Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Ilchester, MD

Ilchester is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Howard County, Maryland, between Ellicott City to the northwest and Elkridge to the southeast.

The community takes its name from the village of Ilchester in Somerset, England.

Ilchester began in 1761, when John Cornthwaite founded a wooden grist mill called the Dismal Mill on the western shore of the Patapsco River, about two miles southeast of Ellicott City.

In 1772 the Ellicott family bought a two-mile stretch of the Patapsco River that included Ilchester.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Old Main Line was built through Ilchester in 1830, and George Ellicott Jr. built a tavern and cooper shop beside the tracks.

The Thistle Manufacturing Company built a factory at Ilchester in 1837, and mail service began in 1842 under the station name Illchester Mills.

In 1866 the Ellicotts sold the tavern and 110 acres to the Redemptorist order, which opened a college there in 1868, first called Mount Saint Clemens and renamed Saint Mary's College in 1882; the college chapel became Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish church in 1893.

Saint Mary's College closed in 1972, and in 1987 the State of Maryland bought part of the campus and added it to Patapsco Valley State Park.

Camp Ilchester, a Girl Scout camp purchased by the Baltimore council of the Girl Scouts in 1949, remains in operation in the community.

The population of Ilchester was 26,824 at the 2020 census, up 14.3 percent from 23,476 in 2010.