Stars have aligned for progress in city

William and Thomas Towson, who farmed the fields along present-day Joppa and York roads, wouldn’t recognize the community that bears their name today. Towsontown was born as something of a way station for farmers driving herds of livestock and wagons of grain and vegetables south to the Port of Baltimore, and in the 250 years hence, the community of 55,000 has participated in a boom-and-bust pattern recognizable to small cities along the Eastern Seaboard, Hagerstown included.

By TIM ROWLAND

January 20, 2013