Movies | News | Relocation | Home Search | Schools

Columbia, Maryland is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. Columbia is a suburb of Baltimore  and Washington, D.C. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not just in terms of economics and engineering. Opened in 1967, Columbia was designed to not only eliminate the inconveniences of then-current subdivision design, but also eliminate racial, religious, and income segregation.

Today, Columbia has a population of about 97,200 and is the most populous census-designated place in Maryland.   By the early 2000s, the town had acquired many of the characteristics of other contemporary U.S. suburbs, such as increasingly large private homes on large parcels and "big box" retail stores accessible mostly by automobile. Rouse's ethos remains a strong influence upon the physical and political development of Columbia.

The village concept is aimed to provide Columbia a small-town feel (like Easton, Maryland, where James Rouse grew up). Each village comprises several neighborhoods. The village center may contain middle and high schools. All villages have a shopping center, recreational facilities, a community center, a system of bike/walking paths, and homes. Four of the villages have interfaith centers, common worship facilities which are owned and jointly operated by a variety of religious congregations working together.

Most of Columbia's neighborhoods contain single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and apartments (though some are more exclusive than others). The original plan, following the neighborhood concept of Clarence Perry, would have had all the children of a neighborhood attend the same school, melding neighborhoods into a community and ensuring that all of Columbia's children get the same high-quality education.

   
• Village ? Neighborhoods (in rough order of opening)
   
         
• Wilde Lake - Bryant Woods, Faulkner Ridge, Running Brook, The Birches
         
• Harper's Choice - Longfellow, Swansfield, Hobbit's Glen
         
• Oakland Mills - Thunder Hill, Talbott Springs, Stevens Forest
         
• Long Reach - Phelps Luck, Jeffers Hill, Locust Park, Kendall Ridge
         
• Owen Brown - Dasher Green, Elkhorn, Hopewell
         
• Hickory Ridge - Clemens Crossing, Hawthorn, Clary's Forest
         
• Dorsey's Search - Dorsey Hall, Fairway Hills
         
• Kings Contrivance - Dickinson, Huntington, Macgill's Common
         
• River Hill - Pheasant Ridge, Pointers Run
         
• Town Center  - Vantage Point, Banneker, Amesbury, Creighton's Run, and Warfield Triangle

Columbia takes its street names from famous works of art and literature: for example, the neighborhood of Hobbit's Glen takes its street names from the work of J. R. R. Tolkien; Running Brook, from the poetry of Robert Frost; and Clemens Crossing, from the work of Mark Twain. The book Oh, you must live in Columbia! chronicles the artistic, poetic, and historical origins of the street and place names in Columbia.