2600 BC were recovered, a notable find given their location away from a river. This finding together with other similar ones indicate that the native American population became more sedentary in the Late Archaic period as the availability of local food supply increased, and social complexity grew. By the time Europeans first arrived and colonized the region in the early 17th century, the various native American groups had aligned themselves into a chiefdom under the Piscataway people. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the European settlers lived on large plantations, some holding the original grants under Lord Baltimore. In College Park, there are records for Toaping Castle, a land grant to Col. Isaac Walker from in the area between Branchville, Greenbelt, and Berwyn Heights, and for the Calvert family's Riversdale, which included parts of South College Park. One of the oldest buildings in the city, the Old Parish House dating from 1817 was initially a farm building in the latter estate. The area remained undeveloped and was re-platted in 1889 by John O. Johnson and Samuel Curriden, Washington real estate developers. The original tract was divided into a grid-street pattern with long, narrow building lots, with a standard lot size of . College Park originally included single-family residences constructed in the Shingle, Queen Anne, and Stick styles, as well as modest vernacular dwellings. By the turn of the century, College Park was being developed rapidly by catering to those who were seeking to escape the crowded Washington, D.C., as well as to a rapidly…

Geography

College Park is located in Prince George's County, Maryland. The city is also part of the Washington metropolitan area, with all of its neighborhoods except for Camden and Sunnyside lying inside the Capital Beltway. It is bordered to the North by Beltsville, to the East by Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights, to the South by Riverdale Park and University Park, and to the West by Hyattsville and Adelphi. The city straddles two small streams, Paint Branch and Indian Creek. The confluence of these two streams is located on the South-East corner of the city, next to the College Park Airport, and results in the Northeast branch Anacostia river. This river is a tributary of the Anacostia river, which itself is a tributary of the Potomac river that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. College Park has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The neighborhoods that were part of the initial incorporation of the city in 1945 (Calvert Hills, Old Town, Lakeland, Berwyn, Branchville, Oak Springs, Daniel's Park, and Hollywood) plus Sunnyside lie in between the Washington-Baltimore CSX railway tracks and Route 1/Baltimore Avenue. West of Baltimore Avenue lie Lord Calvert Manor, College Park Woods, Crystal Springs, Acerdale (University View), Autoville, Cherry Hill, and Camden. East of the CSX tracks lie College Park Estates and Yarrow. These neighborhoods are primarily residential. They exhibit a variety of architectural styles including Queen Anne and Colonial Revival, and, in later constructions, American Foursquare, Cape Cod, and bungalow. Commercial activity is concentrated along Baltimore Avenue, Greenbelt Road, and Berwyn Road. Starting in 2017 commercial development also started expanding along Knox Road, Hartwick Road, and Calvert Road. File:Trolley trail Calvert Hills…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  161,144
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  145,095
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  125,973
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  123,681
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  117,884
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  110,006
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  104,423
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  104,051

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2025-10-27
  4 km E of Riverside, Maryland
• M 2.6 — 2021-06-25
  2 km SE of Woodlawn, Maryland
• M 3.03 — 2016-01-17
  3 km NE of Ranson, West Virginia
• M 3.6 — 2010-07-16
  5 km NNW of Barnesville, Maryland
• M 2.5 — 2001-06-25
  8 km S of Remington, Virginia