1964 Map of Beltsville

About this map

The Patuxent River and the massive Rocky Gorge Reservoir dominate the northern landscape of this region, which was undergoing rapid suburbanization in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This survey illustrates the dense concentration of federal and educational institutional land use, from the U S Naval Ordnance Laboratory in the southwest to the sprawling U S Dept of Agriculture Research Center and the University of Maryland Plant Research Farm. Residential growth is evident in many named subdivisions such as Franklin Knolls, Hillandale Heights, and Windham Manor. Transportation networks like the Capital Beltway and the Baltimore & Ohio RR connect these communities, while numerous gravel pits near the Indian Creek corridor suggest the active extraction industry supporting the era's local construction boom.