North Brentwood, MD

North Brentwood was incorporated in 1924 as Maryland’s first African American-majority municipality, growing from land purchased by African American Civil War veterans from their former commander, Captain Wallace Bartlett. The town’s historic district preserves the early residential community that followed, while the old Windom Road barrier marks a harder chapter: erected in 1957 to separate North Brentwood from neighboring Brentwood. The barrier site is now being reworked as a historic park and marker. North Brentwood sits just north of Washington in Prince George’s County. The local shorthand is Black town-building, veterans’ land, and a small municipality that kept its history visible.