Owen Brown, Columbia, Maryland
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{{Infobox settlement
| name = Owen Brown
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| settlement_type = Village
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| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = United States
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| subdivision_name1 = Maryland
|subdivision_type2 = City
|subdivision_name2 = Columbia
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| established_title = Established
| established_date = 1975{{cite web |url=http://www.owenbrownvillage.org/about.html |title=About Owen Brown Community Association |publisher=Owen Brown Community Association |access-date=May 28, 2014 }}
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| named_for = Postmaster Owen Brown
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Owen Brown is one of the ten villages in Columbia, Maryland, United States, established in 1972. Neighborhoods in the village include Dasher Green, Elkhorn and Hopewell.{{cite web |last=Kellner |first=Barbara |url=http://www.columbiamaryland.com/sowen.htm |title=How the Streets of OWEN BROWN were Named |website=columbiamaryland.com |access-date=May 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605005052/http://www.columbiamaryland.com/sowen.htm |archive-date=June 5, 2012}} Owen Brown lies south and east of the town center.[http://www.columbiavillages.org/ "Map"], columbiavillages.org, accessed May 30, 2009
The village contains the {{convert|37|acre|m2|adj=on}} Lake Elkhorn, with a walking path of two miles (3 km) and a picnic pavilion in the {{convert|23|acre|m2|adj=on}} park.[http://www.columbiamaryland.com/elklake.htm "Lakes of Columbia, Lake Elkhorn"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080702000246/http://www.columbiamaryland.com/elklake.htm |date=July 2, 2008 }}, columbiamaryland.com, accessed May 30, 2009
History
Prior to the development of Columbia, an area road was known as Owen Brown Road, named for local postmaster and store owner Owen T. Brown who had once lived on it. Due to its proximity, Rouse Company planners used Owen Brown as an early working name for the village. The name stuck, and became the permanent name of the village when it opened in 1972.{{cite web |url=http://www.owenbrownvillage.org/about.html |website=Owen Brown Community Association |access-date=March 19, 2018 |title=About }}{{Additional citation needed|date=March 2018|reason=no mention of named road, dwelling, or middle initial in existing source}}
Lake Elkhorn is named for the Elkhorn branch of the Little Patuxent River; Elk Horn Farms was also the name of the Dasher farm. Street names are taken from the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Dasher Green is named for the 670-acre Dasher family farm purchased in May 1963 by one of the Rouse company land acquisition entities. The farm was systematically reduced in size from 1971 to 1978, with the last parcel sold for development in 1996.{{cite book|title=Better places, better lives: a biography of James Rouse|author=Joshua Olsen|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8742-0919-8|publisher=Urban Land Institute}}{{cite book|title=Columbia|author=Barbara Kellner|isbn=978-0738517926|publisher=Arcadia|year=2005|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/columbia0000kell}} Street names are taken from the works of John Greenleaf Whittier.{{cite news|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|title=Farmers: town's forgotten pioneers; In 1960s, they sold land to Rouse, making Columbia possible|date=May 19, 1996|author=Laura Barnhardt|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1996/05/19/farmers-towns-forgotten-pioneers-in-1960s-they-sold-land-to-rouse-making-columbia-possible/|access-date=June 20, 2014}}{{Failed verification |date=March 2020 |reason=No mention of Whittier}}
Hopewell is named for the 200-acre land grant, Laswell's Hopewell, patented to Thomas Davis Sr. on December 6, 1728.{{cite book|title=The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties|author=Joshua Dorsey Warfield|page=114}} The street names are taken from the works of Vachel Lindsay.
In 1976, Ryland Homes announced it would start construction on homes priced between $50,000 and $70,000.{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=September 11, 1976}} The Village would contain 18 percent section 8 housing as part of its broad spectrum of housing options.{{cite book|title=Suburban Alchemy: 1960s New Towns and the Transformation of the American Dream|author=Nicholas Dagen Bloom|page=176|year=2001|isbn=9780814208748|publisher=Ohio State University Press}} In 1977, Howard County temporarily held construction of housing by Washington Homes for multiple code violations on over 25 homes.{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Columbia Suspension Lifted: On Washington Homes County Lifts Suspension On Washington Homes|date=April 30, 1977}}
The Rouse Company was unable to procure the land around the Owen Brown Shopping Center, which remained independently operated outside of Rouse control with an anchor store leased by Giant Food.{{cite book|title=New City Upon a Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland|author=Joseph R. Mitchell, David Stebenne|page=114|year=2007|isbn=978-1-5962-9067-9|publisher=The History Press}}
Services
The East Columbia branch of the Howard County Library is located in the village.[http://www.hclibrary.org/index.php?page=63 "East Columbia Branch Library"], www.hclibrary.org, accessed May 30, 2009
Dasher Green and Hopewell each have an outdoor pool.[https://www.columbiaassociation.org/facilities/pools/outdoor-pool-locations/ "Columbia Association Outdoor Pool Locations"], columbiaassociation.org, accessed March 9, 2018
References
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External links
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- [http://owenbrowncommunityassociation.org/ Owen Brown Community Association ]
{{Columbia, Maryland}}
{{Howard County, Maryland}}
{{coord|39|11|16|N|76|50|34|W|display=title|type:city_region:MD-US}}
Category:Populated places in Howard County, Maryland
Category:Planned communities in the United States
Category:Populated places established in 1972