Highland 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 ...

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 ...

in Howard 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. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 1,133. It uses the 20777 zip code.

Geography

The community is located in southern Howard County at the junction of Highland Road, Maryland Route 216 and Maryland Route 108, and is still heavily influenced by its agrarian history; farms and horse fields are common in the area. The crossroads itself has a small-town feel, with various shops including some that share in the town history. Clarksville is to the north on MD 108, Laurel is to the southeast on MD 216, and Olney is to the west on MD 108. The center of Columbia is to the northeast.

Demographics

The crossroads

As a rural crossroads, many of its community members took it upon themselves to maintain the historical sites and feel of the hamlet by founding the Greater Highland Crossroads Association (GHCA) in 2002. In 2014, the Crossroads were placed on the Preserve Howard top ten most endangered list due to current DPZ plans. They are marked by four signs.

History

The majority of the downtown Highland district is situated within the land grant named "Hickory Ridge".

The Rouse Company The Rouse Company was a publicly traded shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when GGP Inc., General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. It was founded by Hunter Moss and James Rouse, James W. Rouse in 1939. Begin ...

borrowed the land grant name for one of its nearby

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

of Columbia, built in 1974. The historic "White Hall" or " Hickory Ridge" estate (1749) was owned by the Ridgely, Hopkins and Disney families. One of the earliest businesses at the crossroads was Well's tavern, founded by Richard Wells in 1759. This was replaced with a wheelwright's shop by Joshua B. Disney in 1842. The same year, William Wall opened a general store and post office, giving the crossroads the short-lived name of "Walls Crossroads" before another name change of the post office on December 2, 1878, to "Highland" to reflect the town's elevation in Howard County. The County Commissioners added Hall Shop Road on the southern side of the community in 1877. The town did not receive direct rail service, but was only nine miles away from the B&O railroad in Laurel, Maryland using the rolling road now known as Route 216. A literary club formed in Highland in the late 19th century; J. B. Warfield in describing the Highland of 1904 refers to it as the "literary center of the county". Highland played several important roles in U.S. history. The town is believed to have hosted meetings of anti-British men who influenced the 1774 burning of the '' Peggy Stewart'' in Annapolis, the year after the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...

protest. Well's Tavern (now the Kitty Bed and Breakfast) was the primary meeting place of a group of Northern sympathizers in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, 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 policies.J ...

. The Virginia Hardy Boarding School provided classes for students during the turn of the century. In 2015, the group Preservation Howard County placed the crossroads on its top 10 most endangered site list.

References

{{Coord, 39.170263, N, 76.962318, W, display=title Census-designated places in Howard County, Maryland Census-designated places in Maryland Unincorporated communities in Howard County, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland