Evening Star Newspaper, May 10, 1931, Page 80

e i Maryland’s Capital City " YHR SUNDXY STAR, WEXSHTNGION, B @ WxY ® W - oy ——— on he Severn 0Id State House, Where the Continental Congress Met, and Where Washington Resigned His Commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, Was Visited by Him on Other Occasions—Bicentennial Attractions. BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. HERE are peopl: living now who will see the day when Baltimore, Annap- olis and Washington will be almost joined together as one great metrop- olis, and .especially will this be so along the main highways leading to and connecting the Maryland cities mentioned with the Nation’s Capital. Today people think ncthing of residing 10 or 15 miles from their work in Washington, and when the airplane takes the place of other methods of travel 30 or 40 miles will seem but a very short jump. To those who have made a study of the past it is easy to believe that the future can be reck- oned by what has already taken place, and that the progress that has been made during our lives will be greatly exceeded, if anything, in a few years after we have passed from the scene. To the writer it seems but a few years ago— and yet it has been 40 or 50—when The Star routes outside of the city proper were delivered only by boys who served the paper to their own private customers, while just a few days ago the writer met one of The Star's wagons 15 miles from Washington delivering the latest news to the yellow metal tubes marked “Wash- ington Star,” and of which there is a great rnumber within the same and even a greater radius of the Capital. When the airplane supersedes the steam and electric cars and the automobile a few hundred miles of travel will mean substantially nothing, and living in Baltimore, Annapolis or Rich- mond and working in Washington’ will not seem at all as strange as it did a number of years ago when the steam railroads sent special trains to Washington from the Monumental City with public office-holders, largely the con- stituents of the late Senator Arthur P. Gor- man, who certainly knew how to take care of his own. But at that time the trip over con- sumed at least an hour’s time, whereas in a few years this will mean not more than 10 or 15 minutes. Indeed, everything is tending toward the saving of time; a few years ago if one desired to go to Annapolis by automobile, and wanted to make sure of a good road, he had to go all the way into Baltimore and then out again in order to reach his destination, a trip of slightly over 70 miles, or, if he wished to take a chance, he could cut across the country at Lansdowne, about 5 miles this side of Baltimore, and take the Annapolis-Baltimore road, which would mean about 10 miles less. To go by way of Upper Marlboro meant only 42.7 miles, but here you were taking more than a chance, for on the other side of Hill's Bridge and between that and South River there were some dirt and sand roads that could never be depended upon. UT this was 15 years ago, and today An- napolis can be reached from Washington by s more perfect and shorter route—namely, the Defense Highway—which shortens the former nearest route by about 9 miles. This road, which is an everlasting monument to the labors of the late C. C. Magruder of Prince Georges County, Md., was first opened to travel on July 16, 1927, and the distance from Wash- ington to the Maryland capital is just 33 miles, It is only natural that we who have been living in Washington for many years should be familiar with this quaint Colonial city, for many of us can recall when we would go on excursions to Bay Ridge, back in the early '80s, and almost enter the city before we would turn off at the “Y” for the Chesapeake resort. The shifting at this point, though not intended as such, proved quite an accommodation to those wishing to visit either Washington or Annap- olis. As the writer recalls it, the fare between the two cities was then about $2, whereas the round trip excursion ticket cost but 50 cents, and ever 50 many persons, during the Summer season, rode from Washington to Annapolis and Annapolis to Washington on excursion tickets, at a cost in many cases of 25 cents for one way, by taking advantage of the stop at the “Y.” Many of us recall Annapolis Junc- tion, where the train left the main B. & O. line for Bay Ridge, and the first station after which was Admiral. Millersville and Iglehart were nearer to Annapolis, and even still closer was Parole, called by the old residents Camp Parole, because here during Civil War days were encamped many of the soldiers received in exchange from the South for Confederate soldiers captured by the North. The Pennsyl- vanis Rallroad also ran into Annapolis. Many an Annapolis er Ann Arundel County girl married one of these paroled Union pris- oners, and in doing so obtained a very good busband. The writer happens to know a lady mow living in Washington, who, as might be suspected, i well wp in her eighties, who married a Maine soldier who was brought to this camp after having been wounded at Fredericksburg, captured by the enemy and ex- changed. They lived together for 61 years, or until his death in Washington in 1925. A younger sister to the Jady referred to did like- wise, and she and her husband lived to enjoy Old Naval Monument transferred to the Naval Academy grounds from the Navy Yard at Washington. Y automobile Bay Ridge is not very far frem Annapolis, and yet to walk the distance seems quite a good step, and the writer knows, for he walked it once, many years ago. But it was worth the effort, for, after all, it was the best excursion resort we ever had around Wash- ington. Indeed the bathing, the boating, the crabbing and the dancing made it so. The beach was fine for Chesapeake Bay, with just a very few big rocks here and there to skin your shins on, but these were soon located by the bather and naturally thereafter avoided, and if it was not sting-nettle season ome could spend a most delightful afternoon in the water. Beside the many attractions usual to ex- cursion places, there was a scenic electric rail- way and & real honest-to-goodness race course. The place was well patronized, and during the Summer months thousands of Washingtonians visited the resort by way of the steam railroad, while other thousands came hither from Balti- more on the old excursion boat Columbia, - haps a bigger boat than any of those we had on the Potomac, and which also took Baltimore people to Tolchester. Maybe there are some of those who still member the man who sold articles on the including sandwiches, peanuts, and " PR .t everything else, Dewey Manilas—some kind of a candy preparation, named for Admiral Dewey after the battle of Manila Bay. In selling this particular candy this fellow would go through the train singing: “Up the river and down the lake, Dewey Manilas five a cake”; and this song he probably kept up for several Summers, or at least until the excitement of the battle had the day and exioy ths bathing. The writer will never fzcrget that the last time hce visited th place at one point in this one-man road was quite marshy, and that two heavy bo ebout 10 inches wide, had been placed there by some kind soul for ‘the cars to run on. But the writer’s car ran off of the boards, and then all traffic came to a dead stop, for there we: other people this bright Sunday aftcrnoon ben on seeing the same place, which was the only fortunate thing about the situation, for no one| could back or go forward or get around un the stuck car was drawn out of the mud, and as it was up to its hubs, this was not an easy thing to do. Fnally, however, after an hour’s labor and several ineffectual efforts, two auto- mobiles and a stout wire tow line did the trick, and the writer has not been there since, ale though he understands that the place has beef greatly improved in recent years, and that it is now a very beautiful resort. HE City of Annapolis is well worth a visit, and no doubt when the thousands of tourists come this way during the forthcoming George Washington Bicentennial many will want to see the capital of Maryland and its famous old State House, where much national history has been made, and, of course, old St Anne’s Church, one of the noted landmarks of this famed Colonial town, where ever so many prominent people have atitended divine worship. From the early records it is gleaned that the original church on the site of the present old Episcopal Church was first proposed to be built in 1696, and that “a committee was appointed to ‘inspect into the proposals for building the same.’ “Mr. Edward Dorsey, from the committee, re- ported ‘that there was in Banck for building the church at Annapolis, £458 sterling. That they had discoursed workmen, and the carpenter de- mands for his work £250—the bricklayer, having all stuff upon the place, £220—the brick maker, £90—that they find no other means to raise money therefor without the assistance of some charitable disposed persons. ‘That the charge of building the said eHurch will amount to £1,200 sterling.’ “An act passed the same day imposing a tak of ‘three pence per hundred on tobacco, to con- tinue and be in force until the 12th day of May, which shall be in the year of our Lord God, 1698, and to be applied to the building of ye church at Annapolis.’ The architect of this church was named Thomas Ffielder. “This year a Mr. Gaddes arrived at Annapolis; ‘being sent out by his Lordship the Bishop of London’—the house appointed him to read prayers in some vacant parish, and made a provision for his maintenance of 10,000 pounds of tobacco.” early church, we are told, was of brick, was built in the form of the letter T, neatly finished inside, with the principal entrance towards the east, and for years was the only house of worship in the place, the grounds around it being inclosed with a whit> railing fence. For some years before the American Revolution it was in & ruinous condition, and the minister more than once appealed to the congregation to repair or rebuild it, but without Building in which the Consinental Congress held*some of its sessions whem meeting ot 'A .