Atholton takes its name from a 600-acre (240 ha) land grant named "Athol" granted from King Charlles to James MacGill 17 August 1732. He built a nearby manor house named "Athol" built between 1732 and 1740. The name "Athol" was created to honor MacGill's ancestral home in Scotland.[3] In 1845, Nicolas Worthington freed seventeen of his slaves, and gave them 150 acres (61 ha) of the "Athol enlarged" land which was then called "Freetown".[4] The community was briefly a postal town named Atholton, Maryland. The school sites were later considered part of Simpsonville, Maryland, and later Columbia, Maryland.
The Howard County school system was segregated since the building of the Ellicott City Colored School in 1888. The first Atholton school was a one-room colored school house next to Locust Church given by John R. and Susie Clark in 1885. Students transferred to Guilford in 1939. School property was bought for $200 by the Locust Church. In 1941, an additional acre was not accounted for, then sold on a separate bid for $701 to Herbert M Brown.
Harriet Tubman site
In 1948, a new 10-room high school called Atholton Colored School was ordered. It was designed by Francis Thuman to be built in Simpsonville with a $280,000 budget.[5] The cornerstone was set on September 25, 1948, by the Colored Masonic Lodge.[6] Clarksville students were used to operate the bulldozers used in grading.[7] At the students request, the school was renamed to the Harriet Tubman High School.[8] In 1954, Segregation was outlawed by the supreme court in Brown v. Board of Education. Howard County eliminated one class of segregated students a year, taking 11 years to implement integrated classes.[9][10] Modern accounts of the development of Columbia note that Rouse Company donated land for public schools, but prior to the requirement, the company sold unusable land from its 1963 purchases to build Columbia back to the school board. The company sold 10 usable acres (4.0 ha), and 10 unbuildable acres adjoining the school, at market rate, to "meet new state standards".[11]
The High School would later be renamed the Harriet Tubman building, to be used by the Board of Education. In 1981 Grassroots Crisis Center operated a homeless shelter from the facility. In 2006, James N. Robey issued $1.6 million in Howard County loans to Grassroots to build an enlarged homeless facility on the Atholton School grounds.[12] Centered around the 50th anniversary of desegregation at the school, The Howard County Center of African American Culture has petitioned to relocate from Oakland Manor to the Harriet Tubman building. The offices used by school system were listed as the top endangered historical site in Howard county by Preservation Howard County in 2015.[13]
Atholton High School
Atholton High School
In 1966 a new integrated high school was built alongside the old school taking the name Atholton High School. The school has been renovated and expanded several times. In 2012 a $51.3 million project[14] was started to renovate the school again with students in place. The structure will use temporary classrooms in its expansion from 206,000 square ft to 250,000 sf.[15]
Students
Atholton's student population has been in flux over the past 15 years. In 2017, Atholton is designed for 1,460 students with a current enrollment of 1,479 students.[2] Atholton is currently a 3A school. Proposed redistricting[16] by the Howard County Public School System would move approximately 16 percent of the Howard County student population from their current school. However, there are doubts over whether such plans will take action.[17]
The student population as of December 2021 is <5% Native American, 31.5% Black or African American, 18.1% Asian, 31*.5% White or Caucasian, <5% Pacific Islander, 12% Hispanic, and 6.6%Two or more races.[2]
