Hyattsville, Maryland

Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington D.C. The population was 17,557 at the 2010 United States Census.

History

The city is named for its founder, Christopher Clark Hyatt (1799-1884), who purchased his first parcel of land in the area in 1845. Hyatt opened a store and began mail delivery, officially naming the nascent community “Hyattsville” in his 1859 application to become postmaster. The community's location at the intersection of the Washington and Baltimore Turnpike (modern day US 1) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line made the land attractive for development. In the years following the Civil War, Hyatt and other local landowners subdivided their properties and sold lots, and the population of Hyattsville grew. Hyattsville was incorporated as a city on April 7, 1886.

The historic district of the city is home to a number of Victorian houses built in the late 1880s and Sears bungalows and Arts & Crafts houses built between the wars (late 1910s and early 1940s). Historic Hyattsville is roughly bounded by Madison Street, East West Highway, and Oliver Street to the north; Route 1 to the east; Magruder Park to the south; and 39th Avenue, 42nd Avenue, and 42nd Place to the west.