Editing Hampstead, Maryland (section)

==History==

Between 1736 and 1738, Robert Owings was assigned to "cut a new road as Christopher Gist had marked it" south from Conewago (now Hanover, Pennsylvania) to a point about halfway to Fort Garrison in Baltimore County. The village of Spring Garden became a stage-line stop on the new road and later became the town of Hampstead, named after [[Hampstead]], in England.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n147 148]}}</ref> The first European settlers to the area were [[English Americans|English immigrants]] who made their way west from the Port of Philadelphia. They were followed by [[Scottish Americans|Scots]] and [[German Americans|Germans]]. Hampstead was used by farmers from surrounding areas as a center to obtain goods brought from Baltimore and to send produce to markets in Baltimore and Pennsylvania.  The level and fertile land, coupled with the availability of lime, gave farmers important advantages for successful farming.  In 1879, the Harrisburg Division of the Western Maryland Railroad reached Hampstead. The accessibility of the railroad attracted new residents and made dairy farming profitable.{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}  The town was incorporated in 1888 and since then has developed from a farming community to a modern town of about 6,300 residents.

[[Hampstead School (Hampstead, Maryland)|Hampstead School]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2002.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref> Once defunct and derelict, it was rehabilitated and is now The Residences at Hampstead School, a retirement facility.