Enjoy a complimentary 2027 Heritage Area Calendar 📅 that highlights historic sites, local art, and outdoor places across gorgeous Prince George's County, Maryland! Each month features a snapshot of the landscapes that shape our communities and make Prince George's a great place to live, explore, and visit. By adding an optional donation, you’re helping us preserve and share the region’s cultural and historical heritage!📍Photography by Sarah M. Fritz. 📷

Anacostia Trails Heritage Area (ATHA) is a private 501c3 nonprofit that preserves and promotes the history, art, culture, and natural resources of Prince George's County, Maryland.20 Years of Service & SuccessSince being certified in 2001, we have hosted the state’s War of 1812 anniversary, published a book about historic US Route 1, and are currently partnering on a Mobile Museum and Civil Rights Trail focused on Prince George’s County African American history. Alongside these milestone projects, we also support local heritage sites by grantmaking, technical assistance, marketing, and sponsorships. Get to know us online or by stopping by our Heritage Center in the heart of hip and historic Hyattsville.What We're Doing Today & EverydayGRANTMAKINGATHA is a grantmaking organization with the honor of awarding $25,000 annually to creative, innovative, and engaging public history programs, special events, bike rides, and festivals, as well as research, digitization, and writing/editing to create new materials, exhibits, programs, and performances. We are also the local liaison for partners to access $5.1M annually in a competitive state heritage grant program administered by the Maryland Heritage Area Authority.STEWARDSHIPOver the past 20 years of our organization, we have been involved in countless projects resulting in public art, historic markers, and other amenities ⚊ and we hope that you've seen and used them! In order for ATHA to better maintain, repair, and/or update those amenities, we have launched a custom geo-located survey program that will allow us to inventory our signs and plan for repairs, replacements, and/or new signs where wayfinding or interpretation is lacking.ADVOCACYOur trails, parks, historic sites, museums, and other cultural assets need and deserve additional financial support and access to resources. ATHA is an advocate for additional state funds into Prince George's County for cultural tourism through several different funding mechanisms. We also take on specific advocacy issues on a case-by-case basis. Please note that we operate well within all advocacy regulations for non-profits and none of our actions are considered lobbying.ASSISTANCEATHA staff travel across Prince George's County and Maryland providing technical assistance to our non-profit, municipal, and business partners as they embark on important placemaking, historic preservation, and public history projects. This technical assistance includes expert guidance on grants, incentive programs, and connecting with skilled and allied contractors and service providers. How We'll Use Your GiftATHA is a private 501c3 non-profit in good standing with the State of Maryland and has earned a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Guidestar. Each year, we *must* match $150,000 or more in grants to keep us operational and effective. This allows us to retain professional staff, project and program consultants, and to continue to provide our current level of grantmaking, stewardship, assistance, and advocacy. Any funds beyond that threshold are used to expand programs, outreach, and staff.

The Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail is a community asset born out of the imagination of local residents, community organizations, and elected leaders. Over the length of its 4-miles of paved trails, many organizations and municipalities take the initiative to maintain, monitor, and enhance the trail. One of those organizations is the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area (ATHA), a 501c3 non-profit based Hyattsville, that helps unite our partners in an annual Trolley Trail Day celebration (held each year in June). Every other day of the year, ATHA is a voice for trail maintenance, safety, improvement, and extensions.

The Prince George’s County Civil Rights Trail is a public history project focused on regional sites and stories of the national Civil Rights Movement. Each sign details the experiences of Black Marylanders as they fought against segregation and for equality. We recognize that this struggle continues and believe that by illuminating these moments in history, we can increase cultural understanding and inspire acts of reconciliation.This project was funded by the National Park Service and the Maryland Historical Trust. The project is managed by Anacostia Trails Heritage Area/Maryland Milestones with support from the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Black History Program and the Prince George’s County History Consortium. Research and writing by Meagan Baco, Alexander Brooks, Nathan Dennies, and Leigh Walters.Special thanks to Civil War Trails, Doswell E. Brooks Elementary School, Frederick Douglass High School Alumni Association, The Griffin Estate, Hyattsville CDC, Laurel Historical Society, Laurel History Boys, Openbox9, Prince George’s County Historical Society, Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, St. Mark’s Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Town of Upper Marlboro Historic Committee.

We are committed to keeping in the public eye, the research, archaeology, and programs of our friends and partners in the local, regional, and statewide efforts of the War of 1812 bicentennial. These concerted efforts successfully funded and supported new and salient research, writing, illustrations, maps, and several archaeological investigations - information that is now considered critical in our understanding of the battle...its local impact and global implications.We do not want this history to again fade back into the annals of history!This website by Anacostia Trails Heritage Area is a collection of the research, events, and efforts made by many during that flurry of excitement and attention of the 200th Anniversary. As intended, those efforts resulted in signage, reports, educational materials, and research that remains incredibly relevant and accessible. Moreover, new research and interpretative efforts continue! In Spring 2024, the Maryland Historical Trust will submit to the National Park Service a National Register of Historic Places nomination of the War of 1812-era landscapes of Washington, DC and Prince George's County, Maryland. The University of Maryland is conducting the scholarly research needed to include the Town of Bladensburg on the NPS Network to Freedom and Anacostia Trails Heritage Area is working on a trail extension to Dueling Creek Natural Area.