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Druid Hill Park’s 150th birthday
October celebration This year, the park that was an oasis for many Baltimore childhoods will celebrate its 150th year. From Oct. 12 to 16, the Friends of Druid Hill Park will host an anniversary celebration to reconnect those who once loved the park and introduce a new generation to its 745 acres, which include the 15-acre Baltimore City Zoo, 135 acres of woodland, miles of carriage and bridle paths, a lake and picnic groves. Druid Hill is the third-oldest public park in the country, behind New York’s Central Park and Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. And its zoo is the third-oldest in the country. The Baltimore Park Commission purchased what had once been the privately owned Druid Hill estate in 1860. Designed
OCTOBER 2010
I N S I D E …
PHOTO BY FRANK KLEIN
By Carol Sorgen For many Baltimoreans, Druid Hill Park was virtually their own backyard. In the summer of 1948 when Leona Holly was 15 years old, she would leave her house almost every day for her “second home,” Druid Hill Park. “It was my favorite destination,” the now 76-year-old Baltimore City resident recalled. “When you didn’t have a lot of money, you could always go to the park.” Holly — sometimes accompanied by her brother — would stroll beneath the large gray archway that is the entrance to Druid Hill Park at the intersection of Madison Avenue and Cloverdale Road. Following the red brick path, she would walk toward the reservoir, pass the white marble statue of Christopher Columbus, continue walking past what was then called the “Colored People’s Pavilion,” past the “Colored People’s Tennis Courts,” to her destination, the “Colored People’s Swimming Pool.” Though Holly and her friends were not allowed in the “White Only Swimming Pool,” they enjoyed the swimming, the water pageants and the competitions. “It never bothered me that there were segregated pools,” she said. “It felt as though I had my own private pool.” Today, fortunately, the segregated facilities are gone and the old “colored pool” is used to house Baltimore City police horses. The “white only pool” is now open to everyone, as are the tennis courts and park pavilions.
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LEISURE & TRAVEL
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ARTS & STYLE
Harriet Lynn (left) and Leona Holly, pictured in front of the Druid Hill Park conservatory, both fondly recall spending childhood days roaming the park and enjoying its natural and man-made wonders. Druid Hill is celebrating its 150th anniversary this October, with a week-long schedule of activities.
to replicate an English garden, the highlight of the estate was the mansion house, built in 1801. A number of structures date to the 18th century, when the estate was still in private hands, and other now-historic buildings that were added when the grounds were converted to a public park. Some of the more notable examples are Orem’s Way Station, built in 1864; the main entrance gates at Madison Avenue, built in 1867-68; the Chinese pagoda, built in 1865; and the conservatory, built in 1888.
Baltimore,” said Anne Draddy, co-author with Eden Unger Bowditch of the book, Druid Hill Park, published by History Press in 2008. Draddy, who works for Baltimore City, says she intimately knows the park, which she calls a “gem.” Whether because of its land traceable back to the Susquehannock Indians, or the park’s involvement in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, or the landmark integrated tennis match held there in 1948 despite its segregated facilities, the park is important not just to the history of Baltimore but to the country as well, Draddy said.
Steeped in history “Druid Hill Park is the heart of historic
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