Elkridge is located in present-day Howard County, Maryland, west of the Patapsco River, south of Route 1, and with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) running through the middle of the historic district.

[nb 1] It was a deep-water port, with a channel about 10 to 14 feet deep, that brought ships inland from the Chesapeake Bay.

[4][5] Native Americans lived north of the Elkridge Landing site in 1692 and rangers were appointed among the settlers to keep watch.

Inland tobacco farms increased productivity by rolling their own hogsheads to ports of Baltimore, Annapolis, and Elkridge.

[8] A 1753 law was enacted to prevent the further filling in of the Patapsco River's shipping channel at Elkridge Landing and up to Baltimore.

[11] On April 12, 1733, the Maryland General Assembly voted to make Elkridge Landing the town of Jansen-Town in what was then the County of Ann-Arundel.

Elkridge Landing is significant for its historic iron and shipping industries, role in development of the railroads in the 19th century, architecture and its archaeological potential.

[17] In 2015, the Howard County Council approved a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement for Riverwatch, a middle-income townhouse and apartment development built by the KB Companies in coordination with the Howard County Housing and Community Development on Furnace Avenue replacing a series of small historic single family homes in the neighborhood.