Good Luck is a former

small town "Small Town" is a 1985 song written by John Mellencamp and released on his eighth album ''Scarecrow (John Mellencamp album), Scarecrow''. The song reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and #13 on the Adult Contempo ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...

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. Established in 1672, the former settlement is currently occupied by the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

and a residential community.

History

Good Luck was a property deeded to Alexander Magruder in 1672. Magruder owned approximately of land in Maryland, and some of his properties, such as Good Luck, were named after locations in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

. The size of the property had grown to by 1677. In 1702, of land known as "Good Luck" was sold. A post office was established in 1817 called "Magruder's". The post office was renamed "Good Luck" and operated from 1830 to 1852, and from 1872 to 1876.

Decline

In 1871, the village of Glennville (later renamed Glenn Dale) was platted by John Glenn and Edmund B. Duvall. Located on the

Baltimore and Potomac Railroad The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) operated from Baltimore, Maryland, southwest to Washington, D.C., from 1872 to 1902. Owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was the second railroad company to connect the nation's capital to ...

, Glenn Dale prospered, and in 1876, Good Luck's post office was moved there. In 1899, Good Luck was described as a "rural village" alongside "the railroad village of Glenn Dale". "Good Luck Road" is still located at the site of the former settlement, which is currently occupied by the

and a residential community.

Census designated place

(CDP) called "Good Luck" was established in the general area of the former settlement during the

1970 United States census The 1970 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 203,392,031, an increase of 13.4 percent over the 179,323,175 persons enumerated during the 1960 census. This was t ...

. The population of the Good Luck CDP was 10,584. The

land area This is a list of the world's countries and their dependencies, ranked by total area, including land and water. This list includes entries that are not limited to those in the ISO 3166-1 standard, which covers sovereign states and dependent ...

of the CDP was and the population density was 3,308 per square mile. In 1980, Good Luck CDP ceased to exist after the census area was split to create the CDPs of Glenn Dale and Goddard.

References

Former census-designated places in Maryland Ghost towns in Maryland Geography of Harford County, Maryland 1672 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies {{PrinceGeorgesCountyMD-geo-stub