Owings Mills, MD

The community of Owings Mills is an affluent suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, covering an area of almost 10 square miles. The first settlers to venture into the Owings Mills area arrived sometime around the year 1700; among the most prominent early residents was Samuel Owings, the community's namesake. Owings built three mills along Gwynns Falls and a single road connecting all three. It was in this general area that the town of Owings Mills sprang up over the course of the next century. In the 20th century, Owings Mills became known as a suburban shopping and business alternative to Baltimore. As a result of the community's popularity as a shopping and commerce destination, the population in Owings Mills grew by over 110% over the course of the 1990s. Today, the population is more than 20,000.

NEIGHBORHOODS AND DISTRICTS

Growth in Owings Mills has led to traffic issues, forcing residents, commuters and visitors to deal with dense roadway congestion in the area. That has prompted quite a few improvement plans for Owings Mills, including road widening projects and increased bus service. While the traffic remains a problem, progress has not slowed and Owings Mills has continued to see more housing developments, shopping centers and office space emerge each year.

Owings Mills recognizes the following distinct areas:

• Owings Mills New Town: True to its name, New Town offers some of the most recent residential and commercial property in Owings Mills. Built as a planned community in the 1990s, this neighborhood offers easy access to two parks, Deer Park and Northwest Park.
• Gwynnbrook boasts the Gwynnbrook Wildlife Management Area, the oldest such area in Maryland. Purchased by the State in 1919, this 74-acre outdoor recreational area provides habitat for deer, gray squirrels, cottontail rabbits and more than 200 songbird species. During most of the year, the fishing pond serves as a community fishing hole.
• Velvet Valley, Tollgate, and Garrison are other districts in and around Owings Mills.

EDUCATION

• The Community College of Baltimore County has a branch in Owings Mills, offering associates degrees and certificates in over 50 areas of study.
• Stevenson University also has a campus within city limits, offering bachelor's and master's degrees in 30 different areas of study.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

The Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills offers a variety of concerts, lectures, plays, dance performances and film showings. The Gordon Center is supported by the Maryland State Arts Council and the Baltimore County Executive Council and Commission on Arts and Sciences. The center seats 550 and boasts world-class acoustics.

Owings Mills is also home to the American Gospel Music Heritage Foundation and the Jewish Community Center.

FAMILY FUN

Regional Park serves the area, providing walking paths, picnic areas and ball fields. It is also home to the Baltimore Ravens training facilities, and a number of the team's players live in Owings Mills. During the summer, outdoor movies are shown at the Village Center.

The cornerstone of outdoor activities in Owings Mills is Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area. It is believed that the area was a Native American hunting ground in early colonial days. The facility covers nearly 2,000 acres of barren land and encompasses several miles of hiking trails. Horseback riding and bicycling are not allowed in the area. Soldiers Delight works toward the preservation of all things endangered. There are over 39 rare, threatened or endangered plants in the area, as well as rare rocks, minerals and insects. For all of the local preservation efforts, in recent years some grassland plant species have been threatened by the spread of Virginia pine trees in the area. A five-year plan to remove 1,000 acres of pines is currently underway. Bow hunting with a permit is allowed in parts of Soldiers Delight. The park has an active volunteer base that conducts environmental educational programs and leads hiking expeditions.

BEST BETS

Golf is a popular pastime in Owings Mills. Golf Zoo is an organization that helps put together custom golf vacation packages. Other spots to play in town are:

• Caves Valley Golf Club
• Green Spring Valley Hunt Club
• Worthington Valley Country Club

ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES

The most popular industries in Owings Mills are professional, scientific and technical services, educational services and health care. A relatively small percentage of the residents of Owings Mills work within the community's borders, with most workers commuting elsewhere for their jobs.

Several national businesses are headquartered in Owings Mills, including:

• Sweetheart Cup
• Poetry.com
• T. Rowe Price
• The Baltimore Life Cos.
• Black & Decker
• Medifast Inc.
• Universal Security Instruments
• Maryland Public Television

LOCAL MEDIA

The Owings Mills Times is the city's primary newspaper, with a circulation of nearly 36,000 copies.

Television and radio stations broadcast from nearby Baltimore.

DID YOU KNOW?

In the 1980s, the developers' vision for the newly designated growth area in Owings Mills included a man-made lake. When an Army Corps of Engineers study decided the lake would endanger the environment, the plan was scrapped. That also killed plans to name the community Lakeside. The central road through the area had already been dedicated, however, so residents today use Lakeside Boulevard to get to their homes and to visit shops.