Wincopia Farms | |
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Location | North Laurel, Maryland |
Coordinates | 39°08′48″N76°50′50″W / 39.14667°N 76.84722°W Coordinates: 39°08′48″N76°50′50″W / 39.14667°N 76.84722°W |
Governing body | Private |
Wincopia Farms is a historic farm located at North Laurel, Howard County, Maryland, United States.
Wincopia farms was one of three large farms in the area. Overlook Farm and Fairlands remain well preserved, but the 124 acre Wincopia Farms was purchased for development. The Hearn family operated it until 2010. [1] While some sources claim the Hearn family owned the farm for over 200 years, [2] the title history shows the family purchased the farm in 1880. [3] They raised poinsettias with customers that included the White House and Kennedy Center.
On September 8, 1992, a man and a teenager attempted a series of failed carjackings starting at the southbound I-95 rest stop on Wincopin property leased by the Hearn Family through the Bolling Brook subdivisions. The men carjacked the vehicle of Dr. Pam Basu and her 22-month-old daughter at a stop at Horsham and Knights Bridge Road. Basu attempted to retrieve her daughter, and was dragged to death along Gorman Road, with the carjackers leaving her body entangled at the fenced entrance to Wincopia Farms. As a direct result of the violent incident, the Federal Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 (FACTA) was created, the first federal carjacking law. The 1992 act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2119, took effect on October 25, 1992. [4] [5] [6]
Around 2002, the Hearn family took out a $4.5 million loan from Gourley and Gourley LLC, a private lending group, secured by the 124 acre property. The Gourley and Gourley loan was provided to the Hearn family to refinance existing financial institution debt already on the property that was in default and awaiting foreclosure. By the Great Recession in the United States in 2007, and after multiple loan extensions (each one increasing the loan amount to add an interest carry reserve to the loan), the Gourley and Gourly debt increased to $10 million. Despite efforts by the Gourley group to encourage the Hearn family to sell the property to a developer, payoff the $10 million loan, and keep the family wealthy, the Hearn family instead insisted on maintaining a struggling nursery. After a long, drawn out bankruptcy by the Hearn group, Gourley and Gourley LLC foreclosed on the property and evicted the Hearn family from the property. Gourley and Gourley then went on to develop the property, obtain preliminary plat approval for 220 home sites, and sell the property for $41 million. [7] [8] [9] Howard County designated the main access, Gorman Road, a scenic road but offered the developer exemptions to reduce setbacks, widen the road, add a tunnel, and cut down the 300-year-old trees that bordered the road. [10] [11] [12]
North Laurel is a census-designated place (CDP) in Howard County, Maryland, United States. The published population was 4,474 at the 2010 census. This population was substantially less than the CDP's population in 2000, and was the result of an error in defining the boundary prior to tabulation and publication of 2010 Census results. The corrected 2010 Census population is 20,259. North Laurel is adjacent to the City of Laurel, which is located across the Patuxent River in Prince George's County.
Jessup is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Howard and Anne Arundel counties, about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The population was 7,137 at the 2010 census.
Guilford is an unincorporated community located in Howard County in the state of Maryland. The location is named after the Guilford Mill. Guilford is near Kings Contrivance, one of the nine "villages" of Columbia.
Savage is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in Howard County, Maryland, United States, approximately 18 miles (29 km) south of Baltimore and 21 miles (34 km) north of Washington, D.C. It is situated close to the city of Laurel and to the planned community of Columbia. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,054. The former mill town is a registered historic place, and has many original buildings preserved within and around the Savage Mill Historic District.
Kings Contrivance is a village in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, United States and is home to approximately 11,000 residents. It is Columbia's southernmost village, and was the eighth of Columbia's ten villages to be developed. Kings Contrivance consists of the neighborhoods of Macgill's Common, Huntington and Dickinson, and includes single-family homes, townhouses, apartments and a Village Center.
Hickory Ridge is one of the 10 villages in Columbia, Maryland, United States, located to the west of the Town Center with a 2014 population of 13,000 in 4,659 housing units. The village overlays the former postal community of Elioak. It was first occupied in 1974. Neighborhoods in the village are Hawthorn, Clary's Forest, and Clemens Crossing. The name Hickory Ridge is derived from the 1753 land grant patented by Greenberry Ridgley and Richard Davis named "Hickory Ridge" and the 1749 slave plantation "Hickory Ridge" in nearby Highland that resides on the tract.
Long Reach, one of ten villages composing Columbia, Maryland, United States, is found in the northeast part of Columbia along Maryland Route 108. Started in 1971, it is one of the oldest villages, and comprises four neighborhoods: Jeffers Hill, Kendall Ridge, Locust Park, and Phelps Luck. The village, with an approximate population of 15,600, is governed by five elected village board members through "Long Reach Community Association, Inc." The Village Office is located in Stonehouse, the community center, which opened in 1974.
The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is the school district that manages and runs the public schools of Howard County, Maryland. It operates under the supervision of an elected, eight-member Board of Education. Dr. Chao Wu is the Chairman of the Board. Michael J. Martirano has served as the Superintendent since May 2017.
Whiskey Bottom Road is a historic road north of Laurel, Maryland that traverses Anne Arundel and Howard Counties in an area that was first settled by English colonists in the mid-1600s. The road was named in the 1880s in association with one of its residents delivering whiskey after a prohibition vote. With increased residential development after World War II, it was designated a collector road in the 1960s; a community center and park are among the most recent roadside developments.
The Belmont Estate, now Belmont Manor and Historic Park, is a former forced-labor farm located at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Founded in the 1730s and known in the Colonial period as "Moore's Morning Choice", it was one of the earliest forced-labor farms in Howard County, Maryland. Its 1738 plantation house is one of the finest examples of Colonial Georgian architectural style in Maryland.
Daisy is an unincorporated community located at the northwest tip of Howard County, Maryland, United States.
Gray Rock is a historic plantation home located in Ellicott City, Maryland.
The Carr's Mill Landfill is a controversial landfill in Howard County, Maryland in the United States. Its official address is 15900 Carrs Mill Road in Lisbon, Maryland.
Homewood is a stone house located off of Homewood road in Ellicott City in Howard County, Maryland.
Arlington is a historic slave plantation located in Columbia, Howard County, Maryland, now part of the Fairway Hills Golf Course.
The Duvall Farm is a farm located in North Laurel, Howard County, Maryland, now the site of Coastal Sunbelt Produce.
Mount Joy is a historic slave plantation in Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland, which has a current address of 9097 Executive Park Drive.
Bushy Park is a historic slave plantation located at Glenwood, Howard County, Maryland, United States. It is located on a 3,940 acre land patent named "Ridgley's Great Park".
The Victor Myers Farm is a historic farm located in North Laurel, Howard County, Maryland.
The murder of Pam Basu, resulting from a carjacking, occurred on September 8, 1992, in Savage, Maryland. Her death prompted the United States Congress and several states to enact tougher carjacking laws.