Page:Brunswick 100 Years of Memories.pdf/26

* The Brunswick High School Alumni Association plans to create a time capsule to be opened by the citizens of Brunswick a hundred years from now.

• A standout quilt has been engineered by Mrs. Jane Wilson, with squares made by friends of Brunswick; the theme is the history of Brunswick. Mrs. Wilson also did the quilting. The quilt will be auctioned and is expected to fetch quite a price.
• Brunswick History Days was held at the Museum in April. A Bluegrass festival was held in May. The annual Great Brunswick River Race was in June.
• The governor of Maryland has been invited to the opening program of the big week-end.

The staff of this book wishes Brunswick another healthful, happy one hundred years. We'll try to see you in 2090 A.D.

S - Janice W. Marsh
W-MMM

MARYLAND'S 350TH ANNIVERSARY -1984-

Maryland's founding year was 1634, when the first settlers arrived on the Ark and the Dove. Leonard Calvert founded Saint Mary's on Saint Clement's Island that year after buying the site from the Yaocomico Indians.

Brunswick joined with the county in this observation, and Brunswick also had its own local programs. Leona Sauser directed the setting up of a room-size exhibit with other towns at the Frederick Fairgrounds. Included were several large color drawings depicting Brunswick, a model train exhibit, a slide presentation, and other appropriate displays.

At Brunswick, the biggest attraction was the one-room school presentation by Duane and Lee Smith at the Brunswick Elementary School, including a "potbelly" stove. Visitors became students under Duane's tutelage.

A self-guided home tour was available, with directions, descriptions, and history. There was a display brought here by the B&O Museum in Baltimore. The Brunswick Museum was open, and other appropriate events were scheduled.

Both at Frederick and in Brunswick the turnout was disappointing, not the usual response. But those preparing both presentations enjoyed the process of creating the exhibits and the appreciative comments of those who came to see the results.

THE HILLS OF BRUNSWICK

"The hills are alive with the sound of music" was the appropriate title for Brunswick's observance of the State's 350th Anniversary in 1984: Brunswick was built on hills. What a change of topography for the families that had become comfortably situated on the flats along the Potomac until the railroad pushed them up! Up! UP!

Directly north of Berlin was Wenner's farm, where residences were built. The area is still called "Wenner's Hill."

To the extreme east, directly north of the westbound railroad yards, is "New York Hill," developed by the Real Estate and Improvement Co., from New York. But to get there one had to travel east on Potomac Street and negotiate the sharp curve at "Fitzgerald Hill," or "Fitzgerald Row" (a.k.a. "Dead Man's Corner). A Mr. Fitzgerald lived in that area.

Anyone living on Second Avenue beyond "D" Street had a veritable cliff to climb to his Linden Avenue residence on "Brick Yard Hill." This was named for the brick yard at the junction of two creeks near the Cooper residence at 209 Second Avenue. Linden's name was changed to Second Avenue after the great development of the 1980's. At one time this was just a rough, dirt hill. A set of wooden steps helped the walker until the steps deteriorated. Eventually the city graded and blacktopped the hill.

There may be some new Brunswick residents who do not know that the high school between 1913 and 1965 was located at the crest of Fourth Avenue - on "Sandy Hook Hill," which also includes Fifth and Sixth Avenues above "A" Street. Brunswick's only factory is nearby. Many families from Sandy Hook settled here when they migrated to Brunswick.

The area beyond Sandy Hook Hill, inching over toward Brick Yard Hill, was also called Gobblers' Knob, alluding to the wild turkeys that made themselves heard in all directions.

Just east of City Park is Seventh Avenue, a hill so steep that the macadam dead-ends at the top before reaching "A" Street. Three houses are located there. But in an earlier day, this was called "Catholic Church Hill." The church was there before 1917, but eventually burned - in the late 30' s or early 1940's, and that bit of Brunswick's history is deeply buried.

We may surmise why the 200 and 300 blocks of Delaware Avenue and all of Central Avenue have no "hill" names. They really go "straight up," as they say of some of Brunswick's hills. Delaware Avenue was developed in the 1920's and after two

W - MMM

27