The town is located north of Baltimore City along York Road (Maryland Route 45). It is bordered on the north by Timonium, on the west by Interstate 83, on the south by Towson, and on the east by the Hampton neighborhood. The boundary between Lutherville and Timonium is Ridgely Road.
Lutherville is located in the Piedmont region of the United States, and lies in the humid subtropical climate zone, with hot and humid summers leading into winters that are chilly but not extreme by American standards. The average annual snowfall is 25 inches (64 cm) and average annual precipitation is 42 inches (107 cm).
Separated from Lutherville-Timonium CDP in 2010 Census[5]
As of the 2010 census, there were 6,504 people and 2,672 households in the CDP.[6] The racial makeup of the CDP is 85.0% White, 3.4% African American, 0.2% Native American, 8.2% Asian, 0.2% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and 3.3% Hispanic or Latino.
Out of the 2,672 households recorded in the 2010 census, 28.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them.
The Maryland Transit Administration's light rail line serves the community with the Lutherville Light Rail Stop. In addition, bus routes 8 and 9 provide regular service along the York Road corridor, meeting at the Lutherville Light Rail Stop. There is also a limited amount of bus service on Bus Route 12 along Dulaney Valley Road to Stella Maris Hospice. In addition, the Baltimore CityLink Red line serves the Lutherville Light Rail station.
The MTA light rail line uses the right-of-way of the old Northern Central Railway (later, part of the extensive Pennsylvania Railroad system). During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln travelled through Lutherville on this railroad en route to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to deliver the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Less than two years later, on April 21, 1865, Lincoln's funeral train also passed through Lutherville on its way from Washington, D.C. to his final resting place at Springfield, Illinois.[7][8] The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) operated long-distance passenger trains from Baltimore over the line to Chicago, St. Louis, and Buffalo as late as the 1960s. The former PRR Lutherville freight and passenger station on Railroad Avenue is now a private residence.
Lutherville historic markerOak Grove, the home of Lutherville founder John Morris, in 1872Octagon House, built in 1855
The oldest section of Lutherville dates back to 1852, when it was founded by two Lutheran ministers as a planned community, anchored by a Lutheran seminary and church. The land was originally part of the vast Hampton Estate of Charles Ridgely, from whom it was purchased in 1851.[9]
The two ministers, Benjamin Kurtz and John Morris, named the community after the 16th-century German reformer Martin Luther.[9] The Lutherville Female Seminary, as it was initially called when chartered in 1853, was built near the tracks of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad, a forerunner of the Northern Central Railway. In 1895, the institution was renamed the Maryland College for Women. Following a devastating fire in 1911, the college was rebuilt and continued in operation until 1952. Its campus is now an adult congregate living facility, College Manor.
St. Paul's Lutheran Church, started in 1856 by John Morris. The present stone sanctuary was built in 1898.
St. John's Methodist Church, built in 1869.
Church of the Holy Comforter, an Episcopal church built in 1888.
Oak Grove, the house of Lutherville founder John Morris, built in 1852 on Morris Avenue. Filmmaker John Waters lived in the Oak Grove house with his family as a teenager in the 1960s.[11] Some of Waters' earliest filmmaking efforts took place at the house.[12]
Octagon house on Kurtz Avenue, built of concrete in 1855 by another Lutheran minister who also served as the town's postmaster.