Founding year: the first Brentwood post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1922.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Brentwood’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brentwood is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #107 of 261 in Maryland. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Brentwood’s overall grade.
Few Maryland towns list much on the Register (a typical Maryland town has 0.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Brentwood’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (20% of Maryland towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.7 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1922.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Brentwood’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town was originally incorporated in 1922 and is named after the Brentwood estate built in 1817 by Robert Brent in Northeast Washington, D.C. The town was developed beginning in the 1890s around the Highland Station of the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Columbia and Maryland Railway. Brentwood was created by Wallace A. Bartlett, a Civil War veteran, former foreman for the Government Printing Office, Patent Office examiner, and inventor originally from Warsaw, New York. Captain Bartlett lived in Washington, D.C., until 1887, when he purchased 206 acres (0.83 km2) of farmland from Benjamin Holliday, which abutted the Highland subdivision. Bartlett built a farmhouse for his family on the land and, with two partners J. Lee Adams and Samuel J. Mills, formed the Holladay Land and Improvement Company. Captain Bartlett died in 1908.
The Brentwood post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1922.
How does Brentwood rank for history?
Brentwood is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #107 of 261 in Maryland. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Brentwood?
26% of Brentwood’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.7 points), against a typical 3.3% for a Maryland town; the median home was built in 1950.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (8), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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