Crofton

History

In 1963, after the Crawford Corporation accumulated over of land, it announced that it would build a new community called Crofton. This new town and planned community was founded at the same time as Reston, Virginia (April 17, 1964) and Columbia, Maryland (1967). Crofton would be anchored by a community golf course, which later became the Crofton Country Club. Crofton was officially founded in the fall of 1964. The company considered picking an English name for the new town that "sounds well and implies that this is a pleasant place to live." It ended up picking the name "Crofton", named after a small township in Cumberland County, England. (Crofton, England was originally called Croft-town, derived from the word "Croft", as the town standing upon the Crofts.) Crofton, Maryland was founded as a community for racial exclusion. Crofton was in the national news in late June and early July 2002 after a fish called the northern snakehead was discovered in a local pond. The infestation was found in water behind the Crofton post office and the adjacent shopping center, In order to ensure that the fish were eliminated, in September 2002 the main pond and two nearby ponds were dosed heavily with rotenone Six adult snakeheads and more than one thousand juvenile fish were found and destroyed. One comparison case was the mute swan, also an invasive and destructive species of the Chesapeake Bay watershed but, in comparison, quite beautiful, and which garnered support from some environmental and animal rights groups. Several movies were inspired by this incident. Syfy aired two movies in relation to the snakehead outbreak: in March 2004, a movie called Snakehead Terror was featured, and the movie Frankenfish was aired in June 2004. Ten Pound Films also produced a feature film…

Geography

The original community of Crofton was built on the Duvall family farm located within a triangle formed by three major roads: Crain Highway (Maryland Route 3) to the northwest, Davidsonville Road (Maryland Route 424) to the northeast, and Defense Highway (Maryland Route 450) to the south. Within the triangle, Crofton Parkway, a loop road long, encircles the center of the community. The Crofton CDP now extends north and east from the triangle, including Crofton Park and reaching northeast as far as St. Stephens Church Road. The Little Patuxent River borders Crofton on its southwest corner at the intersection of Route 3 and Route 450, providing a buffer between Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Crofton CDP has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Old Mill High
  High · Millersville · 2,445 students · 17:1 ratio
• Meade High
  High · Ft Meade · 2,330 students · 17.3:1 ratio
• Annapolis High
  High · Annapolis · 2,127 students · 14.4:1 ratio
• Severna Park High
  High · Severna Park · 1,873 students · 19.3:1 ratio
• Crofton High School
  High · Gambrills · 1,805 students · 18.8:1 ratio
• South River High
  High · Edgewater · 1,649 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• Arundel High
  High · Gambrills · 1,617 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• Severna Park Middle
  Middle · Severna Park · 1,399 students · 16.1:1 ratio