Howard County Courthouse, 1843

Historical marker location:

8360 Court Avenue, Ellicott City, Maryland

( Marker can be reached from Court Avenue.)

National Park Service Underground Railroad. Network to Freedom.

Maryland was home to the first African American woman to hold a patent: In 1885, Sarah E. Goode, an African American woman from Baltimore, became the first African American woman to hold a U.S. patent. Her invention was a folding cabinet bed, which was designed to save space in small apartments.