Baltimore County Courthouse: When the City Split

The courthouse here marks the result of one of Maryland's most consequential civic divorces. On July fourth, eighteen fifty-one, Baltimore City and Baltimore County formally separated into two entirely distinct jurisdictions, a split still in effect today. Towsontown, as it was then known, won the county seat by popular vote on February thirteenth, eighteen fifty-four.

The original courthouse of local limestone and marble was completed the following year. It was enlarged three separate times, in nineteen ten, nineteen twenty-three, and nineteen fifty-eight, as the county grew around it. Baltimore County remains one of the most unusual governmental structures in the country, a large suburban county that completely encircles an independent city with its own separate laws, taxes, and budget.

Very few American jurisdictions share this arrangement.