Towson City Map Poster

About Towson

Towson is an inner suburb of Baltimore, and currently the second most populous municipality in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. The first inhabitants of the future Towson and central Baltimore County region were the Susquehannock Indians who hunted in this area. Their region included all of Baltimore County, though their primary settlement was farther northeast along the Susquehanna River. Towson was settled by Europeans in 1730 when two Pennsylvania brothers, William and Thomas Towson (descendants from Yorkshire), began farming an area adjacent to Zion's Church near present-day York Road (the church has since moved). Williams son Edward built a plantation house on property near where Hampton Lane now runs between York and Lancaster Roads; it is now known as "Eddystone." The Maryland legislature named "Towsontown" after Edward Towsend in 1793.