Town Center is one of the ten villages in Columbia,

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, first occupied in 1974. The Town Center is a non-contiguous, diverse area, and the most urban-like, ranging from multi-level high density apartments, homes and office buildings to single family homes."Town Center"
towncenter.columbiavillages.org, accessed May 30, 2009 The six residential neighborhoods in the village include Amesbury Hill, Banneker, Creighton's Run, Lakefront, Vantage Point, and Warfield Triangle.

Names and history

The town center is constructed on the grounds of Oakland Manor, a former slave plantation. Construction started in 1966, with sidewalks linking major amenities added in 1984.

Original attractions

Columbia Exhibit Center is the facility built to market the project to visitors. The building was designed by the firm of Gehry, Walsh and O'Malley. The site hosted 215,000 in its first year. Vantage Point is in the tract patented by John Dorsey as Dorsey's Adventure in 1688. The name comes from a poem by

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...

, and the street names are from Frost and

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the '' New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poe ...

. It contains a house, Historic Oakland, built in 1811 by Charles Sterrett Ridgely. The Town Center village offices are in Historic Oakland. Oliver's Carriage House, a stable built by Robert Oliver, is on the grounds and is currently home to Kittamaqundi Community, a non-denominational religious congregation. Amesbury Hill was originally set aside as an estate area for Rouse Company executives and was part of the Mercer Tract. Mercer Tract was owned by the parents of

Lucy Mercer Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd ( Lucy Page Mercer; April 26, 1891 – July 31, 1948) was an American woman who sustained a long affair with US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Background Lucy Page Mercer was born on April 26, 1891, in Washington, D.C., ...

, the personal secretary to

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

. Creighton's Run, developed in 1979, was named for the boss of the construction company. Banneker was first occupied in 1992, named for Banneker Road. The road was named for

Benjamin Banneker Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731October 19, 1806) was an American Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author. A Land tenure, landowner, he also worked as a surveying, surveyor and farmer. Born in Baltimore Co ...

."How Streets were Named and other Interesting Facts"
columbiamaryland.com, accessed May 30, 2009 Vantage House is a 13-story Life Care Retirement Community built in place of an 18th-century historical residence and opened in October 1990.

Redevelopment efforts

The Town Center is also referred to as "Downtown Columbia" due to its central location within Columbia, as well as the

new urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...

-style redevelopment project under construction since 2010. The new development also created four new distinct neighborhood areas: *Crescent, located south of the Merriweather-Post Pavilion and will be accessed off of Broken Land Parkway *Lakefront, located west of Lake Kittamaqundi *Symphony Overlook, located just north of Symphony Woods Park and south of the Columbia Mall Food Court *Warfield, located in between Broken Land Parkway and Governor Warfield Parkway. In 1998 the first apartments were occupied in Warfield Triangle, named for Governor Warfield Parkway, in turn named for Governor

Edwin Warfield Edwin Warfield (May 7, 1848March 31, 1920) was an American politician and a member of the United States Democratic Party, and the List of governors of Maryland, 45th Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1904 to 1908. From 1902 to 19 ...

Services and entertainment

The lakefront of

Lake Kittamaqundi Lake Kittamaqundi is a man made reservoir located in Columbia, Maryland in the vicinity of the Mall in Columbia as well as Merriweather Post Pavilion. It is also adjacent to offices and visible from US-29 MD, US-29. The lake was created by The ...

with the iconic ''People Tree'' sculpture, is the heart of the village, and the whole town. The lake's name is a Piscataway Indian word described by the Columbia Association as "meeting place", or "Place of the Old Great Beaver" by Native American research. In the summer, the

Columbia Association The Columbia Association (CA) is a management organization for the financing, and maintenance of common-use facilities of the planned community of Columbia, Maryland. Organizational structure CA was originally named The Columbia Park and Recreati ...

offers live entertainment and/or movies daily at the Kittamaqundi lakefront.

The Mall in Columbia The Mall in Columbia, also known as the Columbia Mall, is the central shopping mall for the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, United States. It has over 200 specialty stores and the anchor stores are AMC Theatres, Lidl, Main Event Enter ...

, a large shopping and entertainment mall, is located within Town Center.

Public transit

Columbia Town Center is a major hub for the

Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland The Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland, locally referred to as the RTA, is a transit organization providing fixed-route and paratransit services across Central Maryland. The RTA is made up of multiple jurisdictions including Anne ...

bus service. The central station is located at the Columbia Mall, directly west of the Main Entrance, Restaurant Row, and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

. MTA and

Metrobus Metrobus may refer to: Transport services Bus Rapid Transit *MetroBus (Bristol), a bus rapid transit system in Bristol, England, United Kingdom *Metrobus (Buenos Aires), a bus rapid transit system in Buenos Aires, Argentina *Metrobus (Istanbul), a ...

provide service to this location as well. In 2016, Howard County launched its first

bike share A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...

pilot program for Columbia. The bike share will span across the Town Center from Howard County General Hospital at Cedar Lane to Blandair Park in Oakland Mills Village.

References

External links

Town Center Community Association

The Mall in Columbia within Town Center

{{coord, 39, 13, 0, N, 76, 51, 18, W, display=title, type:city_region:MD-US Columbia, Maryland Populated places in Howard County, Maryland Planned communities in the United States Populated places established in 1974 1974 establishments in Maryland Villages in Howard County, Maryland