A Neighborhood with a Story to Tell
Buckingham is one of those Bowie neighborhoods that feels familiar almost immediately. Its streets are lined with mature trees, Cape Cods, split-levels, ranch homes, and Colonial-inspired houses. Children ride toward Buckingham Park, neighbors walk along Barberry Lane, and families gather for games and playground time. Yet beneath that comfortable suburban landscape is a story that reaches from colonial plantations and tobacco fields to the postwar housing boom that transformed Bowie.
For longtime residents, Buckingham is more than a collection of houses. It is part of the planned community that helped turn a small railroad town into the modern City of Bowie.
Before Buckingham: Farms, Railroads, and Early Bowie
The land around present-day Bowie was once a patchwork of farms, plantations, and small rural communities. The region’s fertile soil supported tobacco and other crops, while nearby roads connected local farms to larger settlements in Prince George’s County. One of the most important historic properties in the area is Belair, the 18th-century estate established by Maryland Governor Samuel Ogle. The Belair Mansion, built around 1745, remains one of Bowie’s most recognizable historic landmarks. ([cityofbowie.org](https://www.cityofbowie.org/2813/History?utm_source=openai))
Bowie itself developed around transportation. In the 1870s, developers laid out hundreds of residential lots near the junction of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and a branch line toward Washington. The settlement was first known as Huntington City. In the late 19th century, it became Bowie, honoring Governor Oden Bowie, a prominent Maryland political figure and member of a well-known local family. ([washingtonpost.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/02/23/bowie/aaa7bfe9-1650-4308-a837-05129536dec7/?utm_source=openai))
The railroad brought opportunity, but Bowie remained a small community for many decades. That changed dramatically after World War II, when automobile ownership, new highways, and demand for affordable suburban homes reshaped the Washington-Baltimore region.
How Buckingham Got Its Name
Buckingham emerged during the great suburban expansion led by Levitt and Sons beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The company developed a large planned community marketed as Belair at Bowie, dividing it into sections with distinctive names and carefully organized streets.
Buckingham was one of those sections. Its name fits a broader pattern of place names chosen to give the new neighborhoods an established, community-minded identity. The available historical record does not clearly identify a single person or estate after which the section was named. Instead, Buckingham appears to have been selected as part of Levitt’s larger neighborhood-naming system.
The section’s streets helped make its identity unmistakable. Many begin with the letter “B,” including Buckingham Drive, Barberry Lane, Baker Drive, Beecher Lane, Beechwood Lane, and Botany Lane. This alliterative naming practice was used throughout Belair at Bowie: Somerset streets generally began with “S,” Foxhill streets with “F,” and Kenilworth streets with “K.” For residents, the first letter of a street often served as an instant geographic clue. ([washingtonpost.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/02/23/bowie/aaa7bfe9-1650-4308-a837-05129536dec7/?utm_source=openai))
The Levitt Era and the Rise of Suburban Bowie
When the first Buckingham homes were built, Bowie looked very different from the city residents know today. Much of the surrounding land was still open countryside, and the neighborhood’s new homes stood among fields, woods, and working farms.
Levitt homes appealed to families seeking modern conveniences and more space than they could typically find in Washington or Baltimore. The houses were designed for practical family living, with private yards, driveways, efficient floor plans, and access to new schools and recreation facilities. The neighborhood layout encouraged a quieter residential atmosphere, with local streets feeding into larger roads rather than cutting directly through the heart of the community.
Many early residents arrived with young children. They remember moving into unfinished-looking surroundings where sidewalks, trees, and landscaping were still taking shape. Over time, those newly planted trees matured, giving Buckingham the leafy appearance that is now one of its defining characteristics.
The population of Bowie expanded rapidly during this period. The small town that had barely exceeded 1,000 residents before the Levitt development grew into a major suburban city. By the 1970s, Bowie had become one of Prince George’s County’s most recognizable planned communities. ([washingtonpost.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/02/23/bowie/aaa7bfe9-1650-4308-a837-05129536dec7/?utm_source=openai))
Buckingham Park: A Community Gathering Place
At the center of neighborhood life is Buckingham Park, located at 2800 Barberry Lane. The 10-acre park includes:
- Three baseball and softball fields
- A walking and biking trail
- A basketball court
- Two playgrounds
- Picnic areas and open space
The park’s location among streets such as Botany Lane, Beecher Lane, Barberry Lane, Baker Drive, and Buckingham Drive reinforces the section’s cohesive identity. It is the kind of local park that becomes part of family memory: a place for first swings, youth baseball, afternoon walks, and impromptu conversations between neighbors. ([cityofbowie.org](https://www.cityofbowie.org/2962/Buckingham-Park?utm_source=openai))
Buckingham’s relationship with nearby Whitemarsh Park adds another dimension to the neighborhood. The 182-acre park includes athletic fields, trails, wooded areas, picnic facilities, and the Bowie Playhouse. Its extensive open space gives residents access to a landscape that feels surprisingly expansive for a suburban neighborhood. ([cityofbowie.org](https://www.cityofbowie.org/2971/Whitemarsh-Park?utm_source=openai))
The Bowie Playhouse and Cultural Life
One of the most distinctive nearby buildings is the Bowie Playhouse, located at 16500 White Marsh Park Drive. Constructed in 1975 and originally known as the Theater in the Woods, the 150-seat facility has become an important part of Bowie’s cultural life.
The Playhouse hosts productions by Bowie Community Theatre and 2nd Star Productions, along with concerts, readings, recitals, and other community events. Its setting deep inside Whitemarsh Park gives it a special character. Rather than standing on a busy commercial street, the theater is tucked among trees and trails, making a performance there feel like a neighborhood tradition. ([cityofbowie.org](https://www.cityofbowie.org/2644/Bowie-Playhouse?utm_source=openai))
Nearby Landmarks and the Larger Bowie Story
Buckingham residents are also close to several places that connect the neighborhood to Bowie’s broader heritage. Belair Mansion and the Belair Stable Museum preserve the area’s colonial and equestrian history. Bowie State University, founded in 1911 as a teacher-training school, reflects the region’s long educational tradition and its importance in African American history. The old railroad community, museums, and historic properties around Old Town Bowie offer additional reminders that the city existed long before the Levitt neighborhoods arrived. ([cityofbowie.org](https://www.cityofbowie.org/2813/History?utm_source=openai))
These landmarks help place Buckingham in context. The neighborhood may look like a product of the automobile age, but it occupies land shaped by centuries of agriculture, transportation, education, and community-building.
Buckingham Through the Decades
Over the decades, Buckingham has evolved without losing its original character. The young families who moved in during the 1960s and 1970s aged in place, while later generations bought homes and established new roots. Houses have been renovated, additions have appeared, and landscaping has grown fuller. Yet the neighborhood’s basic pattern remains recognizable.
What has changed most is the surrounding city. Roads that once felt rural now connect Buckingham to Bowie Town Center, Route 197, U.S. Route 50, schools, shopping, and regional employment centers. Recreation has expanded, with trails, athletic fields, theaters, and parks becoming central parts of everyday life.
That blend of continuity and change is what makes Buckingham special. It preserves the welcoming scale of a mid-century planned neighborhood while benefiting from the amenities of a growing city. Walk through Buckingham Park on a spring afternoon, listen for the sounds of a game at Whitemarsh Park, or pause beneath the mature trees along Buckingham Drive, and the neighborhood’s heritage is easy to feel.
Buckingham’s history is not preserved in one grand building. It lives in the street names, the parks, the houses, and the generations of Bowie families who have made the neighborhood their own.