Van Lear is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The community is part of the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). Van Lear is located between Halfway and Williamsport.

Van Lear, Maryland
Community of Van Lear
Nickname(s):  The Manor, VL
Location in Maryland (Halfway location [Van Lear is next to Halfway])
Country	United States
State	Maryland
County	Washington
Founded	1962
Area
• City	8 km2 (3 sq mi)
Elevation	164 m (538 ft)
Population
• City	3,000
• Metro	257,619
	City Pop'n. is community estimate; Metro Pop'n. is of Metropolitan Hagerstown
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
Elevation is of nearby Hagerstown.

History

The Community of Van Lear was started in the late 1960s when a Hagerstown real estate agent, Lee Downey, started to sell tracts of his then rural land to developers. By the 1980s the Hagerstown area started to boom, so Downey made Van Lear Manor and Tammany Manor, the first two suburban neighborhoods in Van Lear.

Today

Today, Van Lear is a diverse residential mix of new and old, modern and historic, all side-by-side. In Van Lear's newer neighborhoods, larger modern homes are common.

Neighborhoods

• Van Lear Manor, the largest and first neighborhood.
• Tammany, another older neighborhood.
• Homewood, a housing complex for senior citizens.
• New Van Lear, a newer, somewhat large neighborhood filled with newer homes.
• Sterling Oaks, a new subdivision with middle to lower income housing.
• Bratton Hill, a small, new neighborhood with newer homes.
• New Tammany, a new middle-class neighborhood.

Sources

All of the information provided has been used with permission from the Van Lear Community Association.

This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2007)