what was calvert county like 20 years ago and today (Baltimore: hotels, new home)

[twinbeach2128]

just wondering what it looked like then and now

[JaBradshaw]

20-30 years ago, no one lived there. I mean tobacco fields were everywhere (before the state buyout) I mean the Tobacco leaf is on the county's flag! It was very rural and sparsely populated, mostly by descendants of freed slaves. Most of the development came during the white flight from PG.

[StuartSlate]

Originally Posted by JaBradshaw

20-30 years ago, no one lived there. I mean tobacco fields were everywhere (before the state buyout) I mean the Tobacco leaf is on the county's flag! It was very rural and sparsely populated, mostly by descendants of freed slaves. Most of the development came during the white flight from PG.

Not sure where you get this information but, as an eyewitness, I can assure others that there was more going on in Calvert County 20 to 30 years ago than simply a population of resident descendants of slaves and white-flighters from PGC.

My girlfriend and future wife moved from Baden to Barstow in 1979. No doubt, the area was very rural then. I bet that immediate area is still quite rural now. We spent wonderful times living in the back of an old 1800s plantation house.

Some time after we married, we built a brand new home above Randall’s Cliff (Chesapeake Beach zip code) on Christianna Parran Rd. in Calvert. There were many white people (not from PGC) and many black people in Calvert then. My house was next to a man’s home (black man for those keeping score). whose father had purchased their 70 acres in 1952 for less than I paid for our new home on one acre. This was early 80s time frame.

Much of the action in Calvert back in the 70s early 80s was centered on North and Chesapeake beaches. Those old beach cottages you see in North Beach now were there then and many were deteriorating from neglect. At that time those beaches were the hangouts for motorcycle gangs who, along with the getting-run-down beaches, made the area an eyesore to some and an area with personal safety issues for many.

I don’t want to write a book. This is only a very brief description of some factors of life in Northern Calvert 25 – 30 years ago from one person, me. You can no doubt get a wider picture from someone who grew up and lived in Calvert his or her whole lives

[JaBradshaw]

^ There's still nothing really going on in Calvert. I also never said it was an all-black community, I just meant it had very few people, and traditionally, much more than 20-30 years ago, it was a predominantly black area, with descendants of freed slaves.

[StuartSlate]

Originally Posted by twinbeach2128

just wondering what it looked like then and now

For TwinBeaches2128 and anyone else interested in a historical perspective of Maryland, I know of a book you might find helpful.

In ’89 or ’90 I took a course at PGCC called ‘Physical and Cultural History of Maryland’. It was an excellent course and used as it’s text a book published in 1986 by Johns Hopkins Press titled “Maryland Lost and Found – People and Places From Chesapeake to Appalachia”. It is an excellent book with a perspective of a cultural historian of 20 years ago. A Washington Post writer named Eugene L. Meyer wrote this book and if still in print would be an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn about what Maryland used to be like – including the bad old days of race issues - especially those in Southern Maryland. The book is less than 250 pages and is an easy read.

However, if I recall, missing from this book is any discussion of immigration. In 1986 the immigration issue had not ripened to such a degree as to warrant entry (IMO). So, with that one caveat, I feel it is still relevant and I highly recommend this book.

[twinbeach2128]

GREAT thanks for the help i will search for the book thank you!!

[StuartSlate]

Originally Posted by StuartSlate

...anyone else interested in a historical perspective of Maryland, I know of a book you might find helpful...

I am sure you will find this but here’s some more info from that author…

"Maryland Lost and Found...Again," published by Woodholme House (Baltimore) in May 2000 and reissued in 2003 by Tidewater Publishers, is an expanded, updated and illustrated paperback edition of "Maryland Lost and Found: People and Places from Chesapeake to Appalachia" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). My second book, "Chesapeake Country," was published in 1990 by Abbeville Press (New York) and is now in its fifth printing...”

[PeteU]

I grew up for 18 years in Calvert County but moved to Florida this past decade. Nonetheless, my parents still live there, so I come back to visit often.

Twenty years ago, Calvert County was just becoming suburbanized--it was more rural, but with a hint of things to come.

Route 2-4 had just been dualized down through St. Leonard, and they were working on the last leg of dual highway down to Solomons. But through Lusby it was still a two lane road.

Prince Frederick was still the shopping hub of the county, but with a lot less choices. Just a Super Fresh (which became the recently defunct Farmer's Market) and Safeway as grocery choices. Fox Run Shopping Center with Giant had not been built yet. The movie theater was brand new. Fast food was McDonalds and Hardees (now the KFC)--that was it. There were no chain full service restaraunts that I could think of. (I do miss the Emperor's Delight chinese restaraunt dearly, however.) There was no K-Mart or Wal-Mart, just an Ames (which was similar to the Marts but with less selection. Now it's the medical office building in the Calvert Village Shopping Center). There were no hotels in Prince Frederick.

The towns of Dunkirk, Lusby and Solomons didn't have all the shopping or food choices they do now. Solomons was just becoming a weekend hotspot as opposed to a sleepy fishing village, but I think the Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn were just being built.

There were just two high schools--Calvert and Northern--as neither Patuxent High nor Hunningtown High had yet to be built. There were just three middle schools, Northern, Calvert and Southern, and less elementary schools as well.

All in all, it was more laid back and less suburbanized. More farms (growing tobacco) and less subdivisions. Thankfully, I think planning in Calvert hasn't been as bad as I feared--I would be worried the county would be ugly sprawl central by now, but you still get a sense of the old rural face of the county, some suburbanization no withstanding. Waldorf and Lexington Park have fared much worse in that department. I hope Prince Frederick and the other towns in Calvert retain a soul while still offering their choices.

[twinbeach2128]

WOW thanks soooo much on that detailed answer thank you

[PeteU]

How long have you lived in the county, TwinBeach?