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Lutherville History
Lutherville started as a vision of the Rev. Dr. John Gottlieb Morris. He conceived a mission to provide moral and scholarly education for young women. In 1852, he enlisted the aid of his brother, Charles, and a fellow Lutheran minster, Benjamin Kurtz, in this cause that was radical for its time. To finance this proposed institution, they develop a land speculation that became Lutherville. The trustees of the Lutherville Female Seminary issued a prospectus seeking to attract families to "a neat and comfortable hamlet," convenient to Baltimore via the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad. It was the first planned railroad community with two focal points: The seminary and the community church. It was conceived as a summer retreat from the heat and disease of the city. Dr. Morris set the architectural trend when in 1852 he built his home, Oak Grove, in the Gothic Revival style. It was followed by other summer cottages and a board house.
The rail company responded to this new community by building a train station in 1853. This was replaced in 1876 by the present standing stone structure. Besides providing commuter service for residents and students, the railway also brought mail and fresh groceries for the general store across from the station.
The first seminary building of limestone, in the Tudor style, was destroyed by fire in 1911 and was replaced by the present building within the year. From 1895, the school continued as the Women's College of Maryland and in 1952 was converted to the College Manor Assisted Living Facility by the last college president, Dr. William Moors, III.
The Civil War divided the Lutherville Community as it did the rest of the nation. The residents hid their silver and valuables in a well or woodpile and Dr. Morris his his horse in the woods. The story is told that some of "Gilmore Raiders" demanded the US Postal funds from the Rev. William Heilig, who was the postmaster at his home, Octagon House. When he refused, they drove his cattle into a swamp, now the beltway.
Before the urbanization of Baltimore County, Lutherville was an incorporated town that maintained roads, provided services and developed one of the oldest volunteer fire departments (1909). At first, all Christians met in the community church in the village square. Eventually separate houses of worship were built: St. John's Methodist Church (1869), and the Episcopal Chapel of the Holy Comforter (1888). The community church became St. Paul's Lutheran Church. The African-American community that has resided in Lutherville since Antebellum days built the Edgewood Methodist Church (1870).
As Baltimore City started moving out from the city core, the adjacent Talbat family plantation became Country Club Park homes, first called Talbot Manor. The bucolic village eventually became a suburban zip code. Today extensive housing developments, expressways and shopping centers surround it. Beltway signage makes Lutherville a destination area, not just a village.
Ralph Walsh, Historian for the Lutherville Community Association