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1957 Map of Laurel

Name: 1957 Topographic Map of Laurel
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1960
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1960

About this map

The Patuxent River corridor between Washington and Baltimore serves as a transition between growing suburban settlements and large federal landholdings during the late 1950s. The city of Laurel is a primary hub, featuring the Laurel Race Track and the Laurel Sanitarium alongside neighborhood schools like Phair Sch and Grove Sch. This era of development is contrasted by the vast wooded tracts of the Fort George G Meade Military Reservation and the Patuxent Research Refuge.

Infrastructure for the region is anchored by the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and the B & O RR, while local landmarks like the Beltsville Airport and Maryland State Teachers College near Bowie highlight the educational and transportation expansion of the time. Local history is preserved in sites such as Perkins Chapel Cem and St Jacobs Cem, marking the rural landscape before it was fully absorbed by the surrounding metropolitan centers.