Laurel is a mill town on the fall line of the Patuxent River, between Washington and Baltimore. The City of Laurel itself is in Prince George’s County, about 30,000 people at the 2020 census, but “Laurel” on a mailing address reaches well beyond the city: into Howard County through North Laurel and into Anne Arundel County near Maryland City. For a remodeler, that is the most important fact about the place. The county line, not the ZIP code, decides which permit office, which forms and which rules apply.
A mill town on the fall line
The land was patented by the Snowden family in 1658. Nicholas Snowden built a grist mill here around 1811 that grew into a cotton mill by the 1820s, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad arrived in 1835, turning Laurel into an early commuter town for Washington and Baltimore workers. Today the city keeps a historic district centered on its Main Street. Housing there ranges from 19th-century homes to the postwar subdivisions that followed, and the age of your house usually tells you more about the project than its neighborhood name.
Places that orient you
- Main Street. The center of the city’s historic district, and home to the Laurel Museum. The Venus Theatre and Laurel Mill Playhouse are among the local performing arts venues.
- Laurel station. A MARC stop in a B&O station designed by E. Francis Baldwin and built in 1884.
- Montpelier Mansion and Montpelier Arts Center. A historic house and arts center whose grounds host an annual spring festival.
- Eisenhower House. Built in 1879, it boarded Mamie and Dwight Eisenhower in 1919.
- Dinosaur Park. A 7.5-acre park in Laurel where Cretaceous fossils have been found.
- Laurel Park Racecourse. A thoroughbred racetrack that opened in 1911.
- Laurel Lakes. The commercial area on land that was a 163-acre farm when the Laurel Sanitarium opened there in 1905.
- Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Built in 1954 just west of Laurel in Howard County, using a Laurel address.
The city also hosts LakeFest in May, a Main Street Festival on Mother’s Day weekend and RiverFest in October.
Three counties, one mailing address
| Part of Laurel | County | Permit office | GBC page |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Laurel, South Laurel, West Laurel | Prince George’s | Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement (DPIE) | South Laurel and West Laurel |
| North Laurel, Emerson, Whiskey Bottom Road corridor | Howard | Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits (DILP) | North Laurel |
| Maryland City area | Anne Arundel | Department of Inspections and Permits | Call us and we will confirm service |
Maryland City was planned in the early 1960s as a 1,200-acre development of about 5,000 houses beside Laurel, when Fort Meade and the National Security Agency were expected to bring a population surge. Postwar growth like that is why many Laurel-area homes are old enough that you should check the year built before planning a remodel.
What this means for your remodel
Older homes near Main Street. Expect original plumbing and wiring to need attention while walls are open. If your house is in or near the historic district, check with the City of Laurel on any exterior change.
Postwar neighborhoods. The usual projects are opening a wall between the kitchen and dining room and replacing a tub-shower with a larger walk-in shower. Homes built before 1978 are covered by the EPA’s lead-safe rule.
Confirm the county first. Before any design work, we confirm the county for your address so the permit plan is right from day one.
Your showroom
Our Columbia showroom serves the Laurel area. North Laurel is about 12 minutes away. For the specifics of each project, see kitchen remodeling in North Laurel, kitchen remodeling in South Laurel and kitchen remodeling in West Laurel, or read our North Laurel kitchen remodeling guide.
