Discover Ellicott City

Ellicott City combines impressive railroad history with museums, historic walking tours, and varied trails through parks. This gives you an exciting choice for planning your trip between cultural discoveries, short walks, and longer excursions. Families can also plan their days around different interests without limiting themselves to just one type of experience.

Railroad History and Museums

The Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum is housed in the oldest surviving railroad station in the United States. The Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station was built in 1831. In the museum’s Freight House, an HO-scale model depicts the first 13 miles of the B&O Railroad from Baltimore to Ellicott City. It vividly illustrates how closely the town’s history is connected to the development of the railroad.

The Patapsco Female Institute and the Museum of Howard County History offer additional historical perspectives. The Patapsco Female Institute provided young women with a curriculum from 1837 to 1891. At the Museum of Howard County History, hundreds of objects tell the story of Howard County—from the period before European settlement to more recent events. The topics range from mills and businesses to homes and the history of Indigenous people, as well as today’s diverse society, and from the railroad to the automobile era. The Ellicott City Firehouse Museum also showcases the extraordinary challenges of firefighting in Ellicott City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Park Trails, Lake, and Wetlands

Anyone who wants to include time outdoors between museum visits will find a 54-acre artificial lake at Centennial Park. A paved path is 2.4 miles long. Boating on the lake is available seasonally from March 1 through November 30. Depending on your daily schedule, you can combine a walk or a boat ride with a visit to the park.

For shorter nature experiences, Cypressmede Park offers a 0.6-mile nature and wood-chip trail. Font Hill Wetlands Park has three interconnected ponds with a boardwalk surrounding them. Approximately 2.5 miles of sidewalks and trails run around Meadowbrook Park. These different routes allow you to take your preferred focus into account when planning your vacation rental stay: historic sightseeing, trails through parks, or observing ponds and a lake.

Historic Walking Tours

Main Street is part of the National Road, the first federally funded long-distance road in the United States. Its history is also connected to the Underground Railroad: the National Road near Baltimore and Ellicott City was used by freedom seekers as an escape route to freedom. The Ellicott City Underground Railroad Walking Tour is a 0.5-mile loop through the Ellicott City Historic District and shares stories of freedom seekers from Ellicott Mills and the surrounding area. The tour begins on Court Place, where an interpretive marker is located above the Historic Howard County Jail.

Another perspective is offered by the Old Ellicott City Walking Tour. It is approximately two miles long and begins at Mt Ida. Those interested in the town’s past can choose this longer walking tour, while the Underground Railroad Walking Tour offers a shorter, clearly focused route.

Choose Accommodation Based on Your Travel Interests

When searching for a vacation rental in Ellicott City, you can first decide whether museums and railroad history or park trails and historic walking tours should be the focus of your trip. You can then combine the various cultural and natural attractions into an individual daily itinerary. For additional local pages, you can also find information about Columbia, Jessup, and Elkridge.

For the overarching travel overview: Howard.