Old Ellicott City may have gained a clock, but under its watch, something major disappeared. On Tuesday, your reporter drove by Tiber Park to see the TARDIS Little Free Library had flown away – but to where?
Fear not, Whovians and book-lovers of Howard County, the #HoCoTARDIS has landed in “New Earth” at Rockburn Park in Elkridge. Twenty years ago, April 15, 2006, The Tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant) embarked on his first full adventure in the TARDIS in the episode “New Earth.” Howard County’s TARDIS Little Free Library marked the occasion by taking its own journey to Elkridge, bringing the joy of books, imagination, and community connection to residents there.
“Allons-y! The #HoCoTARDIS has found a new home on New Earth,” said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. “That tiny blue structure first seen in Old Ellicott City’s Tiber Park really is bigger on the inside. It’s a traveling Little Free Library filled with thousands of stories than transverse time and designed to spark curiosity and bring people together through reading. As it continues its journey across Howard County, the Ship will help readers of all ages discover stories that inspire imagination, leisure, and connection.”
The Howard County TARDIS Little Free Library was inspired by the iconic TARDIS. For the uninitiated, the TARDIS is the time machine and spacecraft central to the wildly popular British science-fiction show Doctor Who. On the show, the machine’s exterior appears as a blue police box, and its name is an acronym for “Time and Relative Dimension In Space.”
After the box made its mysterious appearance in the late summer/early fall 2025 on Main Street in Old Ellicott City, neither shop owners nor Howard County officials seemed to know how or when it got there, who put it there, or its purpose. Finally, all was revealed in November 2025 when Ball held a press conference announcing that the TARDIS on Main Street was a Little Free Library. No ordinary Little Free Library, of course, but one that travels around the county giving residents a portal to the universe of infinite imagination.
Howard County has nearly 50 Little Free Libraries and residents can visit the #HoCoTARDIS at Rockburn Branch Park, located at 6105 Rockburn Branch Park Road, Elkridge, Maryland. Visitors should enter the park at its west entrance, as the TARDIS is near the historic white “Clover Hill” House uphill from the playground, near the disc golf course.
