About This Project

What this is

This site documents the history of College Park, Maryland — the Prince George's County city along U.S. Route 1, home of the University of Maryland and College Park Airport. It tells the area's story, from the founding of the Maryland Agricultural College to the airfield where the Army's first pilots learned to fly, and pairs that history with a current local guide to nearby businesses and events.

It is part of a small network of Washington-area neighborhood history sites built by the same hands and to the same standard.

Our standard: get it right, and show our work

Local history is only worth reading if it is accurate. We hold this site to a simple, strict rule:

Every specific date, name, and number on our history pages must trace to a cited source.

Each fact is run through an automated verification gate before publishing: it flags any specific claim that lacks a citation, and the page does not ship until every flagged item is sourced or removed. Citations appear as numbered footnotes on the history and timeline pages, with the archives listed on resources.

We prefer authoritative sources — the National Park Service, the Smithsonian, the City of College Park, and University of Maryland records — and we are careful with College Park's famous aviation "firsts." Many are real but need precise wording: Mrs. Van Deman was the first woman to fly as a passenger in the United States (not the world), the August 1918 flight was the first Post Office–operated airmail, and the Berliners' helicopter work was pioneering rather than an undisputed world first. We say so plainly.

Scope

The focus is the City of College Park and the institutions that shaped it — the University of Maryland and College Park Airport — along the Route 1 corridor. Adjacent communities like Berwyn, Branchville, and Riverdale Park appear where their stories overlap.

Found an error? Tell us.

The whole point of this project is accuracy. If you spot a mistake or a missing source, please get in touch — corrections are welcome and will be made with a citation.

Historical photographs are credited to their archives. AI-generated illustrations, where used, are labeled.