President John F. Kennedy once dubbed Washington, D.C. as the city with "southern efficiency and northern charm." Ironically, the reverse can be said of one of its major satellite suburbs, Bowie.

Several decades ago, Bowie was merely a small town in sleepy Southern Maryland. Tobacco farms and silos dotted rolling hills and forests, occasionally interspliced by a road or railway station. Today, Bowie is the third-largest, most-rapidly growing city in the state. New franchises and hotels line freshly paved highways, allowing prospective residents and travelers to tour the city with ease. Sprawling houses echo the town's booming...