page_title: Ellicott City, Maryland
section_title: Suburban development
hierarchical_section_title: Ellicott City, Maryland / History / Suburban development
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Ellicott City Station, Ellicott City, Maryland. Built 1830 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Oldest remaining passenger station in the United States.
context_page_description: Ellicott City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in, and the county seat of, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, its population was 65,834 at the 2010 census, qualifying it as the largest unincorporated county seat in the country.
  Ellicott City's historic downtown – the Ellicott City Historic District – lies in the valleys of the Tiber and Patapsco rivers. The historic district includes the Ellicott City Station, which is the oldest surviving train station in the United States, having been built in 1830 as the first terminus of the original B&O Railroad line. The historic district is often called "Historic Ellicott City" or "Old Ellicott City" to distinguish it from the surrounding suburbs that extend south to Columbia and west to West Friendship.
context_section_description: In 1955, County Commissioner Norman E. Moxley created the city's first major subdivision, Normandy Heights. The first major shopping center, Normandy Shopping Center, was constructed. Alda Hopkins Clark purchased the Ellicott City First Presbyterian Church to donate it to the Howard County Historical Society.
  In 1958, The Goddess, a film loosely based on Marilyn Monroe's life, was shot on location in the city.
  Before 1962, the only polling location for Howard County voters was in Ellicott City. In May 1962, voters were offered a second location to vote, also in Ellicott City at the National Armory on Montgomery Road.
  The same year, the state health department ordered the city to stop dumping its raw sewage into the Patuxent River and develop a modern septic system.
  In 1964, the Corinthian Conservation Company was proposed to operate a Title I private-nonprofit partnership to implement a slum eradication program in Ellicott City, demolishing residences, and replacing them with 75% federal-funded apartment complexes.
  In 1977, the county chose a site outside of the city for a new landfill, leading to the closure of the local New Cut Road landfill which served the county from 1944 until May 1980 for trash and hazardous materials. The New Cut landfill became the Worthington Dog Park. In 2011, a portion of the former 83-acre (34 ha) landfill site was developed with a $462,000 grant from the Maryland Energy Administration to build onsite solar arrays to power Worthington Elementary.
  Historic Main Street has been the site of several devastating fires, most notably in November 1984, three in 1992 and again on November 9, 1999. The 1984 fire was started by Leidig's Bakery's faulty air conditioning unit and destroyed six buildings; the 1992 fires were by arson, and the 1999 six-alarm blaze which destroyed five businesses and caused an estimated $2 million in damage was accidentally started behind a restaurant by a discarded cigarette. 
  The fairy tale-themed amusement park, the Enchanted Forest, was located in the western part of the area. The park closed to the general public since the early 1990s. A shopping center (called the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center) was built on its parking lot. Many of the attractions have been moved to Clark's Elioak Farm in a rural area in the southwest corner of the Ellicott City CDP, where they are being restored. The Enchanted Forest was featured in the 1990 John Waters-directed film Cry-Baby.
  Since 2005, Ellicott City has been ranked four times among the top "20 Best Places to Live in the United States" by Money and CNNMoney.com.
  In 2009, Ellicott City appeared on Newsmax magazine's list of the "Top 25 Most Uniquely American Cities and Towns", a piece written by current CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg. In determining his ranking, Greenberg cited the appeal of Main Street, among several other factors.
  At midnight on August 21, 2012, a CSX coal train derailed on the Old Main Line Subdivision. Two 19-year-old girls who were sitting on the railroad bridge over Main Street were killed when coal was dumped on them.
  In 2012, the Forest Diner closed, ending a 66-year business as a traditional polished metal roadside diner, making way for 38 apartments.
  In 2014, the Hiene House and Ellicott City Jail were placed on the Preserve Howard top-ten most endangered list due to walkway and parking lot construction plans.
  In 2015, Ellicott City was inducted as a new member of Tree City USA.
caption: Ellicott City Station, 1970
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