The story
Read it all →How Hurlock came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Hurlock.
The town was named after John M. Hurlock, a local store owner. The community was incorporated in 1892.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
B−History
History · Hurlock
Hurlock’s post office opened in 1870, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 48% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Glen Oak Hotel. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1921 on and old-book passages.
1870first post office
1on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Quick answers
How Hurlock began
When was Hurlock founded?
1870
The Hurlock post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.
2020 census: 2,070156 years
How historic is Hurlock?
B−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 48% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Hurlock post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hurlock’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hurlock is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hurlock’s overall grade.
Founding era1870, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194012.4% of homes (±7.0) · typical MD town 3.3% · U.S. 8.4%B−National Register1 listing, 3.5 per 10,000 residents · typical MD town 0.9 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 48%
NewerOlder
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 Hurlock’s 3.5 sits near the middle of its state (59% of Maryland towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 Hurlock’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Hurlock’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Hurlock’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Hurlock, 1902–1925
Passages that mention Hurlock, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Dorchester County, Maryland1902Read the page →
Read the text
The origin of Hurlock, a new and attractive town in the upper section of the county, was the location of a railroad station at that point on the Dorchester and Delaware Railroad (now the Cambridge and Seaford Railroad), in 1867.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Revised history of Dorchester County, Maryland1925Read the page →
Read the text
The building of the B. C. & A. R. R., which crosses the Cambridge and Seaford Road at this point, in 1890, gave the town of Hurlock a live boom; it now contains 450 inhabitants, and is thriftily developing. Two banks, E. S. Trust Co. and Citizens’ Bank ( State).
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Revised history of Dorchester County, Maryland1925Read the page →
Read the text
The origin of Hurlock, a new and attractive town in the upper section of the county, was the location of a railroad station at that point on the Dorchester and Delaware Railroad (now the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Hurlock, 1870 to 1921
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1870Post officeThe Hurlock post office opens
- 1876
Born hereWilliam Noble Andrews is born here - 20th century
- 1921
In the archiveHurlock, Md. elementary school
By decade
Hurlock, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1920s1 item
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your albumToday1 recent
2004Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewHurlock, Md. elementary school, 1921
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hurlock’s page.
Retake this view · +15On the National Register
1 historic place in Hurlock
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1983
Glen Oak Hotel
Buildings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places that used to be
Old corners and places now gone
Hurlock’s post office has been open since 1870.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Prospect Hills
Gone or out of use
Unity Methodist Churchchurch
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Hurlock’s history
What year was Hurlock founded?
The Hurlock post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hurlock rank for history?
Hurlock is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Hurlock?
One place: the Glen Oak Hotel (listed 1983).
How old are the homes in Hurlock?
12% of Hurlock’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.0 points), against a typical 3.3% for a Maryland town; the median home was built in 1979.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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 (1), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.