Maryland Route 88 (MD 88) is a
state highway
A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...
in the U.S. state of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Known for most of its length as Black Rock Road, the state highway runs from
MD 30 Business in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
east to
MD 25 near
Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
. MD 88 was constructed around the
Carroll–
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
county line in the early 1910s. The remainder of the highway to MD 25 was completed in the late 1920s and early 1930s. MD 88 was relocated in Hampstead in the mid-1960s; the old route became
MD 833.
Route description
MD 88 begins at an intersection with MD 30 Business (Main Street) in the town of Hampstead. The state highway heads east as two-lane undivided Lower Beckleysville Road to a
roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
at the east town limit. Lower Beckleysville Road continues northeast as a county highway that becomes Mount Carmel Road in Baltimore County and leads to
MD 137. The northwest leg of the roundabout is MD 833 (Old Blackrock Road), the old alignment of MD 88 that heads back toward the center of Hampstead. MD 88 continues southeast as Black Rock Road and enters Baltimore County. The state highway passes through farmland on top of a ridge until the highway curves east and descends into the valley of Indian Run. MD 88 crosses the stream just before reaching its eastern terminus at MD 25 (Falls Road) north of the village of Butler.
MD 88 is a part of the
National Highway System as a principal arterial from MD 30 Business east to MD 833 in Hampstead.
History
MD 88 was paved as a state-aid road in three sections by 1915. The first two sections, from Main Street in Hampstead east to the Baltimore–Carroll county line and from the county line to Trenton Road, were paved in macadam with widths of and , respectively. The segment from Trenton Road to Mount Zion Road was built as a wide concrete road.
The remainder of MD 88 from Mount Zion Road to Falls Road was built in two sections: from MD 25 west to Benson Mill Road in 1929 and from there to Mount Zion Road by 1933.
The highway was relocated onto a western extension of Lower Beckleysville Road through Hampstead in 1966; MD 88's old route from
MD 30 (Main Street) to Lower Beckleysville Road became MD 833.
The roundabout at the intersection of MD 88 and MD 833 was constructed in 2003.
Junction list
See also
*
References
External links
{{Attached KML, display=title,inline
MDRoads: MD 88
088
Roads in Carroll County, Maryland
Roads in Baltimore County, Maryland