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Hospital (now Frederick Memorial).
One man went to Dr. Strother's office, which was just a few doors west of the Transient Camp. After examining the man, the doctor said, "Man, you don't have long to live if you don't listen!. You've got to stay in bed two or three days and take some medicine. You can get it at Barnett's Pharmacy next door." "But I don't have any money for medicine" he said. "This will be enough to pay for it," Dr. Strother said as he pressed three dollars into the man's hand. These transients were not bad men; some were very smart men; they were down on their luck because of the general depression and were traveling the best way they could to find work. One man was a lawyer and carried his papers with him. One was a surgeon, and Dr. Strother is reported to have asked him to remain in Brunswick and practice his profession. Because the man realized he drank excessively and wouldn't want to hurt anyone, he decided to move on. A young man with great feeling for his fellow man, Dr. Strother would "do anything to help a guy," according to Dutch Burns.
TOWN LEADERS George Hardy remembers several early black families that contributed much to life in early Brunswick: Jim Beard, Clarence Hardy, Henry Beard, Grandma Brooks (Aunt Pauline), the Monroes, the Gileses, the Jacksons ...
ALLEYS OFF POTOMAC STREE~ Picture the north side of the first block of West Potomac Street. Once there was an alley between the Bank of Brunswick and the next building, formerly Payne's Pharmacy. It was a public passage to the next lower street. Another walkway was between the double storeroom where Goodwill has its outlet store and Mrs. Himes Restaurant, which was at 21 West Potomac. This too went to Petersville Road. Continuing west outthe street, beside the house on the corner of Maryland Avenue there was a walkway behind the Arnold Aparhnents of Maryland A venue and behind the businesses at 23-25 West Potomac. There was a wooden staircase that went across the back lot, across the creek alongside Smitty's bakery to a well by his house. People as far away as Railroad Street used to fill their containers and carry water to their homes. There were three passages across Peter's Run (Martin's Creek) to the other road because Maryland A venue was not at the time a through street. It stopped about 30 feet north of the front porch at 14 North Maryland Avenue. There was a path along the property at 17 Maryland Avenue (where Nickie Burns lived). People used the driveway as a walkway over to houses on Virginia Avenue, to Shewbridge's backyard and to where the Schnauffer Hospital was (now an apartment) at the comer of "B" Street.
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BRUNSWICK STATIONSSEGREGATED A member of the black community of Brunswick will surely recall segregation before laws prohibited that practice. Segregation at the railroad stations was glaring. The handsome westbound station that remains was divided into two parts, with swinging doors separating them. On the east side there was a baggage room, then the waiting room for whites, with ticket window, fountain, and toilets. The west side was smaller, and was used by blacks. It was the ticket office in later years. Across the tracks the smaller, eastbound station, which was lost to fire within the decade, had a stove in midroom and a ticket window for whites; blacks were served at an outside window. Recalling this period hurts both races, but this is history; the painful recollection may help prevent such a practice from ever returning.
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DISASTERS During its century of existence, Brunswick has experienced the expected number of floods, fires, and similar disasters. In 1924, a river flood ended the use of the canal. The flood of March 1936 destroyed bridges elsewhere along the Potomac, sparing the Brunswick span but making i tunsafe for a period of time. There was considerable flooding in the lower-lying streets and into the basements of buildings on East Potomac Street; the railroad yards
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