The University of Maryland has been the focal point of College Park since it opened in 1856 as the Maryland Agricultural College.
Then, it was just a small agricultural school that hosted more soldiers on either side of the Civil War than it did students. In its first decade of existence, the school flirted with bankruptcy until the state legislature assumed half-ownership of the school in 1866.
Today, over 150 years later, University of Maryland employs more than 15,000 people and is one of the top public research institutions in the country. It is the largest employer in College Park, whose population is just over 32,000 people.