ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County’s Department of General Services has begun exterior design and rehabilitation work to the existing cupola and exterior façade of the County’s The Capitoline Center, located at 8360 Court Avenue in Ellicott City. Work to this 1843 structure and former State of Maryland Circuit Court for Howard County courthouse, includes repairs to the attic area and cupola, window and shutter restoration, and repairs to locally sourced granite walls. Design work is anticipated to take three to four months to complete and following its completion, the rehabilitation work is expected to commence and weather permitting, should be completed by fall 2027.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this jewel of historic Ellicott City is considered an important precursor to our great county’s inception. This work will further help preserve this structure, transforming this already-beautiful building into a completed community space where a parent can buy healthy food for your family, a young person can discover a future career or passion, art and inspiration can be created, and a new neighbor in our AAPI community will learn that they belong and are welcome here.
This rehabilitation work is part of the County’s Phase 2 construction – and final phase, on The Capitoline Center, which Ball announced the start of back in July with a ceremonial wall breaking. In addition to the cupola and exterior restoration work, Phase 2 also includes 6,300 square feet of new programmable space, specifically:
- 3,100 square feet for the County’s award-winning Roving Radish program;
- 1,700 square feet shared teaching and demonstration kitchen space; and
- 1,500 square feet of multipurpose community space for County Department of Recreation & Parks programming; these rooms will complement the existing space for the Asian American and Pacific Islander Cultural Center.
Phase 2 of the project will cost approximately $5.95 million, of which $5.2 million is County funding and $750,000 is federal funding from a Save America’s Treasures preservation grant from the Fiscal Year 2025 Historic Preservation Fund administered by the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service. The Save America’s Treasures preservation grant will directly support the full rehabilitation of the building’s historic cupola that sits atop the 1843 courthouse.
Managed by Recreation & Parks, The Capitoline Center is a hub for arts, culture, and history in the county. Earlier this year, Ball also celebrated the completion of Phase I of the multi-year renovation project with the official opening of The Capitoline Center and the Howard County Arts Council’s new headquarters and the County's first Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Cultural Center.
To learn more about The Capitoline Center, visit Recreation & Parks’ “Capitoline Center” webpage.