--- title: Whatever Happened to … the Knox Boxes? date: 2025-05-13T05:30:00-04:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/whatever-happened-to-the-knox-boxes" section: Articles --- # Whatever Happened to … the Knox Boxes? *May 13, 2025* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10) > Off-Campus Apartments Were At Once Beloved and Bemoaned *Knox Box Demolition 11092014 5510 1920x1080 — The off-campus residences known as Knox Boxes housed UMD students—and their parties—since the 1950s. Most of them were demolished in 2015 to make room for the Terrapin Row development.* For more than a half-century around College Park, two words were synonymous with “Animal House”-style undergraduate debauchery: Knox Boxes. The squat brick four-unit apartment buildings that populated the area between Knox Road and Guilford Road west of Baltimore Avenue were famous for being cheap, grungy and seemingly able to fit all of one’s freshman floormates. (This writer attended at least one Knox Box toga party that would have made John “Bluto” Blutarsky feel right at home.) “For a lot of kids, a Knox Box apartment was your first taste of independence,” said Dan Reed ’09, a city planner who’s regional policy director for [Greater Greater Washington](https://ggwash.org/), a site that focuses on transportation, housing and land-use issues in the Washington, D.C., area. “It was the first time you could pick your roommates, have parties and not have to worry about an RA.” *\[Related: [The Lost Haunts of Route 1](https://terp.umd.edu/the-lost-haunts-of-route-1)\]* *archival photo of cars parked outside a Knox Box — Cars parked in front of the Knox Boxes in 1995. (Photo courtesy of The Diamondback/University Archives)* **Sidebar note:** This story is part of the “Whatever Happened to …” series, which scopes out the histories and fates of aspects of the UMD campus and experience that no longer exist. Have an idea for a future subject? Email writer Sala Levin at . **Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community) **Tags:** [Whatever Happened to](https://today.umd.edu/topic/whatever-happened-to), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)