The community now known as Bowie is the largest municipality in Prince George’s County and the fifth largest city in Maryland. It started out as a small railroad stop where the B&O Railroad tracks to Washington, D.C., branched off from the main line. Although the station there was called Bowie—in honor of local resident Governor Oden Bowie—the town that was laid out around it in 1870 was named Huntington City. It comprised about 300 acres subdivided by Washington developer Ben M. Plumb into more than 500 building lots.
