Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Jacobsville Elementary Garners Parent Support

In the 1930s Pasadena parents offered a great deal of support to area schools.

Here’s your weekly dose of Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula, by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. In the 1930s, area families rallied around churches and schools. Pasadena parents were well-known for their loyalty to local schools. "Churches and schools remained the centers of community life," Cunningham wrote. "Families looked forward to annual Sunday School picnics and events like Mt. Carmel's church suppers held on William L. Cook's wide beach. "A church founded at Pasadena in 1934 as the J. Shelby George Memorial Church survives today, but it has been called Pasadena Assembly of God since 1938. "Pasadena peninsula parents were noted for their support of their schools. When Virginia Moore taught at Jacobsville during the …

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Locals Find Fun During Great Depression

During the Great Depression area residents made the best of things thanks to low price waterfront resorts.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula, by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. During the Great Depression, area residents learned to make the best of what they had. They enjoyed days near the water, softball games and fresh fruit. "Despite hard times, during the Great Depression people enjoyed many inexpensive pleasures. For an admission fee of 25 cents each, a family could go to a waterfront resort with a picnic lunch, claim a table under the shade of trees and spend the whole day on the wide beach," Cunningham wrote. "Softball games between Pinehurst and Milbur, a regular Sunday event at the boys' camp drew large crowds. Most communities supported active Boy and Girl Scout programs. In the village of …

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: A Family Business in Crabbing

In the 1920s the entire Dreyer family, including five daughters, helped catch crabs.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. Many people in Pasadena during the 1920s made a living by farming, but a few took to the water. John Dreyer used his entire family to help catch crabs and earn their living. "Though Mr. Dreyer often had a hired a man or two living in a bunk house, his son and the five Dreyer daughters helped with all the work," Cunningham wrote."The girls hauled the seine net to shore, while their father or brother swam underwater to unhook it from a submerged log or other obstruction. "Each girl wore a six-inch wide leather belt called a 'becky,' which was laced together in the front with a triple-knotted rope. They looped the ropes they were …

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Crabs Sell for $2 a Barrel

While farming was a way of business in Pasadena during the 1930s, some men worked as watermen collecting crabs.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. "Though farming was still the main employment on the Pasadena peninsula, a few men worked as watermen. They could catch crabs with a dip net and sell them for two dollars a barrel," Cunningham wrote. "Milton Fick, Robert Gray, Buck Kaiser and Tom and Vince Bailey supplemented their income by fishing and crabbing, selling locally or shipping to Baltimore from Cook's wharf. "Most watermen had winter jobs, but John Dreyer and John Gumpman made a living from water throughout the year, John Gupman lived on SilleryBay and used pound nets but not a seine net. John Dreyer and his wife came to Maryland from Austria-Hungary when they were …

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Farming Struggles in the 1930s

Farming was a way of business in Pasadena for 150 years but the industry changed when southern states started shipping in fruits and vegetables.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. When local farmers had trouble supplying certain fruits and vegetables, trucks from southern states traveled to Pasadena to offer an additional supply. This began to hurt the profits of local farmers. "Farming has been the lifeblood of the Pasadena peninsula for 150 years, but the thirties were a difficult time time for farmers," wrote Cunningham. "People did not have money to buy luxuries like strawberries, melons and peaches. "Anne Arundel farmers always had received their highest prices for the first of each crop because customers had waited almost a year for garden-fresh peas, beans, tomatoes and fruit. "During the thirties, …

• Photos (2)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Getting Candy Bars from Mamie

In the 1930s area children frequented a store in the home of Harry and Mamie for candy bars.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. Residents of Bayside Beach visited the Hancock store to purchase candy bars, which they often took to the lighthouse keeper. "At the eastern end of the peninsula, local residents and men from the oyster fleet patronized the little store at the home of Harry and Mamie Hancock," Cunningham wrote. "Young people who lived in summer homes at Bayside Beach remember walking to the Hancock store to buy candy bars from Miss Mamie, who always wore a sunbonnet and ankle-length dresses with long sleeves. She told them that she did not need electricity because she and her brother went to bed at sundown and rose at dawn. "The young people also…

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Locals Gather at Amoco

During the Great Depression, the Amoco service station on Mountain Road was a gathering place for the Lake Shore community.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. In the 1930s, you could stop by the Amoco service station on Mountain Road for gas and chicken. Other stores delivered groceries to your home by horse and wagon. "John Wilson, Senior, opened his Amoco service station on Mountain Road in 1934 and moved a short distance down the road to its present location in 1937," Cunningham wrote. "John and May Wilson offered home-grown vegetables, fruit, flowers, and fancy frying chickens in addition to gasoline. Their business became a gathering place for the Lake Shore community. "Elsewhere customers depended on familiar stores like Angel's, Chairs' general store opposite Mount Carmel Church…

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: Girl Scout Camps on the Magothy

In 1928, Girl Scouts hosted camps along the Magothy. They slept in tents and had to get drinking water from a nearby spring.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. Girl Scouts who used to host camps along the Magothy River had to take three different forms of transportation to get there. They slept in tents and wore blouses, bloomers and black ties. "Not only the Grachur Club and Camp Milbur brought young people to camps on the Magothy River; in 1928 the Girl Scouts of Baltimore established Camp Wippoorwill on nineteen acres on the Cockey Creek that had been part of Captain Robinson's farm," Cunningham wrote. "His three-story former home with wide porches became their headquarters. Previously the site had been used briefly by a boys' camp called Whippoorwill Hill. Girl Scouts would travel …

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of History

Pasadena History: A Lake Waterford Business

The park used to be a place where families of U.S. Naval Academy graduates could stay during graduation.

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham. In the 1900s, a man filled Lake Waterford with plants because he wanted to ensure a healthy home for his exotic goldfish. "At Lake Waterford, William Wolle and his sister Henrietta Wolle Windsor, operated a business on the property that their father had bought in 1912," Cunningham wrote. "The elder William Wolle, director of Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, had searched for a home in the country where he could raise rare goldfish. "He chose Lake Waterford, built his home there, and planted exotic South American plants around the lake, and eventually stocked the lake with bluegill, bass, and pike. "In 1927 his son and daughter added …

• Photos (1)

Tidbits of Pasadena History

Patch uses the book Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham to shed some light on the area's history.