Remembering the days when you could walk to work and stores

Remembering the days when you could walk to work and stores

“In 1925, planting the seeds of employment, production”

EAGLE ARCHIVE By Kevin Dayhoff Posted 5/31/09:

“Many years ago, before zoning — and progress? — came to Westminster in the late 1970s, homes, schools, stores, shops and employment were more often than not all located within walking distance the same neighborhood.

“In the 1950s, when I lived behind Samios Food Market at 306 E. Green St. at the corner of Washington Road and East Green Street, there was a manufacturing plant across the street that provided a great deal of employment.

“It was great that folks in the neighborhood could walk to work.

“This plant opened with great fanfare in May 1925…”

Read the entire column here: In 1925, planting the seeds of employment, production

http://explorecarroll.com/community/2964/1925-planting-seeds-employment-production/

20090531 SDOSM In 1925 planting the seeds of emp prod brief

Related: My 2nd Grade Class picture
http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2007/03/20070309-my-2nd-grade-class-picture.html
Friday, March 09, 2007
20070309 My 2nd Grade Class picture

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20070309 My 2nd Grade Class picture

My 2^nd Grade Class picture

March 9^th, 2007

A few months back my wife and I had dinner with my 2^nd grade teacher, Mrs. Griffin. I borrowed our 2^nd grade class picture from her and I need to return it so I just got around to scanning it in this evening.

This picture was taken in March 1961 at East End Elementary School, in Westminster, Carroll County Maryland. At the time, East End was located at the corner of Green Street and Center Street in Westminster in the old Westminster High School which had been built in 1898. East End School closed quite a number of years ago.

The picture above depicts the school as it looked in 1908.

The old 1898 high school, in which East End was located, had moved in 1936 to the building on Longwell Avenue in Westminster. That building ceased to be high school in 1971. I was in the last graduating class.

When I attended East End, I lived about two blocks away at the corner of Washington Road and Green Street and walked to school every day – the source of many great memories to this day.

Schools located in the community are a wonderful thing and it makes me sad that so often they are now located on huge tracks of land in the middle of a cornfield outside of town.

In 1961 my family lived in an apartment in back of Samios Food Market.

The picture above is from the 1930s when it was then Ensor’s. Samios Food Market and the apartment where we lived was made into a Joni Mitchell song many years ago; “they tore down paradise and made it into a parking lot…

Across the street was the old Newark Shoe Factory which opened in late May 1925. When I lived on Green Street, it was the Westminster Shoe Factory and many folks in the neighborhood walked there to work.

Community markets, schools, and community employment were some of the main reasons for the quality of life that was Westminster when I was growing up in town.

Nowadays, schools located right in town are a thing of the past and community markets and employment are near impossible with this thing we call progress, err, Euclidean Zoning which most often will not allow the overlay of residences, markets and stores and work places. The again, perhaps it is not progress at all.

The corner of Green Street and Washington Road was essentially the site of Corbit’s Charge, a Civil War engagement on June 29^th, 1863 in the days just before the Battle of Gettysburg – which is one of the reasons for my continual fascination with that aspect of Westminster history – and history in general.

Someday – I’ll have an extra minute to sit down and keyboard all the names in the March 1961 photograph…

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos of a Westminster long ago, when we really had a wonderful quality of life and sense of community.

Oh – we still have a great quality of life in Westminster; it’s just different these days.

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Dayhoff personal, History Westminster 1920s, Westminster File Ensor's Grocery, Westminster File Samios Grocery, Westminster File Green St E, Westminster Planning Zoning, Carroll Co Schools History, Carroll Co Schools Westminster H S, Carroll Co Schools East End ES, History Westminster, History Westminster old photos, Westminster File Newark Shoe Factory, Westminster File Westminster Shoe Factory, Urban planning Euclidean Zoning, Music Mitchell Joni, Dayhoff photo gallery