Old Ellicott City Hotel Gets New Owner

In 1842, the building at 8202 Main Street was sold for $1,000. Several sales, an expansion and 169 years later, the building, known as the Howard House, was sold for $1.2 million. 

That’s $120 per square foot for the 10,000-square-foot property, which has eight residential units as well as two businesses.

“We’ve owned it for a number of years,” former-owner Robert Brown said. “We thought it was time for someone else to take over.”

Robert and Paula Brown bought the building in 1986. Mindful of the Howard House's historic significance, Brown said, they worked to restore and maintain the interior, keeping the apartments modern.

“We never had any problems renting the apartments,” he said.

“It’s one of the more significant buildings in the county,” Brown said. “It was a hotel in the Civil War era, a prominent landmark.”

James Shipley built the original structure around 1840, according to Howard County Historical Society records. The Howard House Hotel changed hands several times—in 1843, Thomas Anderson bought it for $1,545; in 1865 it was sold to Josiah Groves for $2,500. After the Civil War, Groves and his son also ran the Union Hotel at 8298 Main Street. 

In 1879, the building was sold to one of its most successful owners for $5,680.

According to records, Christian Eckert began selling ice cream, soda water and ginger ale when a local law forced the bar to close. Lore has it the dining room was so popular that Eckert expanded the building to include 8210 Main Street, creating the 10,000-square-foot structure that is today considered the Howard House.

The new owner, an individual who purchased the property as Howard House, LLC, plans to revitalize the building, including doing some work to the exterior, according to real estate agent Wesley Peters.

The current commercial tenants, Oriental Art Gallery and Line of Sight, LLC, will be staying put.