Finksburg is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Carroll County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States. It is the location of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

EKMS The Electronic Key Management System (EKMS) is a United States National Security Agency led program responsible for Communications Security ( COMSEC) key management, accounting, and distribution. Specifically, EKMS generates and distributes electr ...

Central Facility. Finksburg is located at the intersection of Maryland Routes 91 and 140, on the border of Carroll and

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

counties. It is an unincorporated area approximately one mile northwest of the Liberty Reservoir and six miles southeast of

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. Finksburg is named after Adam Fink, who built the first house and was owner of a local tavern and toll road in the early 19th century.

Modern day

The Finksburg community is protected by the Gamber and Reese Community Volunteer Fire Stations, as well as Sykesville-Freedom District Fire Department. The area is served by Sandymount Elementary, Shiloh Middle, and Westminster High Schools. Gerstell Academy, an independent K-12 school is also located in Finksburg. Across the street sits the 13,805 sq. ft. Finksburg Branch of the Carroll County Public Library which opened in 2009 and "was the first green building in Carroll County" Finksburg is host to the Roaring Run Community Park, a small sports complex with four baseball diamonds, as well as Sandymount Park which features walking paths, tennis courts, a basketball court, playground, three baseball diamonds, and six grass athletic fields. The Greater Baltimore Hindu-Jain Temple and the Evergreen Memorial Gardens cemetery are located in Finksburg. ''

Car 54, Where Are You? ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 1961 to April 1963. Filmed in black and white, the series starred Joe E. Ross as Gunther Toody and Fred Gwynne as Francis Muldoon, two mismatched New York City Po ...

'' and '' Munsters'' actor

Fred Gwynne Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author, who is widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms '' Car 54, Where Are You?'' (as Francis Muldoon) and '' The Munsters'' (as Herm ...

is interred at the Sandy Mount United Methodist Church's cemetery in an unmarked grave. Finksburg was referenced in Season 5, Episode 9 of the television comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Yearly, the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

training camp hosts practice in Owings Mills, several miles away. Former Ravens players Torrey Smith and Haloti Ngata lived locally.

Transportation

The Owings Mills station of the Baltimore Metro SubwayLink in nearby

Owings Mills Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus o ...

Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Baltimore County partly surrounds but does not include the independent city ...

, is a 15-minute drive by car from Finksburg and provides subway access to

downtown Baltimore Downtown Baltimore is the central business district of the Baltimore, city of Baltimore traditionally bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (Baltimore), Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, List of streets in Baltimore#F, Frank ...

History

* 1838 - Finksburg becomes a part of the newly created Carroll County Maryland following an act of the 1837 Maryland Legislature from portions of Baltimore County and Frederick County. The County is named after the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence who died in 1836 Charles Carroll of Carollton. * 1849 – Edward Remington and the Patapsco Mining Company opened

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

mines near Finksburg * 1855 –

Western Maryland Railroad The Western Maryland Railway was a small American Class I railroad (1852–1983) that operated in 3 Southern US States, Maryland ( Western Region), West Virginia ( Eastern Region), and Pennsylvania (Southern Region) in the Allegheny Regions of ...

reached Finksburg * 1856 – A. L. Hoover was

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

of Finksburg, earning $63.60 for the year * 1858 – Cobalt mining was unprofitable and mines were closed for financial reasons * 1866 –

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

was the most popular sport, the "Star" of Finksburg was the local club (team) * 1873 – The Alpha Farmers' Club of Carroll County was established * 1881 – The Finksburg Literary Society organized lecturers for Friday night meetings at the Mechanics' Hall. Admission was 5 cents. * 1888 – L. A. J. Lamotte operated a business for

canning Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although under ...

corn * 1913 - The

changes the name of their Finksburg station to "Asbestos" in respect for the nearby Baltimore Roofing and Asbestos Company, to the consternation of local residents. This led to the area by the station, a half mile from town, being called Asbestos, Maryland at least into the 1930s, over a decade after the asbestos plant closed. (This area is now called "Cedarhurst".) * 1935 – Sandymount Elementary School began as a three-room stone building consolidating the smaller one room schools of Reese, Bethel, and Sandymount Finksburg, Emory School house Patapsco School house and East View School house Deer Park *2002 – Independent K-12 school Gerstell Academy opens ''Timeline information generally taken from:'' Warner, Nancy, Ralph Levering and Margaret Taylor Woltz. ''Carroll County Maryland: A History 1837–1976''. Carroll County Bicentennial Committee, 1976. Cold Saturday was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2008. The Taylor-Manning-Leppo House was listed in 2009.

References

External links

Finksburg Today – Finksburg, MD daily news headlines, weather, more.
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Carroll County, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland