What is the history of Bowie?
Founded in 1870, and incorporated as a town in 1916, Bowie has grown from a small railroad stop to the largest municipality in Prince Georges County, and the fourth largest city in the State of Maryland. The town was first called Huntington City, though its train station was named in honor of local resident, Governor Oden Bowie, president of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. The town grew up around the Bowie Station, and emerged as an important rail town. It was subsequently renamed Bowie in honor of Governor Bowie. In 1957, the firm of Levitt and Sons acquired the Belair Estate, the original colonial plantation of Governor Samuel Ogle, where it developed the residential community of “Belair at Bowie”. Two years later the Town of Bowie annexed the Levitt properties, and then it re-incorporated as a city in 1963. The Citys Belair Mansion (circa 1745), was the plantation home of Governor Samuel Ogle, and his son Governor Benjamin Ogle. In the first half of the 20th Century, the Mansion
