Maryland Route 272 - Route Description

Route Description

MD 272 begins at a parking lot at the trail head for the Turkey Point Light within Elk Neck State Park. The state highway heads north as two-lane Turkey Point Road through a residential area before returning to the state park property. MD 272 passes through several curves and passes by access roads to the Elk River and Northeast River areas of the state park. The state highway emerges from the state park just before an intersection with Elk River Lane, which access Old Elk Neck Road that leads northeast toward Elkton. MD 272 curves north toward North East, passing through forest with scattered residences. The state highway passes by old alignments in the form of Arrants Road, Old Log Cabin Road, and Hance Point Road.

MD 272 splits into a one-way pair featuring Mauldin Avenue northbound and Main Street southbound immediately before entering the town of North East. Main Street, which is one lane with parking on both sides, passes by St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church. Mauldin Avenue has two lanes. Both directions intersect MD 7 (Cecil Street) and cross North East Creek before the one-way pair comes together, with Main Street heading north to a dead end before MD 272, now named Mauldin Avenue, curves northwest to cross the Amtrak Northeast Corridor and leave the town limits. The state highway passes through a commercial area around its intersection with US 40 (Pulaski Highway), where the highway's name changes to North East Road. MD 272 curves north to collect the old alignment, Rogers Road. The old alignment splits to the northwest as Nazarene Camp Road as the present alignment crosses over CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision. The old alignment parallels the current highway as Maryville Road, which hits a dead end just south of MD 272's partial cloverleaf interchange with I-95 (John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway), within which MD 272 is a four-lane divided highway.

North of I-95, MD 272's old alignment appears as Old Bayview Road in the village of Bay View, where the state highway reduces to an undivided two-lane road and intersects MD 274 (Joseph Biggs Memorial Highway) and the entrance to Cecil College. After collecting the northern end of Old Bayview Road, MD 272 crosses North East Creek parallel with the Gilpin's Falls Covered Bridge. The state highway heads north through farmland and the village of Zion, where Old Zion Road forms the old alignment. MD 272 continues north to Calvert, where the highway intersects Brick Meetinghouse Road, the old alignment of MD 273 that leads to the East Nottingham Friends Meetinghouse, as well as current MD 273 (Telegraph Road). MD 272's old alignment through Calvert, Quaker Lane on the south and Walnut Garden Road on the north, passes by the Elisha Kirk House and Calvert Manor. MD 272 continues north as Chrome Road to the Pennsylvania state line, where Chrome Road continues north as PA 272 toward Chrome and Nottingham.