While Preservation Maryland works across the state to preserve historic structures, communities, and stories, we frequently come across quirky bits of Maryland history. Maryland is home to many towns with unusual names, including Boring in Baltimore County.
Visit Boring and you’ll find the Boring Methodist Church, Boring Volunteer Fire Company, and the Boring Post Office. Each June, Boring hosts its annual Gas Engine Show and Flea Market, a time when the fire department exhibits old tractors, gas engines, and antique tractor pulls — machines that were used in the late twentieth century by Maryland’s farming communities. Attendees of the show can view a 1936 Dodge Boyer engine and a 1909 horse-drawn wagon.
The town was named after its postmaster, David Boring. Originally called Fairview, the name was changed after the post office was established in 1880, to differentiate from other Fairviews across the country.