Washington County, Maryland is included in the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area. The closes states to Washington County is west Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee. The western portions of the Province of Maryland (including present Washington County) were incorporated into Prince George's County in 1696. This original county included six current counties. The first to be created was Frederick, separated from Prince George's County in 1748. Following independence, the sovereign State of Maryland formed Washington County on September 6, 1776, by the division of Frederick County. At the same time, a portion
Arts and culture of Maryland of two venues: the "Mansion" and the "Music Center." English is the most widely spoken language; however, Spanish is spoken in small regions within the Washington, DC - Baltimore corridor. 87.4% of the population speaks only English at home, while 4.7% speak Spanish. The remaining 7.9% are composed of 15 other reported languages, with French being the most common and Arabic being the least common. Southern Maryland, the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland have Southern accents and are influenced by southern culture. There are several music festivals in Maryland. A jazz festival is held in Silver Spring on the second