Maryland Route 261

Maryland Route 261
Maryland Route 261 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDSHA and Town of North Beach
Length:	12.86 mi (20.70 km)
Existed:	1930 – present
Tourist routes:	Roots and Tides Scenic Byway
Major junctions
South end:	MD 263 near Parran
	MD 260 in Chesapeake Beach
North end:	MD 778 in Friendship
Location
Counties:	Calvert, Anne Arundel
Highway system
Maryland highway system Interstate US State Scenic Byways ← MD 260 MD 262 →

Maryland Route 261 (MD 261) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 12.86 miles (20.70 km) from MD 263 near Parran north to MD 778 at Friendship. MD 261 connects Prince Frederick with and serves as the main street through the Chesapeake Bay beach communities of Chesapeake Beach and North Beach in northeastern Calvert County and Rose Haven in southeastern Anne Arundel County. The highway was constructed from north of its present terminus through Chesapeake Beach in the early 1930s. The road was built as MD 613 east from Friendship in the mid-1930s and extended east to Rose Haven in the late 1940s. MD 261 was extended south to its present terminus near Parran and north through North Beach to Rose Haven in the mid-1950s. MD 261 took over MD 613 west to Friendship in the early 1960s.

MD 261 begins at MD 263 (Plum Point Road) between Prince Frederick and Plum Point and northeast of the hamlet of Parran. The highway heads northeast as two-lane Willows Road and meets the western end of Breezy Point Road, which for several hundred feet east of the intersection is MD 764. At its intersection with county-maintained Willows Road, which heads east toward the shore, MD 261 continues north as Bayside Road. The highway begins to parallel the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay as it passes through the Chesapeake Beach facility of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in the bayside community of Randle Cliff. MD 261 enters the town of Chesapeake Beach and passes through forested Bayfront Park before entering the street grid in the southern part of the town. The highway passes the Chesapeake Beach Railway Station, which is preserved as a museum, immediately before crossing Fishing Creek. MD 261 gains a center turn lane from the creek crossing to its intersection with MD 260 (Chesapeake Beach Road) in the center of town.