BCPL History and Genealogy - Perry Hall - Names of Perry Hall Places.
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Names of Perry Hall Places
by David Marks
Historian, Perry Hall Improvement Association

Perry Hall was first identified by Harry Dorsey Gough, who named his l,000-acre estate after his family's castle in the Staffordshire region of Great Britain. While "Perry Hall" originally referred to the Gough estate and mansion, it identified the entire community by the end of the Nineteenth Century. Before that? our village was often referred to as "Germantown," where Irish and German immigrants settled on the remains of the Gough estate shortly before the Civil War.

As presently defined, Perry Hall includes that region of northeastern Baltimore County bordered by the Great Gunpowder Falls on the north, Philadelphia Road on the east, White Marsh Run on the south? and the Baltimore Gas and Electric transmission lines on the west. These boundaries have been set by the Perry Hall Improvement Association. Only the far eastern region of Perry Hall is undeveloped, although this will soon become the Honeygo community, with five thousand families moving into a Columbia-style "planned neighborhood."

Immediately west of Perry Hall is Carney, named for Thomas and Mary McDermot Carney, who operated a general store in the late Nineteenth Century. This building, known as the Eight Mile House, still stands at the intersection of Joppa and Harford Roads. To the north of Perry Hall, just across the Gunpowder River, are the rural, rolling hills of Glen Arm and Baldwin. East of Perry Hall is Kingsville, named for Abraham King, who settled 290 acres of land near Harford County in the early Nineteenth Century. To our south is White Marsh, which takes its name from the White Marsh Plantation established by Captain Charles Ridgely in 1659. Ridgely is said to have named his settlement after the mists which enshrouded the region in the morning. On older maps, the community appears as one name: "Whitemarsh."

Many other places and landmarks are named after nature. Perry Hall's Honeygo area, for example, is named after the stream which extends from the farms at Cross Road to bustling White Marsh Mall. The stream appears in old records as "Horney Gold," "Honeygold," and "Hang Gold," leaving its current name a mystery. Silver Spring Road also owes its name to the marshy environment which once characterized the community.

Our other major roads are named after the cities which they helped connect to Baltimore: Philadelphia, Joppa, and Belair Roads. Before it became Belair Road, Perry Hall's stretch of US Route 1 was the Baltimore and Jerusalem Turnpike, and before that, it was simply Perry Hall Road, the private drive of Harry Dorsey Gough. Other thoroughfares were named after industries (Forge Road) or major community centers (Chapel Road).

Perry Hall's founding families lent their names to places in our community. Hines and Klausmier Roads, as well as Baker and Ferguson Lanes, were named after families which immigrated to Perry Hall largely during the early Nineteenth Century. Soth Avenue was named after the Soth Farm, which was across from present-day Perry Hall Elementary School on Joppa Road. Halbert Avenue is named after "the Halbert Half Way House," which was demolished when the Perry Hall library was built in 1963. Darnall Road owes its name to the original 1683 land grants, "Darnall's Sylvania" and "Darnall's Camp 1000 Acres." When this area of central Perry Hall was developed, great care was made to distinctively identify the original history of the neighborhood.

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The text version of this page was last revised on 26 August 2008.
The graphics version of this page was last revised on 26 August 2008.
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