Sparks

In 1835, the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad built a track through Baltimore County with a siding and switch near land owned by the Sparks family, and the switch soon gave its name to the area as residents called it Spark's Switch. A creamery operated there for years, where farmers brought milk daily to be separated, with the cream shipped to Baltimore and the skim milk used on their farms. Over time, Spark's Switch became simply Sparks. By 1888, growth in the area required a substantial footbridge across the Gunpowder, and in 1889 the Northern Central Railroad operated a combined passenger and freight station for the community known as Sparks Station. The area along York Road now called Sparks had once been the town of Philopolis, while Sparks itself was originally a small cluster of homes and farms one mile east along the Northern Central Railroad tracks. Philopolis was the site of Milton Academy, a private day and boarding school for boys, and also had a blacksmith and wheelwright shop, an undertaker, a milliner, and a general store. In time, the whole area came to be known as Sparks, and Philopolis disappeared from county maps. In 1909, six small rural schools were consolidated into Sparks Elementary School, first called the Agricultural High School, and many students rode the Northern Central Railroad's Parkton local to reach it. In 1913, a general store and warehouse were built and the post office was moved from York Road to Sparks, and Sparks State Bank was built next to the store along the railroad tracks in 1916. Both the bank and the post office later moved back to York Road, which became the main business area. The bank moved in 1954 because of decreased train activity and repeated flooding from the Gunpowder River. The original bank building later became a nature center for young children operated by volunteers of Gunpowder Falls State Park in conjunction with the Northern Central Railroad Hike and Bike Trail along the old railroad route through northern Baltimore County.

Maryland · United States