Poplar Springs

In the early 1800s, as settlers spread west from the Chesapeake Bay, the farming community of Poplar Springs grew up around the Baltimore and Frederick-Town Turnpike, part of the road system that made up the National Road. Drovers and teamsters, only a two-day ride from Baltimore, then known as the Monument City, moved geese, sheep, cattle, pigs, and freight wagons east and west to and from the busy port along what was called a smooth way. For 80 years, travelers stopping at the old Poplar Springs Hotel could get a wheel or piece of harness fixed along with fine food and lodging for man and horse. As travel shifted to automobiles, the Poplar Springs tourist facility was built in 1920, and by 1937 John and Virginia Haines operated a new facility with dining, live entertainment, and three tourist cabins. A 1916 travel writer observed old signposts to Baltimore, prosperous farms lining both sides of the road, and white-painted houses that added to the countryside's attractiveness in spring and summer. After World War II, rising prosperity soon replaced the cabins with the motel industry.

Maryland · United States