Riverfront Park Heritage & Nature

Montpelier's Nicholas Snowden established an early Snowden family grist mill by 1811 at the fall line of the Patuxent River. A cotton mill was built and leased to a Mr. Johnson in 1824, and the site also may have included a saw mill.

After 1835 with the arrival of the railroad, Laurel was primed for growth. The Patuxent Company, chartered in 1836, significantly expanded the mills. Laurel's early mill owners were related. The Pautxent Company's original owners included Nicholas Snowden's son-in-law Horace Capron, Theodore Jenkins (who owned Montpelier Mansion) A.E. Hall, W.C. Shaw, Snowden's widow Elizabeth, and O.C. Tiffany, Capron's cousin. The Tiffany manufacturing family stayed involved into the 1870s.

Many mill workers likely came from outlying farms, and lived nearby across the river.

The bridge that connected Laurel and Howard County was the primary crossing between the two for more than 100 years. Known as the 9th Street Bridge it washed away in 1899, and was rebuilt. By the time Hurricane Agnes washed out the bridge again in 1972, the larger C. Phillip Nicholas bridge further downstream at Rt. 216 and 7th Street had become the main crossing, and the bridge was not rebuilt.

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Show me all markers in:  Laurel, MD  |  Prince George's County  |  20707  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

Casula Point
Laurel Factory: A Mill Town
Laurel Harnessed the River to Power the Cotton Mill
Laurel Cotton Mill and Dam
Laurel Factory:
Water From the Dam Powered the Cotton Mill
Early Buildings on St. Mary's Place
Methodism in Laurel
The Old Stone Methodist Church
Laurel Harnessed the River to Power the Cotton Mill

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