| South Branch Park | |
|---|---|
South Branch Skate Park | |
| Location | Sykesville, Maryland |
| Coordinates | 39°21′44″N76°58′09″W / 39.36222°N 76.96917°W Coordinates: 39°21′44″N76°58′09″W / 39.36222°N 76.96917°W |
  Location of South Branch Park in Maryland | |
South Branch Park is a historic industrial site located at Sykesville, Howard County, Maryland, United States.
Sykesville is a small town in Carroll County, Maryland, United States. The town lies 20 miles west of Baltimore and 40 Miles north of Washington D.C. The population was 4,436 at the 2010 census. BudgetTravel.com named Sykesville, MD 'Coolest Small Town in America' in June 2016.
Howard County is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 287,085. Its county seat is Ellicott City.
Maryland is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. The state's largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State. It is named after the English queen Henrietta Maria, known in England as Queen Mary.
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The site is the location of the James Sykes Mill to which Sykesville is named, an 1870 Stone House, as well as the 1917 B.F. Shriver Canning Factory and Howard Cotton Factory. James Skykes defended his homeland serving in the War of 1812. [1]
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies from June 1812 to February 1815. Historians in Britain often see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars; in the United States and Canada, it is seen as a war in its own right.
The Sykesville mill was constructed of granite with waterwheel power, and operated as the Mechant's Flour Mill. It burned once and was rebuilt by Skyes as a cotton mill. It was used by Governor Frank Brown as a storehouse in the late 1800s when the mill was out of service. A 1905 fire destroyed the mill, with $12,000 in damages paid to Brown in insurance. [2]
Frank Brown, a member of the United States Democratic Party, was the 42nd Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1892 to 1896. Born in 1846 in Sykesville, Maryland, he also served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1876 to 1878. He died in 1920 in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1996 Howard County purchased 7.6 acres of historic industrial land from Tisano Reality with State Open Space Funds for the creation of a South Branch Park. In 2011, Howard County leased the land back to the town of Sykesville for $817,583 and requested $617,000 from the town to help complete restoration of the buildings and site construction capital costs. [3]
In 2011 another $256,000 state grant was awarded to implement a park at the historic site including restoration of a caboose. Matching county funds were anticipated, but not provided. [4] Updated plans included a skate park, parking lot, stormwater pond, and reroofing of the B.F Shriver Canning Company "Apple Butter Factory" is scheduled at an undetermined date for phase II. Phase III plans to restore the factory.
On 6 September, County Executive Ken Ulman and candidate Courtney Watson opened phase I of the South Branch Park which included a new playground and the dismantling of a historic water tower as part of a series of pre-election groundbreakings for partially funded projects around the county including the Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland terminal. The $269,000 project was funded by Program Open Space. [5]
Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland, locally referred to as the RTA, is a transit organization developed to establish a more effective and efficient public transportation system across Central Maryland. The RTA is made up of multiple jurisdictions including Anne Arundel County, Howard County, City of Laurel and Northern Prince George's County. The RTA combined the management and administrative functions of multiple transit operations, reducing operating costs by over 10%, and provided a better customer service experience by improving connections across Central Maryland. The Commission allows all of the participating jurisdictions the ability to oversee transit management operations.
In response to local residents constructing their own skatepark features while waiting for promised improvements, Howard County conducted a Charrette in October 2014 to determine features to a skatepark to be implemented by California-based Spohn Ranch Skateparks. [6]
