St. Peter's or Horsehead? Is the Stage Route the Answer?

[L Verge]

(12-11-2016 11:25 PM)wpbinzel Wrote:  The answer to my question of "Where was Beantown?" may be found on Kieran McAuliffe's John Wilkes Booth Escape Route map. It appears to me that Beantown was east of Waldorf, in the area of where the modern-day Mattawoman Beantown Road, St. Charles Parkway and Leonardtown Road converge.

You are correct. There were still some remnants of the village when I was a small child. I pointed this location out on the conference bus trip into Charles County last year.

BTW: Just trivia - Mattawoman is an Indian name that was given to the creek that separates Charles and Prince George's County at that point. The Huntt family plantation where my great-grandfather grew up was right along that creek in Charles County It also bore the name Mattawoman and would today be where the other end of Mattawoman-Beantown Road intersects with Route 301. About 3-4 miles south of T.B. If Booth had taken the "new" route from T.B., he would have crossed through the plantation.

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(12-12-2016 08:19 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Here's what I found on "Beantown" - it's Wiki....so therefore, I'd rely more heavily on what Laurie has to say - she knows!

Still - interesting info and the photo is wonderful!

"Waldorf's original name was Beantown. During his post assassination flight, John Wilkes Booth told a road sentry he was headed to his home in Charles County near Beantown and was allowed to proceed.[2] In 1880, the General Assembly of Maryland by an act changed the name to "Waldorf" in honor of William Waldorf Astor (1848–1919), the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor (1763–1848), who was born in Walldorf, Palatinate, Germany.[3] On July 29, 1908, the city of Plumb Valley in Waseca County, Minnesota, changed its name to Waldorf after Waldorf, Maryland.[4]

Once a tobacco market village, Waldorf came to prominence in the 1950s as a gambling destination after slot machines were legalized in Charles County in 1949. The boom lasted until 1968 when gambling was once again outlawed.[5] Its subsequent substantial growth as a residential community began with a 1970 loan package from the Department of Housing and Urban Development which fueled the giant planned community of St. Charles, south of Waldorf.

St. Catharine, or the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[6]" - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf,_Maryland

Actually, this is good information. The original center of Beantown, however, is a few miles below the original center of Waldorf. The Bean family was all over Charles and Southern Prince George's Counties when I was a child. Jimmy Bean ran a bustling general store right by the railroad tracks in original Waldorf and somehow was related to the Huntts through marriage. The store was so rickety, one would have thought that the vibration from the trains would have caused it to collapse.

The photo is great, and most of the buildings are still there. The movie theater is where I saw all my childhood movies - except when we could go to the grand movie houses in DC - and they were spectacular. The old theater is now a Spanish market.