Blandair Regional Park West Playground

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Blandair Park is one of the county’s most popular sporting venues. The park will be 300 acres when the last phase is completed. Three lit synthetic turf multipurpose fields, press boxes, and bleachers, as well as a playground, shade structure, and parking lot, are now available. The park is located one-third of a mile north of the intersection of Old Montgomery Road and Oakland Mills Road on Oakland Mills Road..

History Blandair Regional Park West Playground

Susquehannock tribes in the north and Piscataway tribes in the south hunted and camped along the Patuxent, but no permanent sites have been discovered. Conflicts with their major adversaries, the Iroquois, were common on the land. Many Native Americans were forced to leave Maryland in the 1700s, either to join tribes elsewhere or to stay and adapt into the dominant culture.
Puritans, Quakers, and Catholics were among the first European settlers in this area, seeking religious freedom. In 1632, the new English colony of Maryland was established, and in 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act was implemented, making the colony appealing to settlers of diverse theological backgrounds.
In 1714, the Talbots, a Quaker family, received a 1,087-acre property grant that covered the majority of what is now Blandair Park. The Dorsey, Howard, and Weems families came after them.
From before 1800 through 1844, three generations of the Weems family (of Scottish descent) farmed this area. The farm was named “La Grange” by John Crompton Weems, a delegate for Anne Arundel County in the United States Congress from 1826 to 1829. Between 10 and 15 slaves were owned by the Weems family. In his diary, their next-door neighbour and regular visitor, George Cooke, mentioned some of the enslaved inhabitants.

When the area was named “Blandair.”

The Chancellor of Maryland from 1824 to 1846, Heodorick Bland, bought the estate in 1844 as a country retreat, while his principal residence was in Annapolis. He was a lawyer and judge recognised for his “untiring drive” and “excellent industry.” Theo Bland coined the term “Blandair,” which is still in use today. He mentioned that he needed to construct a slave section and a granary in his letter. Both buildings, which date from around 1845, are still standing on the land.
Bland died in 1846, and Blandair was passed down to his daughter, Sarah Bland Mayo, and her husband, Commodore Isaac Mayo, two years later. They also lived in Annapolis, but Blandair remained their country home. Isaac Mayo is listed as the owner of fifteen slaves on the 1850 Federal Slave Schedule for the Howard District of Anne Arundel County, ranging in age from three months to 70 years.
Matilda Neal, an enslaved woman, and her children Rachael, Mary, Emmeline, James, and a baby, Catharine, fled from the Blandair plantation with her husband, Richard Neal, a free man, in the fall of 1849. In 1853, Richard was jailed in Philadelphia for urging slaves to flee, although it is unclear whether Matilda and her children were also apprehended.
When their daughter, Sophia, married a neighbour, Thomas Gaither, in 1857, the Mayos deeded the land, which included eleven slaves, to her for “love, devotion, and one dollar.”
The brick two-story manor home that stands in the park today was built by the young Gaither couple. The house was completed in 1857, according to a news account from the time, with reports that a violent wind blew away part of the roof that Thomas Gaither was constructing. The 1860 Federal Slave Schedule for Howard County District 1 lists 20 slaves ranging in age from one to sixty years old, as well as two slave dwellings. The Gaithers started a family there, but after the Civil War, farming was no longer profitable without unpaid slave labour, so they sold Blandair and moved to Baltimore in 1867.

Blandair Regional Park West Playground Location

5750 Oakland Mills Rd, Columbia, MD 21045, United States

https://www.howardcountymd.gov/BlandairPark

+14103134700

Driving Directions From Baltimore Maryland, USA

Take E Fayette St, Hopkins Plaza and S Sharp St to I-395 S 6 min (0.8 mi)
Head west on E Fayette St toward N Calvert St 0.2 mi
Use any lane to turn slightly left onto W Fayette St 0.1 mi
Turn left onto N Liberty St 390 ft
Continue onto Hopkins Plaza 0.2 mi
Continue onto S Sharp St 0.2 mi
Turn right onto W Conway St 394 ft
Take I-95 S to MD-175 W/Rouse Pkwy in Columbia. Take exit 41A-41B from I-95 S 13 min (12.9 mi)
Continue on MD-175 W/Rouse Pkwy to your destination 8 min (3.7 mi)
Blandair Regional Park West Playground

Driving Directions From Ellicott City Maryland, USA

Drive from Old Columbia Pike, US-29 S and MD-175 E/Rouse Pkwy to Columbia 10 min (5.8 mi)
Head southwest on Old Columbia Pike toward Roussey Lane 1.5 mi
Turn right onto MD-103 W 0.1 mi
Use any lane to turn left to merge onto US-29 S toward Washington 2.6 mi
Take exit 20A for MD-175 E toward Jessup 0.3 mi
Continue onto MD-175 E/Rouse Pkwy 1.0 mi
Take the Tamar Dr 3/4/JCT 3 1/2/Jessup 6 ramp 0.1 mi
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto Oakland Mills Rd 0.2 mi
Drive to your destination 56 s (0.1 mi)
Blandair Regional Park West Playground