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Learn about La Plata, Maryland
La Plata is a relatively small town. It is the county seat of Charles County. According to the United States Census Bureau, La Plata has a total area of 7.45 square miles. Of that area, 7.40 square miles is land and 0.05 square miles is water. The climate La Plata is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. La Plata shares a border with the community of Port Tobacco to the East. To the north is the community of White Plains. The Town’s southern border is shared with the Community of Bel Alton.
La Plata is largely a residential community. Some residents work for the Charles County Government, while others commute to the community of Waldorf or the City of Washington, D.C. and the City of Baltimore for work. This would include Joint Base Andrews and Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The town is transforming into a thriving business and commercial center. This is because of development of office buildings and the town’s recent reconstruction. Historic Mount Carmel is a Catholic convent built in 1790 and is located just outside La Plata.
La Plata has county offices and the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center. It also is home to the main campus of the College of Southern Maryland. There is a community theater for the Port Tobacco Players, a large outdoor athletic complex, two nursing homes, and a host of stores, churches, and restaurants. A farmers’ market is held twice each week near the Charles County Courthouse complex.
According to an unconfirmed local story, the town of La Plata was named by Colonel Samuel Chapman. His family owned 6,000 acres of land in Charles County. The Colonel traveled with his son, George, to South America. George suffered from tuberculosis and they were searching for a cure. In his travels, the Colonel apparently encountered the Río de la Plata. This is a river that flows through Argentina and Uruguay. He ultimately named a portion of his property “La Plata.”
In the 1870s, a section of the Pennsylvania Railroad was built through the town of La Plata. This led to the incorporation of the Town in 1888. The La Plata courthouse was built soon after the Port Tobacco courthouse caught fire in 1895. The historic Christ Episcopal Church in Port Tobacco was originally built in 1683. It was rebuilt in 1884. The Church was dismantled in 1904. Its stones were then transported by oxen and cart to its current lot in La Plata.
In 1940, the Potomac River Bridge opened. It carried U.S. Route 301 over the Potomac River. This provided a link to King George, Virginia and brought long-distance east coast traffic through La Plata. The bridge was later named the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge. In 2020 construction of a new bridge began. The new bridge opened in late 2022.
The Town of La Plata was affected by two major tornadoes in its history. The first was on November 9, 1926. It was an F4 tornado that killed 17 people. Of those, 14 were in the La Plata Elementary School, which was destroyed. On April 28, 2002, another F4 tornado cut a 24-mile-long path through Charles County. Areas around La Plata were the most severely damaged. This tornado caused 4 deaths. Local officials credited federal- and state-assisted new construction efforts with helping them to remodel the downtown area. Several new public buildings replaced some of those damaged there. A new La Plata Town Hall, for example, became Southern Maryland’s first LEED certified building.