Myrtle Point Park Upgrades

Recreation Area Expansion

Improvements to recreational and learning opportunities at Myrtle Point Park are slowly moving forward. At their first work session for the FY27 county budget, the County Commissioners agreed to keep $3.1 million allocated for the upgrades across fiscal years 2028 and 2029. Construction costs estimated at $3M are planned to expense in FY29. The project’s total cost is just over $3.5M and is mostly financed through bond sales. 

The park’s master plan, developed in 2005, is the basis for the concept site plan filed with the county’s department of Land Use & Growth Management (LUGM). The concept shows a 4,000 square foot visitors center, an outdoor classroom area, multiple picnic areas, trails, kayak launches, and beach access. The visitor center will have 90 parking spaces, including 10 specifically for buses or large trucks. Phase 1 covers the visitors center, parking, septic, and ADA beach access.

Kayak launches on Cuckold Creek and the Patuxent River will be ADA accessible. Along Cuckold Creek, a parking and turnaround area will provide easy access to the launch. Plans also include a pavilion and bathrooms at the end of a paved Mill Creek Lane. Likewise, the existing path to the launch on the Patuxent will be paved and include a parking area. Phase 2 incorporates the kayak launch areas. 

Myrtle Point Park’s redevelopment is more than twenty years in the making, and has a complicated history. The county acquired the 192 acre park in 1997 with funding from Maryland’s Program Open Space, and by 2005 had a master plan developed. Original plans discussed an active recreation area with sports fields along with more passive uses like trails. Friends of Myrtle Point, a community group dedicated to preserving the land as a nature park with passive recreation, pushed back on that idea. They were successful in discouraging recreational sports fields. 

Historically, park land was once part of a larger tract known as St. Joseph’s Manor, first appearing in land records in 1790 when Charles King granted to William Carpenter part of “Piercies Cost.” A review by the county’s Historic Preservation Commission found three sites on the property with significance–two home sites and a historic barn. 

Myrtle Point Barn is a “wood-frame earthfast tobacco barn…located in a thick wooded site and is in deteriorated condition” according to preservation documents. Concept plans call for the barn’s incorporation in an open meadow area with a mulch path, though it's unclear to what condition the barn may be restored.

Myrtle Point House 1 is described as “a five-bay framed and weatherboarded two-story single-pile house with a gable roof.” It was demolished when the county purchased the park.

Myrtle Point House 2, also demolished in the late 1990s, is described as “a structure of exceptional size and pretension for its early 20th century construction and rural Maryland setting.” Both homes were built around 1900.

During that timeframe, the land was owned by Susan Keyworth and Frank Dent, neither of whom lived there. Records state it’s possible a tenant farmer worked the land. The land was sold several times from the 1930s to the 1950s, and was owned in the 1960s by the Washington Lumber and Turpentine Company. 

A memo prepared by LUGM to document historical review comments calls for further analysis. The Historic Preservation Commission suggested a review from the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) to consider “changing the proposed location of the welcome center, parking lot, and pathways” due to “extensive historical and archaeological findings.” With three years until construction is expected, there should be time for Recreation & Parks to coordinate with MHT. 

The continued buildout of the Myrtle Point subdivision means there will be no shortage of local residents who could use the nearby park. The visitor center could serve as another location for the county’s school system to engage in required environmental education now that Elms Beach is out of commission, though Recreation & Parks has plans for upgrades there as well.

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