On Monday, Preservation Maryland joined Howard County leaders, community partners, educators, and supporters at the historic Ellicott City Jail for a ceremonial wood signing, recognizing the start of work at the site.
Built in 1851, the jail has witnessed some of the most complicated chapters in Howard County’s history. It held people who were incarcerated for a wide range of offenses, including freedom seekers and people who assisted them. The site is also connected to documented lynchings. After serving as a jail for more than a century, the building closed in the 1980s and has stood vacant since 2008.
As Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said during Monday’s ceremony, the goal is not to erase the site’s difficult history, but to ensure that it is remembered, understood, and used to educate future generations.
Preservation with a purpose
Preservation Maryland is working closely with Howard County to adaptively reuse the historic jail and activate the property as a resource for the community. The rehabilitated structure will provide collaborative space for Preservation Maryland and other nonprofits, along with public multi-purpose space for community meetings and events. It will also become an academic center with collaborative office and research space for faculty and students.
This is adaptive reuse in its fullest sense: retaining a historic place while giving it a new purpose that responds to the needs of the community today.
A community effort
A project of this scale is possible only through partnership.
Preservation Maryland is grateful to Howard County and to the many public, private, and philanthropic partners who have helped bring this vision closer to reality. Support for the project includes a Save America’s Treasures grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, as well as grants from the 1772 Foundation, Howard County, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Maryland Heritage Area Authority, Middendorf Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, PNC Foundation, and State of Maryland, along with private donations.
Each represents an investment not only in a historic building, but in the future of Ellicott City and the broader work of preservation.