Harper's Choice, Columbia, Maryland

Harper's Choice
Village
Hobbit's Glen, a community within Harper's Choice.
Country	United States
State	Maryland
City	Columbia
Established	1967
Named for	Robert Goodloe Harper

Harper's Choice is one of the ten villages that comprise Columbia, Maryland. It lies in the northwest part of Columbia and consists of the neighborhoods of Longfellow, Swansfield, and Hobbit's Glen and had a December 1998 population of 8,695.

Harper's Choice is named for Robert Goodloe Harper, a South Carolina representative who relocated to Baltimore to practice law. He was part of the Federalist mobs that stabbed, tarred and feathered British loyalists in Baltimore in June 1812. He later served in the War of 1812, Maryland State Senate, and United States Senate. He lived on Oakland Manor, where he was buried, and his grave was moved to Baltimore to make way for the Columbia development.

The Longfellow community was named for the American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the street names are from his works. Hobbit's Glen was taken from the works of English author J. R. R. Tolkien, along with the street names. Swansfield's name was inspired by the etching The Swan by James McNeill Whistler, and the street names derive from the works of Winslow Homer.

The majority of Harper's Choice is built on the original Carroll slave plantation tract Doughoregan Manor. The Harper family farm "Jericho" was built on a portion of the estate, and sold by the Harper family between 1962 and 1964 to the Rouse Company before the announcement of the Columbia project. Clarence Bassler sold 63 acres of his farm in 1963, with George Bassler selling 140 the next year, retaining land for the Harper's Choice Village Center.

Home sites were sold by Howard Research and Development (Rouse) to larger homebuilders. Levitt & Sons, known for building Levittown, New York, bought land for over 600 units but halted construction in 1970 at 151 homes due to code violations. In August 1971, Harper's Choice Village Center opened with housing above shops. In 1978, the village suffered from a string of arson attacks, including 26 in a two-day period from a local resident. By the 1990s, the village center shops were in decline with little investment from the Rouse Company. In 2004, MS-13 gang activity was reported in the neighborhood.