Fair Hill & the Open Space Fund

Fair Hill was acquired by the State in 1975 from the DuPont family. It was acquired using funds from Maryland’s Open Space program. Since its inception in 1969, Maryland citizens have funded PROGRAM OPEN SPACE through a dedicated state real estate transfer tax. When you buy a house or land, the state real estate transfer tax, 0.5% of the selling price for the property, is paid at settlement to a special fund for PROGRAM OPEN SPACE.

Fair Hill is a designated NRMA (Natural Resource Management Area). It is a unique and unspoiled rural landscape, offering a vast array of natural landscapes, habitats, flora and fauna, and extensive, in some cases rare, wildlife.

Park users today

The park is well used in all months of the year by hikers, equestrians, trail-running clubs, mountain bikers, bird watchers, nature lovers and cross-country skiers – to name a few!  Visitors to Fair Hill all share a common theme – they love the park for its peace & tranquility, its natural, unimproved beauty, its narrow forest trails, its creeks and its wide open meadows.

Fair Hill is often referred to as a jewel in the midst of a rapidly urban environment – open space is more and more at a premium as farmland is being transformed into housing. One of the founders of Fair Hill as we know it today, Edward L. Walls, is quoted on DNR’s website as saying  "People don't realize that, while a Natural Resource Management Area (NRMA) has many purposes, the land belongs to the citizens just like any state park, and offers tremendous outdoor experiences."

In 1997, hundreds of local citizens expressed a desire to ensure that future generations could enjoy the natural, cultural and recreational resources at Fair Hill for many years to come, in the creation of the Fair Hill Land Unit Plan. This plan states that there should be no commercial development of Fair Hill beyond the existing fairgrounds area, that its rural, unimproved nature should be preserved, and that it should be retained for future generations to enjoy it as we all do today.

The SaveFairHill team intends, with the help of local state delegates and other sponsors, to solidify the 1997 Land Unit Plan into law, to ensure our parkland is protected for many generations to come.