It is bordered by Gambrills to the east, Severn to the north, Fort Meade to the west, and Crofton to the south.

In 1840, the steam-powered Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad (A&ER) was built across a sparsely settled farming community that would later become Odenton.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Union soldiers guarded this railroad line because it was the only link between the North and the nation's capital.

Rail traffic through Baltimore had been disrupted by southern sympathizers, so supplies, mail and soldiers flowed through Annapolis and west Anne Arundel County to Washington.

[citation needed] The town of Odenton, nicknamed "The Town a Railroad Built" by Catherine L. O'Malley,[7] was formed in 1868 with the construction of the Baltimore Potomac (B&P) Railroad connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Where the B&P crossed the A&ER, a train station and telegraph office were constructed and named for Oden Bowie, president of the B&P and former governor of Maryland.

The Watts and Murray general stores served railroad workers and farmers, and in 1871 a post office was established.

A town grew near the junction, houses were built for railroad workers, a Methodist church was dedicated in 1891 and a grade school opened in 1892.

Small villages developed around these various railroad lines, but none amounted to more than a cluster of shops and homes around a train station and post office.

In nearby Woodwardville, where the B&P crossed the Little Patuxent River, A. G. Woodward was the postmaster and operated a general merchandise store in a village of 50 people.

Canneries, primarily for tomatoes, were built in many locations in Anne Arundel County, including Odenton and Woodwardville.

The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad provided public transportation to central Maryland.

The Epiphany Chapel and Church House at Fort Meade was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

All of this, as well as the suburban expansion of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have transformed Odenton from a farmland region to a business, residential and industrial center in Anne Arundel County.

[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 14.8 square miles (38.3 km2), all of it land.