By the time Europeans began to arrive in central Anne Arundel County in numbers, the Algonquians may have vacated the area due to persistent raids by more battle-hearty members of the Susquehannock tribe.

The Free School of Anne Arundel County was built in what was to become Davidsonville sometime between 1724 and 1746, when it was under full operation with John Wilmot as schoolmaster.

The original structure, expanded and restored, still stands today, is located in the community of Lavall, off Rutland Road, about one-half mile from Maryland Route 450, and is open for tours.

During the late 18th century, for example, Major William Brogden, once a soldier in the American Revolution, built the Roedown plantation,[4] once the home of the Marlborough Hunt Races, an annual steeplechase event attended by 5,000 spectators until discontinued by new owners.

The plantation itself dates to a 1664 land grant by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore to Mareen Duvall, a prominent French immigrant.

The current house known as Middle Plantation, located on Davidsonville Rd., includes several stages of construction dating as far back as 1790.

Davidsonville is among the best-preserved examples of this type of community remaining in the county; other comparable villages have been obliterated by subsequent development.