My two cents: Laurel’s 10 prettiest buildings

By JOE MURCHISON

This is my list of the top 10 most attractive buildings in the city of Laurel and surrounding area of Prince George’s County. (If I were including the portions of Laurel in Anne Arundel and Howard counties, outside our circulation area, I would have included the Laurel Park grandstand.)

The list is in descending order, from No. 10 to No. 1.

10. Harrison-Beard Building (900 Montgomery Street}. It’s easy to overlook this narrow building, but its façade and history are quite attractive and interesting. It was built in 1891 as a department store, with Mayor Edward Phelps (remember that name) one of the owners. In 1935, the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department purchased the building and converted it into a fire station. (The building’s current lower bay windows were doors for the two fire-engine bays.) An upper row of windows displays pleasing reliefs of Ionic columns and engraved flowers. The city government bought the building in 1954 and used it as city hall (with a jail in the basement) until 1972. It then became a white elephant, and the city almost demolished it in 2001 after a tornado tore off the roof. Fortunately, it was restored and now serves as a private office.

9. Laurel Manor House (1110 Montgomery Street). This engaging Victorian house, with its playful tower and eaves, was built by Mayor Edward Phelps (yes, the very same one) in 1888. Originally a residence, it’s now a bed and breakfast owned and run by Lisa and Dave Everett. 

8. Laurel MARC station (22 Main Street). The station was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1882. Architect Francis Baldwin used a Queen Anne design for this small structure, which  is on the National Register of Historic Places. Baldwin also designed the rear wing of the State House in Annapolis.

7. Laurel Boys and Girls Club (701 Montgomery Street). This building was constructed in 1899 by Mayor Edward Phelps (there he goes again) as the first Laurel High School — indeed, the first public high school in Prince George’s County. The building displays the impressive symmetry and ornamentation found in typical institutional architecture of an earlier era. Its attractive cupola was used during World War II to watch for enemy planes. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

6. St. Mary of the Mills Roman Catholic Church (114 St. Mary’s Place). The original stone church, with its well-proportioned steeple and stained-glass windows, was built in 1843 through the efforts of Dr. Theodore Jenkins, who was married to Juliana Snowden (remember the name Snowden). The oldest church in continuous use in Laurel, St. Mary’s enlarged the sanctuary in 1890, using the same exterior stone, which added to its elegant appearance.

5. St. Philip’s Episcopal Church (522 Main Street). This church was built in 1848, largely through the efforts of Louisa Snowden Capron, Juliana Snowden’s sister, and Louisa’s husband Horace Capron, who was head of the cotton mill that was then Laurel’s key industry. (Continue to hold onto the name Snowden.) St. Philip’s may have been the first building in the city designed by a professional architect. It embodies the loveliness of an old stone church in the English countryside.

4. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission headquarters (14501 Sweitzer Lane). This 13-story glass tower, completed in 1992, is the tallest building in Prince George’s County, and, with a price tag of $60 million, it is the largest and costliest structure in the Laurel area. But the building is not only big: The deep blue hue of its glass walls shimmers like sunlight on a lake, perfect for a water and sewer agency.

3. Laurel Branch Library (507 Seventh Street). The building was completed in 2016 to replace the city’s previous library, and it won an American Institute of Architects award for library design in 2018. The stone and glass exterior and two roofs pitched at distinct angles give the building a soaring openness, and interior lighting creates a warm glow for evening passers-by on Route 198. The backlit, multicolored obelisk in front adds to the effect. 

2. Oseh Shalom (7515 Olive Branch Way). This gem of religious architecture by Travis Price is both lovely and richly symbolic. Completed in 1991, the building’s exterior design suggests the earth tones of Jerusalem, the blue of the Israeli flag, the Wailing Wall, Sukkot booths, tefillah straps, a yarmulke and more. 

1.Montpelier Mansion (9650 Muirkirk Road). Laurel’s oldest and grandest house, Montpelier was built in the 1780s by Maj. Thomas Snowden, a plantation and ironworks owner (and enslaver of more than 160 individuals). Its graceful Georgian architecture and expansive front lawn, which swept down to the Patuxent River before Rocky Gorge Dam was built, make it Laurel’s most beautiful spot.

Runners-up: Snow Hill Manor (13301 Laurel-Bowie Road), Laurel Armory – Anderson & Murphy Community Center (422 Montgomery Street), Laurel Museum (817 Main Street), McCeney House (400 Main Street), Laurel Volunteer Fire Department Station 10 (7411 Cherry Lane), Gude Manor House (13910 Laurel Lakes Avenue), and Patuxent Place (600 block of Main Street).

Since this is a highly subjective list, readers are welcome to let me know where I have gone astray or omitted a deserving building. Just send your opinion to joe@streetcarsuburbs.news. We hope to publish some of your replies in the September issue.