Editing College Park, Maryland (section)

===19th century===
[[File:Rossborough Inn Maryland Agricultural College circa 1901 cropped.jpg|thumb|left|[[The Rossborough Inn|Rossborough Inn]], part of the Maryland Agricultural College {{Circa|1901}}]]

The oldest standing building in College Park is the [[The Rossborough Inn|Rossborough Inn]], whose construction was completed in 1803. The forerunner of today's University of Maryland was chartered in 1856 as the [[University of Maryland, College Park|Maryland Agricultural College]], and would become a land grant college in February 1864.

The original College Park subdivision was first platted in 1872 by Eugene Campbell. Early maps called the local post office "College Lawn".<ref>Atlas of 15 mi around Washington including the County of Prince George Maryland. GM Hopkins C.E., 32 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 1878, reprinted by the Prince George's County historical society, Riverdale, Maryland 20840, 1975</ref> The area remained undeveloped and was re-platted in 1889 by John O. Johnson and Samuel Curriden, Washington real estate developers. The original {{convert|125|acre|km2|adj=on}} tract was divided into a grid-street pattern with long, narrow building lots, with a standard lot size of {{convert|50|by|200|ft|m}}. College Park originally included single-family residences constructed in the [[Shingle Style architecture|Shingle]], [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne]], and [[Stick style|Stick]] styles, as well as modest vernacular dwellings.

By the turn of the century, College Park was being developed rapidly by catering to those who were seeking to escape the crowded Washington, D.C., as well as to a rapidly expanding staff of college faculty and employees.