West Lanham Hills

EARLY COMMUNITY HISTORY-1944

Prepared for presentation by Jim Gunther

Back in 1944, Lee Albert, a West Lanham Hills resident, prepared a history of our community up to that time. The community was only four years old and his history gives us a small glimpse into the early steps our community took to get started as a viable and thriving place to live.

It goes without saying that the world was a different place at that time. World War II was raging and our community was unable to complete some of its activities due to the fact that manpower and materials of all types were being diverted to the war effort.

At that time our community did not benefit from the many public services we have today. Community residents had to fend for themselves when it came to such basic items as street maintenance and trash collection. There was no public sewer system. Living conditions were primitve, to say the least.

So let's step back to 1944 and see what Mr. Albert has to tell us about our community in those early days.


THE HISTORY OF WEST LANHAM HILLS FROM 1939 to 1944

By Lee Albert, July 1, 1944

In the year 1939 there were several acres of ground purchased by Philip Clark and Mr. Brunk for the purpose of constructing a large number of economical homes suitable for the Mr. average citizen, which make up this vast Country of ours.

This ground was laid off in lots, and the first house was started in April 1940. As the ground is located on hills and valleys just west of Lanham, Md., Mr. Clark decided to give it the name of "West Lanham Hills.”

It is a very picturesque spot, with its beautiful trees and flowers which nature has provided in such abundance in this community, shrouding the little white cottages erected in their midst. It is located nine miles from our Capital on Defense Highway.

The first family to occupy a home here was Mr. and Mrs. John Lacy and three children, Johnny, Isobel and Francis, on June 19, 1940, located at 7715 Frederick Road.

From then on, new families were moving in every few days.

When this got to be quite a large community, Mr. Lacy and Mr. Harold
Mitchell decided they should call the people together and try to form
an Association.

A meeting was called, and the first meeting was held at Blythe’s Garage in Lanham, March 11, 1941, with forty-seven families represented. They elected the following officers: Ernest Foldi, President, John Lacy, Vice President, John Weaver, Secretary, Mr. F. C. Williams, Treasurer. There were sixty ballots cast.

A collection was taken up, which netted the sum of $5.20 with which to carry on the work of organizing and transaction of business.

When the Association was well organized, committees were appointed to improve the community, such as mail delivery to the door, garbage disposal, sewage, shopping center, street l1ghts, bus shelter, better bus service, fire house, community hall, street signs, playgrounds and organize Boy and Girl Scout Troops.

All Committee members worked hard. As you will see later, their efforts were not in vain. By-laws were drawn up and adopted by the Association.

In June 1941, The Greyhound Bus line put on more busses to accommodate this growing community.

At the June 1941 meeting, Mr. Cash of the Bladensburg Fire Department was present, and he suggested that the Association form an auxiliary fire department. He said their firemen would be willing to come out and train the men in fire fighting when needed.

During August 1941, work on the sewer was started.

The August 1941 meeting was held at the Lanham Speedway. Several interesting persons were there, among which were the honorable Ralph Powers, of the House of Delegates, who welcomed the citizens of West Lanham Hills into Prince George’s County. Also present was Henry Cord, member of State Central Committee, who gave a talk.

Mr. Brice Bow1e was there to take our declaration as citizens.

The Honorable John S. White, Speaker of the House of Delegates, gave a talk on the entrance to Prince George’s County.

Mr. William A. Carson, Chairman of the County Commissioners, spoke about the special taxing area bill.

In November 1941, we had our first door-to-door mail delivery.

At our meeting on January 5, 1942, the treasurer reported $56.80 in the treasury. President Lacy announced that he had been made air raid warden, and gave a talk on air raid prevention, and asked for volunteer block wardens.

At our April meeting, election of officers was held. Mr. Koch was
elected President, Mr. Hilsey Vice President, Mrs. Hazel Mitchell
Secretary and Mr. Howard Taylor Treasurer.

Mr. Carson, County Commissioner, was guest of the evening, and gave a talk on the special tax area.

The Treasurer reported the sum of $45.35 in the treasury and a membership of 86 families.

At the June 1, 1942 meeting, Mr. I. Keane, Assistant State’s Attorney
was present, and was asked to become our attorney at a retaining fee of $100.00 per year. He accepted and served for the following two years, at which time it was decided that an attorney was not needed any longer. He accomplished much good for the community and cleared up many legal entanglements.

At a special meeting held on June 15, 1942, attorney Keane gave a report of his findings with respect to the poor construction of the streets that had been laid 1n our development, and promised that there would something done about it, as the Loyola Bank of Baltimore was holding $6000.00 for curbing, $7000.00 for maintenance and $l500.00 for street lights, in escrow.

At the July 1942 meeting, Mrs. Bunyea Chairman of the Membership
Committee, reported 78 new members.

Pres1dent Koch stated that he had 200 beetle traps and that anyone wishing to rent them could do so.

At the August 3, 1942 meeting, the Treasurer reported $65.65 in the
Treasury and 129 members.

Mr. Cord was present and the speaker of the evening. He gave a talk on voting.

At the September 14, 1942 meeting, Mr. Simmons informed us that Mr. Finn would give the Community a strip of land 100 feet long and 40 feet wide on which to erect a bus shelter.

At this time there were 133 members in the Association.

At the meeting held in December 1942, a suggestion was made that a raffle be held, giving a War Bond and stamps as prizes, the proceeds to be used to pay the retaining fee for our Attorney, Mr. Keane.

At the February 8, 1943 meeting, the discussion of street signs was again brought up and as a result, Mr. W1lls was authorized to proceed to order the materials for the street signs.

Prior to this time, petitions had been signed requesting that our
Community be set aside as special taxing area, and these had been
accepted.

So at this meeting there were d1scussions concerning garbage
collections under taxation, as the collection of garbage so far had
been most unsatisfactory, as private contractors were unable to obta1n
cooperation from the citizens.

At the March 1, 1943 meeting a letter was read stating that street lights would be installed as soon as material was available, which would probably be after the War.

At the April 19, 1943 meeting, the election of officers was the main
event. The following officers were elected: Erwin Looney, President,
John Lacy, Vice President, Mrs. Prentice, Secretary, Harvy Ray,
Treasurer.

Until this time, the volunteer firemen had not been very active and the equipment was turned over to the Association. Mr. Looney and Mr. Lacy began reorganization plans.

Mr. Joice was contacted and asked to act as Chief. Mr. Phillip Smith was asked to assist in getting organized. Soon there were quite a number of men interested who volunteered to be firemen, and with the equipment supplied by the Office of Civil Defense which included a trailer type pump which was too heavy to pull behind an automobile, we found it necessary to get a truck, and convert the pump from the trailer to being mounted on the truck.

Money had to be raised to buy a truck, a collection was solicited from
the citizens, and a couple of Bingos were held, which netted sufficient funds to buy the truck, as well as other badly needed equipment. The firemen worked hard at remodeling and mounting the pump on the truck and now can boast a first class volunteer department.

Mr. Looney, as soon as he was elected President, set out to raise funds to erect a bus shelter, which had been under discussion for several months previous, but which seemed to be difficult to get started.

He immediately started a house-to- house solicitation of $1.00 per family and with the assistance of a few active members of the Association were able to raise about $85.00, with which an incomplete bus stop and shelter were erected. However additional improvements had run the cost of the shelter to over $150.00.

The planning and landscaping were done by our highly esteemed citizen, Mr. Simmons, who continues to take great pride in its appearance.

At the May 1943 meeting a resolution was passed to sponsor Boy Scout troop. Mr. Harvey Ray, a former scout master and long associated with scout work, was appointed as chairman of a committee to organize the Boy Scouts of our community.

The question of street signs was again brought up. As Mr. Wills was not present and apparently the committee he was chairman of had for some reason failed to carry out its assignment of ordering the materials for the signs, it was requested that another committee be appointed.

Mr. Simmons asked that if he was authorized to order the lumber, he
would proceed to make and paint the signs. He was authorized to proceed at once, which he did.

At the June 7, 1943 meeting the committee for the bus shelter reported
that the shelter was up. The building had cost $85.00 so far and more
work was yet to be done.

Mr. Ray told the Association that a Boy Scout troop had been organized, and suggested that a cub troop be organized at once to take care of the smaller boys.

Mr. Ray was made Scout Master, and is a very capable person, having considerable experience with scout work.

Sewage was put in early in 1943, and in many places the pavement was cut for this purpose, and the patches put in by the Sanitary Commission have given way leaving large holes in the pavement.

The Association called the Sanitary Commission’s attention to this
condition and they promised to repair the holes, which they did.

Also, the street signs which had been agreed upon and which Mr. Simmons had taken the responsibility of ordering the material for and painting, were reported ready to be put up. This was a swell job and Mr. Simmons deserves a lot of credit for the many artistic jobs he turned out for the Association.

In July 1943 the main topic of discussion at the meeting was the
improvement of our streets.

In August 1943 the subject of sponsoring a senior Girl Scout troop was proposed and approved by the Association.

The September 1943 meeting was held at the intersection of Frederick Road and West Lanham Drive. The main feature of the evening was the presentation of the charter to the Boy Scout Troop by Frank Taylor, Scout Commissioner of Price George’s County. President Looney, acting on behalf of the Association, presented the troop a parade flag.

Several other Scout officials were present and gave talks, among which were Earl Connon, Mr. E. Hood, Mr. B. McKinstry and Mr. E. Mooney.

In October 1943, Mrs. Prentice presented her resignation as Secretary,
as they were moving away. Mrs. Whicker was elected in her place.

In the last two months there has been considerable work done on the park ways and they have been re-seeded, which all goes to make our community a more beautiful place to live in.

The Boy Scouts have started a scrap drive to help the War Effort. The
playgrounds committees are working hard, trying to obtain ground
suitable, so the children will have some place to play and not be on the streets.

At the November 1943 meeting the topics were streets and garbage collection. Present at the meeting were Mr. Carson, County Commissioner, Mr. Pohmer, County Engineer and Mr. Smith, Contractor.

The repair of our streets was discussed thoroughly and work was promised to start in a few days, which it did.

Garbage collection was promised as soon as we could get someone to take the job. This was accomplished and now we have garbage collection under the Special Taxing Area Law.

In February 1944 it was announced that Sunday school and church services are being held at the homes of Mrs. Berry and Mrs. Hankins each Sunday. For the small children Sunday School was being held at Mrs. Hitt's Home. The Treasurer reported the sum of $621.57 in the treasury.

In March 1944 the Association announced that fifty folding chairs had been bought, to be used for any entertainment or meetings. A
mimeograph machine was also purchased.

At the April 3, 1944 meeting the election of officers was held. Erwin
Looney was re-elected for a second term as President, Robert Barkdoll was re-elected Vice-President. Harvey Ray was re-elected Treasurer, second term. Lucy Whicker was re-elected Secretary.

The president announced that Mr. Simmons had set out the shrubbery
around the bus shelter.

Efforts are still being made to obtain grounds for a community hall and
playgrounds.

The Executive Committee has agreed to try having movies this summer, also a number of Bingos, for the purpose of raising funds for a hall.

In May 1944 the meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Tatros, we had a guest speaker, the Honorable Judge Osterman, who gave a fine talk on juvenile delinquency.

At the June 1944 meeting we were able to announce that the movies we were having each Wednesday evening were proving a grand success and the two Bingos we held were also a success.

At this time we estimate the population at about 800 residents within our community.