Did You Know? #23 A Great America Theme Park was almost built in Huntington

Marriott’s Great America already had built a theme park outside of Chicago and another in California when they surprised Howard County in January 1972 with their proposed 3rd Amusement Park. The proposed park would comprise 800 acres of land in what is now the Huntington and Guilford areas between the Middle Patuxent and Little Patuxent Rivers with the newly opened Interstate 95 being the eastern boundary to an extended Broken Land Parkway on the west to Route 32 on the north.

Marriott requested a zoning change in the County to an EC zone – an “entertainment center”. This $65 million dollar investment would include a park, a marine park, and animal reserve. To the folks in Guilford, this proposal came just as I-95 opened the year before and geographically split the community forcing some in the community to move. The threat of Columbia sprawl and turning Guilford into an industrial zone was a heightened concern after the deal that brought General Electric to the edge of Guilford. The “improved” Route 32 which would soon put another physical divide in the community left some residents wondering if Guilford even had a future.

The Guilford Steering Committee (influenced by the Rouse Company) was supportive of the Great America park with the promise of youth employment for the Guilford community – the type you find in amusement parks, but employment nonetheless. There was still a great amount of citizen opposition to this plan who feared it would change the nature and culture of the County.

The first public hearings occurred in June and after three intense months of testimony and cajoling, and even taking some Guilford residents to view the Great America Theme parks in Illinois and California, the HoCo Council/Zoning Board rejected the change in zoning by a 3-1 margin.

Marriott did not try to change the minds of the Zoning Board and pursued the building of the park in Manassas, Virginia, right next to a civil war battlefield. That did not go well for Marriott and 5 years later came back with a new proposal to Howard County hoping for a more favorable outcome.

This time, the location chosen would be the Chase-Manhattan property on just a 500 acre site. For those of you in Guilford and Jessup, this was the site of High School 13 and the Savage Stone Quarry owned by the Gould family. It likely would have extended to I-95 and perhaps eliminated Mission Road, but the discussions did not get that far. This would have left the only parcel of Guilford the one along Oakland Mills Road. The Entertainment Center Zoning was again rejected by the Zoning Board and Marriott never did build that third Great America theme park.

Sources: 

Marriott to build big park. The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). January 27, 1972. Thursday. Page 1.

Marriott park is rejected by Howard board. The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). September 23, 1972. Page 1.

Marriott theme park site sought - zoning O.K. asked on 500 acre tracts in eastern Howard. The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). March 22, 1977.  Page C1.

Marriott park loses in Howard.  The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). October 4, 1977. Page 29.