Are there any "quaint" towns? (Baltimore, Ellicott City: condo, house)

[hokiejane]

If you're looking for 4 acres within reasonable driving distance to APG that's affordable and "safe," you're probably going to need to look in the northernmost areas of Harford County. Check a map for Street and Cardiff. These are quite rural areas, though, and I'm not sure I would call them towns. I have a lot of friends who work at APG too and live over the state line in the Delta, PA area too and have nice hunks of land.

Havre de Grace is probably the "quaintest" town in the county. It has a real downtown with shops and decent restaurants and a sense of community.

Bel Air is by no means quaint. It's pretty much sprawling suburbia at this point with traffic to match. It does have a nice downtown area, but not the ambiance of Havre de Grace which has the water going for it.

Here's a link to descriptions of the various schools:

http://www.hcps.org/Schools/Profiles/profiles.asp (broken link)

And here's a link to some test score data. I've summarized the 2006 data below.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-ht.ha.highmsa22oct22,0,4352136.story?coll=bal-local-utility (broken link)

The percentage of high school students in the Harford County who passed the Maryland High School Assessments in three core subjects - algebra, biology and government...


Harford County high school test scores 2006

ALGEBRA BIOLOGY GOVERNMENT


Maryland 66.6 67.8 74.2

Harford Co. 72.8 68.7 78.4

Aberdeen 46.8 49.9 62.7

Bel Air 71.8 77.9 90.5

C. Milton Wright 60.9 65.2 85.1

Edgewood 54.6 65.5 62.4

Fallston 73.8 69.9 86.3

Harford Tech 68.9 78.6 92.3

Havre de Grace 70.9 74.8 81.9

Joppatowne 68.3 67.8 69.9

North Harford 61.4 78.9 84.8

[md to nc]

I lived in Carroll County all my life. Yes Hampstead has gone to the pits and the only reason I come back is to visit my parents, who will never leave that town after 70 years. I would look into northern Westminster, Silver Run area. Yes you will still encounter the yo factor in Westminster but as far as living in the vicinity, the only problem you may have is seeing a deer in your driveway at night or in the morning. We lived in the 21158 area for 3 years and loved it. We had an acre and there are tons of homes with acreage in that area. As far as being totally away from the teens and yo boys. That will never happen. Even here in NC, they are everywhere. As far as crime I would not look around the Aberdeen area, I hear from others that area is growing with crime. Being close to 95 that is the drug trafficking highway.

[isis297]

How do I find links to other school systems like the ones in Hokiejane's post? I want to check for other counties.

Thanks! This was a huge eye opener about Aberdeen!!

[isis297]

Does anybody know if Delta, PA is a burrough like Chambersburg, PA? Someone else on here mentioned about how the utilities are handled in Chambersburg and it certainly sounds enticing, especially since someone on here just mentioned Delta.

[hokiejane]

Delta is a borough, but I don't know how it compares to Chambersburg. For more info...

http://www.deltaborough.org/default.htm

If you do decide to look up in that area, make sure you know where the proposed "pig factory" is supposed to be going in. I know the community is up in arms, so I don't know if it will happen, but make sure you inquire about it.

[isis297]

Um, "pig factory"???

[hokiejane]

4400 hog CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation)

http://exchange.ydr.com/index.php?showtopic=2487&st=0

Originally Posted by isis297

Um, "pig factory"???

[alido]

You may want to visit the following sites. Use Mapquest to judge the distance for your specific commute needs/limits.
Check the county sites (google) and you can find the websites to specific small towns and their schools and chambers of commerce. I love this area. It is vacation every time I commute home. I am in a quaint Md. town. But I love visiting the Pa towns on weekends.

Greencastle, Pa, Chambersburg Pa>Franklin County,Pa
www.greencastlepachamber.org
www.chambersburg.org
www.co.franklin.pa.us

Boonsboro, Md/Smithsburg,Md/Hagerstown,Md>Washington County,Md
www.washco-md.net
www.hagerstownmd.org

Shepherstown, West Virginia>Jefferson County WVA
www.shepherdstownvisitorscenter.com
www.jeffersoncountywv.org

[boltzst]

is green castle an option for a commute to baltimore? my sister lives there and I thought about it because of a lot of MD restrictions, but it's a long drive to columbia/baltimore. or is it?

[mdtoaz]

I agree with Hokiejane. I live in Harford County (for now). I grew up here. It's crazy the sprawl that has taken over.

But, you can still live in the sticks - Whiteford, Jarrettsville, Darlington (where I'm originally from) and have the small town feel. Except, those places don't have a whole lot going on. Havre de Grace is a good option. They've really done a good job refurbishing the downtown area. Lots of small shops and such, street fair type things going on alot too.

Cecil County has a couple quaint towns too - Cecilton, Galena on 213, Port Deposit's been overhauled and it very nice now too. My parents live in Chestertown and you can't get much quainter than that - although that's a helluva commute.

I know Cecil County's a bit cheaper than Harford County and has easy access to I-95/Rte 40, but their prices have been climbing over the past few years.