Maryland Route 26

Maryland Route 26 (MD 26) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Liberty Road, the state highway runs from U.S. Route 15 (US 15) in Frederick east to MD 140 in Baltimore. MD 26 connects Frederick and Baltimore with the highway's namesake of Libertytown in eastern Frederick County, the suburban area of Eldersburg in southern Carroll County, and the western Baltimore County suburbs of Randallstown, Milford Mill, and Lochearn. The highway also serves as a major thoroughfare in the western part of Baltimore, where the street is named Liberty Heights Avenue. MD 26 is maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration outside of Baltimore and by the Baltimore City Department of Transportation within the city.

MD 26 follows much of the course of three turnpikes established in the 19th century. The Maryland State Roads Commission marked the portion of the highway from Baltimore to Eldersburg for improvement as one of the original state roads in 1909 and reconstructed the old turnpike in the early to mid-1910s. The Frederick– Libertytown segment of Liberty Road was reconstructed in the early 1920s. The remainder of MD 26 between Libertytown and Eldersburg was built in the mid-to-late 1920s and early 1930s. MD 26 was one of the original state-numbered highways designated in 1927; however, the Frederick– Libertytown portion was marked as MD 31 until 1933. Improvements to the highway at the Baltimore end began in the late 1910s and continued periodically through the 1950s. MD 26 was reconstructed from Frederick to Eldersburg throughout the 1950s, with major work concluding in the early 1960s. Many bypassed portions of the old road became parts of MD 850. MD 26 was extended west to modern US 15 in the late 1950s as a divided highway. That divided highway was extended east to MD 194 in Ceresville in the late 1990s.

Route description

MD 26 is a part of the National Highway System as a principal arterial in three separate sections: from US 15 in Frederick east to Israel Creek east of Ceresville; from Emerald Lane west of Eldersburg to Liberty Reservoir east of Eldersburg; and Lyons Mill Road in Randallstown east to MD 140 in Baltimore.

Frederick to Eldersburg

MD 26 begins at a partial trumpet interchange with US 15 (Catoctin Mountain Highway) on the north side of the city of Frederick. There is no access from southbound US 15 to eastbound MD 26. MD 26 heads east as a four-lane divided highway through a mixed commercial and industrial area. The state highway has an intersection with Wormans Mill Road and Routzhan Way and a directional intersection with the northern end of Market Street that allows access to and from MD 26 east. The first intersection, which was formerly MD 355, provides the missing movements from the Market Street intersection. MD 26 intersects Monocacy Boulevard, a partial circumferential highway of Frederick, and passes between a pair of residential subdivisions before crossing the Monocacy River on a pair of dissimilar bridges, the westbound one a through truss bridge. East of the river, the state highway meets the southern end of MD 194 (Woodsboro Pike) at the hamlet of Ceresville. The divided highway continues north as MD 194 toward Woodsboro and MD 26 turns east onto a two-lane undivided road.

MD 26 continues east through farmland where it crosses Israel Creek and passes through the village of Mount Pleasant. The state highway forms the main street of Libertytown, where the highway meets the southern end of MD 550 (Woodsboro Road), intersects MD 75 (Church Street), and intersects the western end of MD 31 (New Windsor Road) at the east end of the village. MD 26 crosses Dollyhyde Creek and several branches of the North Fork of Linganore Creek while passing to the north of Unionville and to the south of the historic Pearre-Metcalfe House. The state highway enters Carroll County at its intersection with Buffalo Road where the highway is paralleled by the first of many segments of Old Liberty Road, MD 850, to the south. MD 26 is paralleled by the second section of MD 850 as the highway enters the hamlet of Taylorsville, where it intersects MD 27 (Ridge Road). Two more segments of MD 850 parallel MD 26 through Winfield, which is the home of South Carroll High School.

Eldersburg to Baltimore

At the west end of the expansive suburban area of Eldersburg, MD 26 is paralleled to the south by the easternmost section of MD 850 and the mainline highway has an interchange with MD 97 (New Washington Road) that consists of a two-way ramp between the two highways in the southwest quadrant of the junction and an exit ramp from westbound MD 26 to MD 97. MD 26 is paralleled by several county-maintained sections of Old Liberty Road as it approaches the center of Eldersburg. West of Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, MD 26 expands to a five-lane road with a center left-turn lane. East of the highway's intersection with MD 32 (Sykesville Road), the highway parallels a few more stretches of Old Liberty Road and passes to the north of the community of Carrolltowne, which contains the historic Moses Brown House. At the east end of Eldersburg, MD 26 reduces to two lanes and crosses a branch of Liberty Reservoir, which is an impoundment of the North Branch of the Patapsco River. The state highway passes through the hamlet of Shervettes Corner, which contains the final segment of Old Liberty Road and Branton Manor, before crossing the mainstem of Liberty Reservoir into Baltimore County.

MD 26 passes through the hamlet of Harrisonville and expands to a five-lane road with a center turn lane at Deer Park Road at the west end of Randallstown, where the highway passes the Choate House next to Wildwood Park. The state highway intersects Old Court Road before entering the suburb of Milford Mill, where the highway meets Rolling Road. MD 26 expands to a divided highway shortly before its partial cloverleaf interchange with Interstate 695 (Baltimore Beltway). The state highway has a center turn lane within Lochearn, where the highway crosses Gwynns Falls and enters the city of Baltimore. Here, the highway's name changes to Liberty Heights Avenue. MD 26 meets the western end of Northern Parkway and passes through Powder Mill Park just east of the city line. The highway passes Howard Park P.S. 218 in the Howard Park neighborhood and Forest Park High School in the Forest Park area of the city, where the highway expands to a six-lane divided boulevard and continues through Ashburton, the site of Hanlon Park and Lake Ashburton. MD 26 crosses over CSX's Hanover Subdivision railroad line just west of Druid Park Drive and Baltimore City Community College. The highway passes between Liberty Square and the Mondawmin neighborhood— the latter the site of Mondawmin Mall, the Mondawmin station of MTA Maryland's Baltimore Metro SubwayLink, and Coppin State University— before reaching its eastern terminus at MD 140 (Reisterstown Road). Liberty Heights Avenue continues east as an unnumbered street to MD 129 (Auchentoroly Terrace) at Druid Hill Park

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