OUR HISTory
Mount Zion United Methodist Church est. September 1913
Bacon Town
Bacontown is an historically significant African American community in Anne Arundel County located along Whiskey Bottom Road north of Laurel, Maryland. Bacontown got its name from Maria Bacon, who was deeded the property shortly after she was freed from slavery in 1860. It grew into a thriving hamlet of three dozen houses and trailers, with its own little white church and a tiny school. However, the 1980’s brought drugs dealers and prostitutes, along with a deteriorating housing stock and inadequate water and sewer facilities. In the 1990’s, Arundel Community Development Services, Inc. (ACDS) lead a large-scale public-private comprehensive redevelopment process with the backing and support of the Bacontown community.
ACDS in concert with the community developed a comprehensive revitalization plan that began with a major community clean-up effort involving hauling away of old cars, trash and abandoned trailers. The revitalization efforts developed into a 10 year undertaking, moving the community from a forgotten hamlet to a thriving modern community.
St. Jacobs Lodge
Established 1909
Ma Bacon
Daughter of a freed Slave who worked for Slave owners, the Dorsey Family. She donated the land which later became Bacontown.
April 1, 1830 - December 30, 1913
