5 Things You Must Do in Waldorf

Waldorf Car Rental

Waldorf (population 75,000) is an unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland. It began before 1900 as a rural crossroads with a train station, and was called "Beantown" after a local family. Waldorf is now largely subsumed by the large planned community of St. Charles.
It is predominantly a bedroom community for many residents who work in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, especially Andrews Air Force Base.
 
1 –   St. Charles Towne Centre: This major, recently remodeled shopping mall draws shoppers and diners from Maryland, parts of Washington and Northern Virginia, causing Waldorf to be called the "shopping capital of Southern Maryland." St. Charles Towne Center is anchored by Dick's Sporting Goods, Macy's, Macy's Home Store, JC Penney, Kohl's, and Sears, and has more than 130 specialty stores.

2 –   Buy direct from a local farm: Even though Waldorf is a rapidly developing urban city, it is surrounded by farms. The three major area farms are Shlagel Farms, a major strawberry farm that also offers vegetables, flowers, and Angus beef; Cedar Hill farms, specializing in soybeans, turkeys, and cattle; and Middleton Manor Farms, featuring landscape contractors and designers, sod, plants, trees, flowers, and seeds.

3 –   Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum:  The museum facility is behind an exhibit building in a metal barn that the 19th century physician’s descendant Joseph Mudd erected to display antique farm tools, various old hand tools, horse-drawn farm machinery, and two walking plows.

4 –   Attend an old-time tobacco auction before it’s too late: Ten miles south of Waldorf is the Maryland Tobacco Auction House. With the tobacco industry in decline and Maryland lawmakers discouraging tobacco farming in the state with a buyout program, this may be the last year many Southern Maryland farmers will sell their crop at the annual three-week tobacco auction. The auctioneer tosses out proposed bids in a sing-song voice for the tobacco bales before him. Bidders’ raised fists mean they're willing to buy the tobacco at the price the auctioneer has just reached.

5 –   Thomas Stone National Historic Site: Thomas Stone, signer of  the Declaration of Independence, purchased this plantation in 1770. Visitors can tour the restored plantation home, stroll across the grounds amid historic farm buildings, or travel the old farm trace roads. The park contains the restored home of Stone, outbuildings and family cemetery. A visitor center features exhibits and an orientation film.