Homes for sale in Ellicott City MD

ABOUT ELLICOTT CITY

Ellicott City was once know as Ellicott's Mills. Three Quaker brothers, John, Andrew and Joseph Ellicott came to this area in 1771 from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They grew wheat and power for grinding came from the Patapsco River. It was the Ellicott brothers who persuaded Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, to plant wheat at his estate. The Ellicott brothers built roads, a bridge and wharf in Baltimore, introduced the wagon brake, erected iron works, built schools and many other buildings.

Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker, a free African American man and neighbor, were commissioned to survey the boundaries for the new capital, Washington DC in 1791. Mr. Banneker later built the first clock made in America and to publish Almanacs.

The city was granted a charter in 1867 and the name changed to Ellicott City. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's first 13 miles connected Baltimore to Ellicott City. beginning in 1831. The first railroad terminal in the U.S. was built here in 1832.