BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Ellicott City and Oella

MD -- Ellicott City and Oella:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: On July 30, 2016, 6 inches of rain fell in the area during a two-hour period. The flash flood caused massive damage to Historic Ellicott City, especially along Main Street, with about 25 buildings being damaged. I tried to visit a couple of weeks later but downtown was still closed off. In fact, it remained closed off for two months, finally reopening on October 6, 2016. While city leaders tried to put a curb on downtown development, the move failed.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] ELLICO_160816_001_STITCH.JPG

[2] ELLICO_160816_002.JPG	[3] ELLICO_160816_005.JPG	[4] ELLICO_160816_014.JPG
[5] ELLICO_160816_015.JPG	[6] ELLICO_160816_021.JPG	[7] ELLICO_160816_027.JPG
[8] ELLICO_160816_034.JPG	[9] ELLICO_160816_039.JPG	[10] ELLICO_160816_041.JPG
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[14] ELLICO_160816_063.JPG	[15] ELLICO_160816_068.JPG	[16] ELLICO_160816_077.JPG
[17] ELLICO_160816_081.JPG	[18] ELLICO_160816_085.JPG	[19] ELLICO_160816_090.JPG
[20] ELLICO_160816_096.JPG	[21] ELLICO_160816_100.JPG	[22] ELLICO_160816_103.JPG
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[26] ELLICO_160816_135.JPG	[27] ELLICO_160816_137.JPG	[28] ELLICO_160816_140.JPG
[29] ELLICO_160816_153.JPG	[30] ELLICO_160816_168.JPG	[31] ELLICO_160816_171.JPG
[32] ELLICO_160816_177.JPG	[33] ELLICO_160816_180.JPG	[34] ELLICO_160816_184.JPG
[35] ELLICO_160816_189.JPG	[36] ELLICO_160816_191.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ELLICO_160816_014.JPG: Wootton Law Offices Circa 1869 Built for Henry Edgar Wootton, Esquire (1837-1894), this is the oldest of the professional buildings which now comprise Ellicott City's lawyers' row. Constructed on a 28' 4" square native granite foundation, it is located on the solid rock prominence just across from the Howard County Courthouse's original main entrance. This one story frame structure features a semi-circular vestibule with two interior doors, thereby accommodating two separate law offices. Having never been a dwelling, it has always served as professional offices for a series of lawyers who have, generally, during their careers also held various judicial and other public offices. It still contains its original working law library which has expanded with time and has changed hands with the buildings over the years. It is the oldest law office in Howard County and one of the oldest buildings in continuous use as a law office in Maryland.
2. ELLICO_160816_015.JPG: Howard County Historical Society
3. ELLICO_160816_021.JPG: This area was sectioned off to block off access to the flooded area
4. ELLICO_160816_034.JPG: Sunflower Church ca 1837 Samuel Ellicott deeded this lot in 1837, and it is the fourth oldest Methodist Church in continuous use in the county. The stained glass and painted windows were added during renovations in 1887. The nickname derives from the pattern of the large round window. Union troops stationed in town, as well as those on their way to battle, worshipped here.
5. ELLICO_160816_041.JPG: Residential Staircase (And you really cannot see anything from down there anyway... we promise) [Smiley Face] Thanks!
6. ELLICO_160816_068.JPG: The flooding came through this valley
7. ELLICO_160816_081.JPG: Sewer System Overflow No Water Contact!!
Wikipedia Description: Ellicott City, Maryland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ellicott City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, United States. The population was 56,397 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Howard County. Founded in 1772, the town features a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station Museum (with a station built in 1831), as well as a downtown historic district that is a popular destination among antiques shoppers. As of the 2000 Census, Ellicott City surpassed Towson, Maryland as the largest unincorporated county seat in the state.

In July 2005, Ellicott City was ranked the 20th Best Place to Live in the United States by CNN/Money and Money magazine. In July 2006, Ellicott City/Columbia was ranked 4th by CNN/Money and Money magazine on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.

Ellicott City is listed amongst America's most affluent communities and is located in Howard County, the third richest county in the United States according the U.S. Census Bureau.

The downtown area is often called "Historic Ellicott City" or "Old Ellicott City", to distinguish it from the unincorporated area that extends north to the Baltimore County line, south to Columbia, and west to West Friendship.

History:

In 1772, three Quaker brothers from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, chose the picturesque wilderness, upriver from Elk Ridge Landing (known today as Elkridge, Maryland) to establish a flour mill. John, Andrew, and Joseph Ellicott founded Ellicott's Mills, which became one of the largest milling and manufacturing towns in the East.

The Ellicott brothers helped revolutionize farming in the area by persuading farmers to plant wheat instead of tobacco and also by introducing fertilizer to revitalize depleted soil. Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and wealthy landowner, was an early influential convert from tobacco to wheat.

In 1830, Ellicott's Mills became the first terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad outside Baltimore. The old station, which stands today as a museum, has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The famous race between Peter Cooper's iron engine, the Tom Thumb, and a horse-drawn carriage took place at Relay on the return trip from Ellicott's Mills in August 1830. Even though the horse won the race due to a broken drive belt, steam engines steadily improved, and the railroad became a vital link in the town's economy.

By 1861, Ellicott's Mills was a prosperous farming and manufacturing area. The site of the courthouse, which was built from 1840-1843 when the Howard District of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, was so designated in 1839. Howard County, Maryland, became an official independent jurisdiction in 1851. In 1867, a city charter was secured for Ellicott's Mills, and the name was changed to "Ellicott City." The only chartered city in the county, Ellicott City lost its charter in 1935 and was designated an historic district by the county in 1973. Ellicott City today serves as the county seat for Howard County.

In the early summer of 1972, the historic downtown Main Street area was extensively flooded by Hurricane Agnes.

Historic Main Street has also been the site of several devastating fires, most notably in November 1984 and again on November 9, 1999. The former was started by Leidig's Bakery's faulty air conditioning unit and destroyed six buildings; the latter, a 6-alarm blaze which destroyed five businesses and caused an estimated $2 million in damage, was accidentally started behind a restaurant by a discarded cigarette.

Ellicott City was the home to the fairy tale-themed amusement park known as the Enchanted Forest. The park has been closed to the general public since the early 1990s, and 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 Ellicott City, where they are being restored. The Enchanted Forest was featured in the 1990 John Waters-directed film Cry-Baby, starring Ricki Lake and Johnny Depp. Clark's Elioak Farm is a petting zoo/farm that is open to the public during the summer.

Ellicott City has been called one of the most haunted small towns on the east coast. The Howard County Tourism Council runs a Ghost Tour that visits several places with reputations for paranormal activity. Among these are the mansions Lilburn, Hayden House, and Mt. Ida; the B&O railroad bridge that crosses over Main Street in the center of the town; the old Ellicott City Firehouse; and the Patapsco Female Institute. Proud Ellicott City residents use this haunted history to bring their small town into the spotlight.
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