page_title: Maryland Route 6
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Maryland Route 6 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: View west along Maryland State Route 6 (Charles Street) at Wheatley Road in Dentsville, Charles County, Maryland
context_page_description: Maryland Route 6 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs 47.36 miles from a dead end at the Potomac River in Riverside east to MD 235 in Oraville. MD 6 connects several small communities in southern Charles County and northern St. Mary's County with U.S. Route 301 in La Plata, the county seat of Charles County, and MD 5 in Charlotte Hall. The state highway also provides access to multiple historic sites around Port Tobacco, the original county seat of Charles County. MD 6 was one of the original highways numbered by the Maryland State Roads Commission in 1927. The state highway was constructed from La Plata to Riverside in the late 1910s and early 1920s. The La Plata–Charlotte Hall section of the highway was built in the mid-1920s. The portion of MD 6 east of Charlotte Hall was mostly built in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The final section of the state highway was completed in Oraville in 1940.
context_section_description: The La Plata–Riverside portion of MD 6 was constructed as a state-aid gravel road beginning around 1916. The highway had reached McConchie and was under construction west to Doncaster by 1919.  The road was completed to Nanjemoy Creek by 1921 and finished to Riverside by 1923.  The La Plata–Charlotte Hall section of MD 6 was constructed from Charlotte Hall west to Dentsville by 1923.  The highway was completed as a 15-foot (4.6 m) wide gravel road west to La Plata in 1926.  The highway from Riverside to Charlotte Hall received its state highway designation in 1927 when numbers were first assigned to highways in Maryland.
  Construction on the Charlotte Hall–Oraville portion of MD 6 began in 1926.  The highway was constructed in 1-mile (1.6 km) segments in 1927 and 1928.  MD 6 was extended east through Huntersville to Lock Swamp Creek in 1930.  The state highway was extended to Persimmon Creek in 1933 and to Delabrooke Road north of Oraville in 1934.  The final section of MD 6 was completed from Delabrooke Road south to MD 235 in Oraville in 1940.
  The first improvement project on MD 6 was between Doncaster and Hilltop when the gravel road was rebuilt and received a 20-foot (6.1 m) wide bituminous surface.  In 1949, the state highway was relocated and a new bridge was constructed near Port Tobacco, replacing a dangerous curve and one-way bridge.  MD 6 was widened and resurfaced with bituminous concrete through downtown La Plata in 1951.  In 1955 and 1956, MD 6 from US 301 west to McConchie was reconstructed as the westbound direction of an ultimate divided highway that was proposed.  Aside from minor improvements, there have been no significant changes in MD 6, such as the construction of a divided highway west of La Plata, since the 1950s.
caption: MD 6 westbound in Dentsville
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