Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Upper Marlboro, MD

Upper Marlboro is an incorporated town in Prince George's County, Maryland, and it has served as the county seat since 1721.

The town began around 1695 and was established in 1706 as Marlborough Town, a tobacco port created under Maryland's Act for the Advancement of Trade and Erecting Ports and Towns, on the Western Branch of the Patuxent River.

The town was named for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, an ancestor of Winston Churchill.

Its town land was carved from the Grove Landing, Meadows, and Darnall's Chance estates, and the Darnall's Chance house, built around 1742 by merchant James Wardrop, is now the Darnall's Chance House Museum, open to the public since 1988.

Residents petitioned in 1718 to move the county seat to the town, and its first courthouse was built in 1721, paid for with a tobacco tax.

The town was replatted and renamed Upper Marlborough in 1744 to distinguish it from Lower Marlboro in Calvert County, and the spelling was shortened to Upper Marlboro in the late 19th century, reportedly because a postal clerk felt 'ugh' did not fit the rubber stamps.

Upper Marlboro was incorporated in 1870, under Chapter 363 of the Maryland Acts of 1870.

In 1814, British forces under Major-General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn seized the town during the campaign that led to the Battle of Bladensburg and the burning of Washington.

Horse racing was held at the track south of town from the mid-18th century, with Maryland Jockey Club races running there until 1972; the old track grounds are now the Prince George's Equestrian Center and The Show Place Arena, site of the annual Prince George's County Fair.

The historic courthouse, rebuilt in 1939 with its stone Ionic columns, was gutted by fire on November 3, 2004 during a renovation and reopened on March 12, 2009, with the newer courthouse wings behind it completed in 1991.