Braddock Heights is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland, United States.

Colonel George Washington's use of the mountain pass on their way to Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War on April 29, 1755.

The picturesque view of the city of Frederick from Old Braddock, also known as "Fairview", elevation 550 feet (170 m), was the inspiration for Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to record in his 1862 journal: In approaching Frederick the singular beauty of its clustered spires struck me very much, so that I was not surprised to find Fair View laid down about this point on a railroad map.

I wish some wandering photographer would take a picture of the place, a stereoscopic one, if possible, to show how gracefully, how charmingly, its group of steeples nestles among the Maryland hills.

The town has a poetical look from a distance, as if seers and dreamers might dwell there.This journal entry was in turn an inspiration for Holmes' close friend John Greenleaf Whittier when composing the famous Civil War poem Barbara Fritchie.

Braddock Heights has been host to many national political figures, including Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Edwin Warfield, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Earl Warren, Ethel Kennedy, and (then) Senator Richard Nixon.

Braddock Heights was one of the first modern planned communities in the United States,[citation needed] and custom housing development has continued since 1901.

Following the end of World War II, and the decline of the amusement park, Braddock Heights' demographic changed from commercial summer boarding houses to that of an unincorporated community with permanent residents.

Braddock Heights, similar to the other Maryland cottage parks of Pen Mar and Glen Echo, has evolved into an artisans' community.

[4][5] Braddock Heights is said to be the roost of the Snallygaster, a chimeric bird-like creature claimed to be responsible for the disappearance of livestock, and the occasional Middletown Valley resident, since the mid-18th century.