city, Montgomery county, central Maryland, U.S., on Sligo Creek. It was founded in 1883 by real estate developer Benjamin F. Gilbert along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track as a northern residential development for Washington, D.C. (Washington) The Seventh-day Adventists (Seventh-day Adventist) arrived in the 1900s and made Takoma Park their headquarters (later moved to neighbouring Silver Spring). They founded Washington Training Institute (now Columbia Union College), a sanitarium (now Washington Adventist Hospital), and other institutions. The Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College was opened in 1950. Inc. town, 1890; city, 1948. Pop. (1990) 16,700; (2000) 17,299.