History Crumbs

These short bits of history tend to pile up as I do more research on various topics. Unless otherwise credited, all quotes are from the Laurel Leader.

1816

There were four competing stagecoach lines running from Washington to Baltimore, through Laurel on the Washington Turnpike, which much later became Route 1. The six-hour trip cost $6.

1911

In November, only a month after the Laurel Race Course opened, “a well organized effort by a band of notorious race track crooks to flim-flam betters of other cities on the results of the Laurel races was unearthed.” Using hand signals and waving handkerchiefs, the gang flashed the race results to a series of crooks, with the final one having “arranged direct communication with New York, and from there the results could be dispersed to other cities fully an hour before the news could be sent through regular channels.”

1916

In March, James P. Curley, President of the Patuxent Bank in Laurel, announced that the bank “has, by appropriate action of the stockholders, gone into liquidation.”

1918

In January, after being given the Laurel Race Course for “war purposes,” the War Department began renovating some of the buildings to be used as a training facility for engineer units before shipping out to France. “The officers will use the club house for headquarters and the jockeys’ club house will be used as a hospital for the Engineer Corps. … Pending complete camp arrangements, the men are sleeping in the old Cotton Mill.”

1920

In December, the Maryland Tobacco Growers Association advertised a “Grand Rally Speaking and Band Concert” to “Liberate Tobacco” [whatever that meant]. The meeting was in Upper Marlboro and the ad stated, “Everybody Come Early, White and Colored.”

1923

In December, the Post Office Department notified Laurel’s Postmaster, Gustavus B. Timanus, that Laurel would soon be elevated to a “second-class office” as soon as all residents display house numbers and install mailboxes. A second-class office meant free carrier service delivering mail to residences. Previously, residents had to pick up their mail at the Post Office in the Patuxent Bank building.

1931

The Mid City Arena, a huge outdoor, wooden boxing arena, was built on what is now Wilbert Lane, just north of the point where Route 1 northbound and southbound converge in North Laurel. The arena could hold 10,000 fans and offered parking for 3,000 cars. From the start, attendance was dismal. It was sold in 1932 and renamed the Twin City Arena. For the second season in 1932, light heavyweight champion Maxie Robinson headlined, but only 2,000 fans showed up. Fight records show no activity after 1933 but, mysteriously, there are no newspaper articles describing its demise. Was it abandoned and left to rot? Was the enormous amount of wood used in its construction later repurposed for the war effort? No one seems to know.

1936

In April, the first full-color movie was shown at the Laurel Theater on Main Street. Sponsored by DeWilton H. Donaldson, a dealer for the National Electrical Supply Company, the technicolor film was the comedy Three Women.

1948

Laurel Raceway, the harness track renamed Freestate Raceway in 1979, on Route 1 south of Savage, hosted the Howard County Fair in 1948 and 1949. With the regular slate of harness races also running, the infield was transformed into a huge fairground with a circus atmosphere. The highlight of the fair at Laurel was an appearance by The Great Zacchini, known as The Human Cannonball. Hugo Zacchini was the head of a family of Italian daredevils. At the Howard County Fair at Laurel Raceway, Zacchini performed his signature act—being shot 200 feet over two Ferris wheels and landing in a net. In the late 1950s, when space travel became planned, Zacchini lobbied NASA to be its first astronaut. He claimed he was the only man experienced for space travel.

1967

The Laurel Police Department established a Detective Bureau for the first time.

1974

In March, the C&P Telephone Company in Laurel announced the first results from their Mobility Application Plan (MAP) program, which eliminated gender requirements for jobs. Through MAP, C&P recorded some firsts for the company: the first women installers, the first women “framehops,” and the first male clerk in the control center. The first female installer, 23-year-old Kathy Cole of Laurel, had a memorable first day on the job: “she encountered a dead man on the premises.” The man had apparently died of natural causes.

1995

Laurel High School graduate and master craftsman Jim Ladenburg started a project to build a model replica of the old Laurel Cotton Mill and the surrounding area. After years of work, Ladenburg, who does architectural furniture restoration, completed the old 9th Street Bridge and the building that currently houses the Laurel Historical Society. His attention to detail, for instance, extends to replicating the exact number of the bricks in each row and creating tiny authentic terra cotta rain gutters from the 1800s. Unfortunately, Ladenburg couldn’t find any interest in his amazing model with the city or the Laurel Historical Society and has since stopped work on it.

---

Kevin Leonard is a founding member of the Laurel History Boys and a two-time winner of the Maryland Delaware District of Columbia Press Association Journalism Award.