Odenton Heritage Society Historical Center

The Odenton Heritage Society April open house will feature members from the Odenton Genial Genealogists, who will offer a discussion and information about their organization. The OHS Historical Center and Museum is located at 1367 Odenton Road and is open the first Sunday of every month from 1PM to 4PM. Learn about the town of Odenton – its railroads, homes, churches, schools stores and recreational activities during the past 153 years. Displays about the Civil War, military history, and local businesses such as Nevamar are available. Stroll through Odenton’s history...

The Odenton Heritage Society Museum, located at 1367 Odenton Road, is open the first Sunday of the month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Learn about the town of Odenton - its railroads, homes churches, schools, stores and recreational activities during the past 153 years.  Displays about the Civil War, military history, and local businesses such as Nevamar are available.  Stroll through Odenton’s history in photographs, objects and A/V presentations.  Explore the 1912 Old Masonic Hall.  Admission is free.

The Odenton Heritage Society will celebrate Black History Month with a display about African American railroad workers in the Odenton area in the early 20th century. Come to the Society's open house on Sunday, February 4 and learn how African American track workers inspected and repaired tracks on the Pennsylvania Railroad (now Amtrak), keeping intercity trains running safely. Meet railroad workers' grandchildren and learn how trains became woven into everyday life for African Americans in Odenton, Wilsontown, and nearby communities. Admission to the OHS Historical Center and Museum, located at 1367 Odenton...

On Sunday, January 7, the Odenton Heritage Society will present “Before the Naval Academy Dairy: The Life and Times of the Hammond Family,” a display about the country estate of a prominent 18th century Annapolis family. Located in Gambrills, the 875-acre USNA Dairy replaced the Hammond estate in 1915 and closed in 1998, becoming a land preserve. Through images of relics, grave markers, and a now-lost mansion, visitors can discover the Hammond family’s contributions including the Revolutionary War exploits and Gambrills burial place of Matthias Hammond, owner of the Hammond-Harwood House...

The Odenton Heritage Society will be celebrating the holiday season on Sunday, December 3. There will be a wide variety of crafts and baked goods for sale, along with history related items.  The OHS Historical Center Museum presents more than 150 years of local history through objects, photographs, and Audio-Visual programs.  Our  1912 Colonial Revival two-story building has been restored and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2022.  It is located at 1367 Odenton Road.  Admission is free.

The National Plastic Products Company, Odenton’s largest employer from the 1940s to the 1960s, made stylish, durable, low-maintenance Nevamar laminated countertop and tabletop surfaces for America’s postwar housing boom.  On Sunday, November 5, the Odenton Heritage Society will mark the 75th anniversary of a large, semicircular mural in the company’s art deco headquarters building expressing the growing importance of synthetic materials.  A new display, “Nevamar and the Art of Laminating,” will describe the origins of the rotunda mural and the designs, processes, and product appeal that sustained NPPC’s success.  Through...

On July 2, the Odenton Heritage Society will host July Jubilation, an exploration of patriotic and religious organizations in early 20th century Odenton -- why they were popular, and how the two themes often were intertwined.  Enjoy red, white, and blue ice cream and guided walking tours of Odenton’s cluster of fraternal and religious buildings, including the 1912 Masonic Temple, 1923 Bethel Methodist Church, 1925 Junior Order Hall, and Knights of Columbus building.  The event will include talks about men’s and women’s chapters of social organizations and Odenton’s immigrant Jewish population. ...

On Sunday, May 7, the Odenton Heritage Society will open a special display, "Famous Farewells: VIP Funeral Trains through Odenton."  Funeral trains for American dignitaries were not new in the 20th century, but the Pennsylvania Railroad (today's Amtrak and MARC Penn Line) made this form of remembrance an institution.  Along the tracks, ordinary citizens paid their respects to Presidents William McKinley, Warren Harding, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy as the trains rolled by.  The openness, public access, and outpouring of grief made the...

In a display opening Sunday, March 5, the Odenton Heritage Society will explore Odenton’s role in making train travel safer since the 1880s.  “Railroad Accidents and Safety” examines local train wrecks and responses by railroad companies, from dual tracks to switch towers at junctions, modern train signals, and preventive track maintenance.  The contributions of Odenton railroad workers, including tower operators and African American track inspectors and track maintenance workers, will be presented.  The Odenton Heritage Society Museum shows how Odenton connected Baltimore, Washington, and Annapolis with train service and how...

On Sunday, February 5, the Odenton Heritage Society will celebrate Black History Month with a display about Sappington School, which welcomed Black grade school pupils during segregation from the early 1920s to the late 1940s.  Local support made possible Odenton’s first educational facility for African Americans.  When Anne Arundel County constructed a large, replacement school for white children in 1921, Macedonia Methodist Church, an African American congregation, obtained a small, surplus building at Camp Meade and moved it to the church grounds so that Black children could receive a comparable...