Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Waldorf is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Charles County, Maryland. It is 23 miles (37 km) south-southeast of Washington, D.C. The population of the census-designated area only (excluding St. Charles) was 22,311 at the 2000 census. Waldorf was settled before 1900 as a rural crossroads with a train station and was called "Beantown" after a local family. Waldorf is now largely subsumed by the large planned community of St. Charles.Waldorf is either named after the town of Walldorf, Germany, or has a similar derivation: that is, either a German word meaning "forest village," or named after the Waldenses, a 12th Century religious sect. Once a tobacco market village, it came to prominence in the 1950s as a gambling destination after slot machines were legalized in Charles County in 1949. The boom lasted until 1968 when gambling wasonce again outlawed.