In 1840, the steam-powered Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad (A&ER) was built across a sparsely settled farming community that would later become Odenton.
The town of Odenton, nicknamed "The Town a Railroad Built" by Catherine L. O'Malley,[REF] was formed in 1868 with the construction of the Baltimore Potomac (B&P) Railroad connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C.