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Jessup ( ) is an unincorporated community and
census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
in Howard and Anne Arundel counties, about southwest of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 10,535.


Geography

Jessup is located at (39.138374, −76.774929). According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land. As of the 2010 census, the center of population for the state of Maryland is located on the grounds of the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup.


History

Jessup is located near the site of the historic
Spurrier's Tavern Spurrier's Tavern was a well-known tavern and horse-changing depot which stood by the main road between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. (now U.S. Route 1) from 1771 to 1835 near what is now Jessup, Maryland. George Washington visited the tavern ...
, a farm and tavern located on the post road between Baltimore and Washington (Route One) where
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
traveled regularly. The location of the town was named Pierceland on early maps, but the post-civil war name more commonly given was Jessup's Cut, or Jessop's Cut, a post village in Howard County on the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
. The name is generally attributed to Jonathan Jessup, a
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
who worked on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the hand-dug "cut" though Merrill's Ridge he managed as a project. The crews took over 200,000 tons of clay from the clay hill that blocked the trains in freezing weather. The clay was turned into bricks by some of the prisoners from the Maryland Penitentiary who also worked on the Maryland House of Corrections when it was being built. Some of those inmates were then transferred to the House of Correction and they knew the walls were made from Jessup's Cut, hence "the CUT". The name was shortened to Jessups in 1963. Into the mid 20th century, the town was called "Jessups", then was shortened to "Jessup". Since the mid-19th century, the area has been home to various penal institutions. Inmates today still refer to these jails as "the cut," probably unaware of the origin of the name. The Maryland House of Correction, operated by the Maryland Department of Corrections, included a large onsite farm manned with prison labor to provide food for prisoners onsite and offsite. Prisoner labor was discouraged by job seekers in the 1970s much as it did 100 years earlier during the construction of the B&O at Jessup's cut. The State-run Maryland Food Center occupies the land. The prison closed to inmates in 2007. The prison is referred to several times in the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...
television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' and the
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...
original series, '' The Wire''. Even though the maximum security prison is now closed, the town still houses a major minimum security prison, Brockbridge Correctional Facility, for violent offenders who are not deemed a threat to society due to the nature of their crimes. Jessup contains many warehouse delivery facilities. Due to its geographically central location in the state, Jessup is also home to the Maryland Food Center, which includes the Maryland Produce Market and the Maryland Seafood Market. The largest facility was operated by Giant Food, with a facility until September 2012. The company outsourced distribution to C&S Wholesale Grocers, relocating its operations to Pennsylvania. In 2013, Coastal Sunbelt Produce announced plans to relocate its 900-employee facility out of state claiming the facility was unable expand to adjacent empty parcels. Howard County was unable to relocate the facility to the vacant state-run facility, or the vacant 760,000sqft Giant Food facility with an offer to gift state land intended for a transportation hub to the company. County Executive
Ken Ulman Kenneth "Ken" Ulman (born May 4, 1974) is an American attorney, founder and CEO of a consulting firm, Margrave Strategies, and former Democratic politician in Howard County, Maryland. Prior to working in the private sector, Ulman served as coun ...
brokered a deal with Preston Scheffenacker Properties, rezoning the historic Duvall Farm site in Laurel, for light industrial use and issued county financed low interest loans to relocate the facility out of Jessup. Kingdon Gould's Laurel Sand and Gravel company, which includes Savage Stone, Fairfax Materials, Allegany Aggregates, Laurel Asphalt, and S.W. Barrick & Sons, purchased the 625-acre chase property in Eastern Jessup, North of the historic town of
Savage, Maryland Savage is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in Howard County, Maryland, United States, approximately south of Baltimore and north of Washington, D.C. It is situated close to the city of Laurel and to the planne ...
. The site is home to the Savage Stone quarry, mining Baltimore
Gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ch ...
rock for road bed construction. The facility started operations in 2005 after special zoning approval with a 25-year reserve in materials. Ridgley's Run Community Association directors Kingdon Gould and his son provided community approval of the project in exchange for the construction of the Ridgley's Run Community Center. To the north of the quarry, Orson Adams built two nineteenth-century Victorian Manor Houses named Oak Hill on a 235-acre estate that anchored the community. The homes burned down after the
Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company ...
purchased the land, and have been redeveloped into apartments. Resident film maker Wayne Shipley used Jessup as the production location for ''One-Eyed Horse'' (2008) and ''Day of the Gun'' (2013). Portions of ''
Cry-Baby ''Cry-Baby'' is a 1990 American teen musical romantic comedy film written and directed by John Waters. It was the only film of Waters's over which studios were in a bidding war, coming off the heels of the successful ''Hairspray''. The film sta ...
'' (1990) and '' Die Hard with a Vengeance'' (1995) were filmed in Jessup, with TA Travel Center standing in for ''Nord des Ligne'' Truck Stop in the latter film.


Neighborhoods

Major neighborhoods of Jessup include: *Jessup, community surrounding Jessup station in
Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, whi ...
. * Guilford, located at the intersection of US 1 and Guilford Road. * Waterloo, located at the intersection of US 1 and Waterloo Road.


Notable people

*
Arnold Elzey Arnold Elzey Jones Jr. (December 18, 1816 – February 21, 1871), known for much of his life simply as Arnold Elzey, was a soldier in both the United States Army and the Confederate Army, serving as a major general in the American Civil War. At ...
, a major general in the
Confederate army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
during the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
; he retired to a small farm near Jessup. *
DeWanda Wise DeWanda Wise (née Jackson) (born May 30, 1984) is an American actress. She starred in Spike Lee's Netflix comedy-drama series ''She's Gotta Have It'' (2017–19), a contemporary adaptation of his 1986 film. Early life and education Wise was ...
, an actor; was born in Jessup.


Demographics


2020 census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''


2000 Census

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,865 people, 379 households, and 280 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,858.0 people per square mile (717.9/km2). There were 398 housing units at an average density of 94.0/sq mi (36.3/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 67.73%
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
, 31.28% White, 1.03% Hispanic or Latino, 0.33% Asian, 0.27% from other races, 0.22% from two or more races, 0.15% Native American, and 0.03%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oce ...
. There were 379 households, out of which 29.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.5% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.1% were non-families. 20.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.04. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 3.2% under the age of 18, 15.9% from 18 to 24, 62.5% from 25 to 44, 16.3% from 45 to 64, and 2.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 499.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 539.7 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $48,000, and the median income for a family was $55,139. Males had a median income of $26,003 versus $24,950 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $19,052. About 5.0% of families and 7.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.


Transportation

The Jessup stop on the
Camden Line The Camden Line is a MARC commuter rail line that runs for between Union Station, Washington, D.C., and Camden Station, Baltimore, Maryland, over the CSX Capital Subdivision, and Baltimore Terminal Subdivision. It is one of the oldest commuter ...
of the
MARC Train MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) is a commuter rail system in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. MARC is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) and operated under contract by Alstom and Amtrak on track owned ...
system provides commuter rail service. The major highways that run through Jessup are Interstate 95,
U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...
and
Maryland Route 175 Maryland Route 175 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs from Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia east to MD 3 in Millersville. MD 175 is a major highway through the large unincorporated community of Columbia; the ...
. Exit 41 off I-95 provides access via MD 175 east.


Government

The
Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that ...
operates the Mid-Atlantic Region Office in Jessup and in Anne Arundel County. The Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, built in 1960, is a Maryland State-run maximum security hospital for criminals who are adjudged not guilty by reason of
insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
.


See also

*
List of Howard County properties in the Maryland Historical Trust The Maryland Historical Trust serves as the central historic preservation office in Maryland. The properties listed reside within the boundaries of modern Howard County. Prior to 1851, sites would have been part of Anne Arundel County. Sites settle ...


References


External links

{{authority control Census-designated places in Maryland Census-designated places in Howard County, Maryland Census-designated places in Anne Arundel County, Maryland