The community of Mercersville, more popularly known today as Taylor's Landing, is located on the third land patent surveyed in what would eventually become Washington County, Maryland. Maj. Edward Sprigg's "Sprigg's Delight" would eventually encompass much of the land from here to near Sharpsburg, but the original is noted in the 1734 survey as "below the fording place of Charles Anderson." Charles Anderson received a patent in Terrapin Neck on the Virginia side of the Potomac this same year. A court order for a new road in 1838 refers to the location as "Zook's Landing." Since the C&O Canal was still under construction at the time and had only reached the area a few years earlier, it is thought this is a reference to the area being used by boatmen of the earlier Patomack Company. Further evidence pointing to a Patowmack Company port is that Henry Zook, operator of Zook's Landing, di…
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
