Charles County, Maryland  Charles County is a county in south central Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 146,551. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. Charles County is part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Southern Maryland region. Charles County was created in 1658 by an Order in Council. There was also an earlier Charles County from 1650 to 1653, sometimes referred to in historic documents as Old Charles County. In April 1865, John Wilkes Booth made his escape through Charles County after shooting President Abraham Lincoln. He was on his way to Virginia. On April 28, 2002, a tornado cut through the county and destroyed much of downtown La Plata. The county has a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places. Among them are Green Park and Pleasant Hill, home of the Green and Spalding Families. On December 4, 2004, an arson took place in the development of Hunters Brooke, a few miles southeast of Indian Head. It was the largest residential arson in Maryland history. Owing to the considerable voting power of its large number of freedmen following the Civil War, and later its growth as a suburban area, Charles County was for a long time solidly Republican. The only Democrat to carry Charles County until 1956 was Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, although Alf Landon and Wendell Willkie defeated Roosevelt in the next two elections by a combined margin of just 50 votes. Since the turn of the millennium, Charles County has become reliably Democratic, although not as overwhelmingly so as other parts of Maryland's Washington, D.C. suburbs. Charles County is only one of two counties in the nation to have voted for Al Gore in 2000 after voting for Bob Dole in 1996, along with Orange County, Florida. Charles County is governed by county commissioners, the traditional form of county government in Maryland. There are five commissioners. , they are:  Charles County is entirely within the 5th Congressional District, which also includes Calvert, St. Mary's, and parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. The current representative is Democratic House Majority Leader and (former House Minority Whip) Steny H. Hoyer. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of , of which is land and (29%) water. In its western wing, along the southernmost bend in Maryland Route 224, Charles County contains a place due north, east, south, and west of the same state—Virginia.