|
History of Roland Park
The land that later became Roland Park has a well-documented history. In 1703 Charles Merryman received a patent for a 246-acre tract called "Merryman's Beginnings" which was somewhat inappropriately named since that gentleman had already received tracts called "Merryman's Lott" and "Merryman's Addition." The 1703 grant included land now bordered by Wyndhurst Avenue, Charles Street, University Parkway and Roland Avenue. Merryman's sons sold the land to Charles Ridgely in 1744. After resurvey, the property became known- as "Ridgely's Whim" and included 990 acres, a considerable part of which was located west of today's Roland Avenue. Throughout the area still stand numerous old forest trees, alive since colonial times. Because of its rugged topography, especially to the north and west where deep ravines cut into the hills, much of the land was never cultivated. Indeed, the area was very difficult to reach until Cold Spring Lane was laid out in 1806.
With intermarriage and inheritance, the tract passed from the Ridgely family to the Cockey family in the early nineteenth century. Two large estates were carved out of this land -- "Oakland" and "Woodlawn." These two estates were the largest of those parcels comprising the original purchase of 495 acres assembled for the development of Roland Park at the end of the nineteenth century. "Oakland," to the west, belonged to Robert Goodloe Harper who was an officer in the Revolutionary War, counsel for Aaron Burr and other influential people, and United States Senator from Maryland in 1815. His father-in-law, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, paid for "Oakland." Harper was a major patron of Benjamin Henry Latrobe who designed the mansion at "Oakland." In 1827 Latrobe planned a small spring house for Harper. A simple, classical structure, this building is comprised of an Ionic-columned porch with pediment leading to an unadorned rectangular room. Since moved to the Wyman Park grounds of the Baltimore Museum of Art, it and the Basilica of the Assumption are the only works designed by this distinguished American architect still standing in Baltimore. When the Roland Park Company acquired from Harper heirs the 264-acre "Oakland" tract for eventual development, there was no trace of the mansion which had been located east of Falls Road and north of what ultimately became the Baltimore Country Club.
The extensive "Woodlawn," one of several estates of the same name in this area, ran roughly from the Stony Run to Falls Road and Wyndhurst Avenue (formerly called Cedar Lane) to Cold Spring Lane. It was owned through much of the nineteenth century by the Fendall family. In 1862 the Greenway family sold the tract to Hiram Woods, a Baltimore sugar refining merchant. Woods immediately built there a large square house with central cupola, at the northwest comer of today's Upland Road and Woodlawn Avenue. He located stables and outbuildings nearby. The main approach to his estate ran northwest from Cold Spring Lane, while a second drive entered his property near the intersection of Roland Avenue and today's Elmhurst Road. Woods spent six months of the year at "Woodlawn," living close to nature, often accompanied by numerous visitors. The Stony Run had formed a lake nearby, which was used for boating and fishing. Near the end of Woods' occupancy, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad was built through the Stony Run Valley. Its embankment cut the lake in half and spoiled it. Richard J. Capron, the first president of the Roland Park Company, bought the estate in 1874, and after seventeen years, in 1891, this 112-acre property and a few smaller adjacent tracts became the first area in Roland Park to be developed.
Although it has a rich colonial and nineteenth century history, the greatest significance of this area is its development, around the turn of this century as Roland Park. Coupled with the earlier work of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., in public park development in New York and Philadelphia, the planning principles incorporated in the design of Roland Park strongly influenced the practice of town development. These widely publicized examples encouraged the acceptance of comprehensive planning and the recognition of the value of unique site characteristics, as opposed to a previous lack of concern and subsequent rigid application of a grid pattern of street and lot layout.
Roland Park indirectly derives its name from Lake Roland, located to the north, which in turn is named for a Baltimore County landowner, Roland Thornberry. Development plans were begun in 1890, when William Edmunds decided to subdivide 100 acres of his property lying between Roland Avenue (then Maryland Avenue), Wynhurst Avenue, Cold Spring Lane, and the new Baltimore and Lehigh Railroad (later the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad) along the Stony Run. In 1891 an English business syndicate was formed to invest twenty million pounds in American real estate. For a small fraction of this sum this Land Trust Company of England bought between 700 and 800 acres, formerly seven old country estates, which it proposed to develop under the name of Roland Park. Under the direction of Edward H. Bouton and the Roland Park Land Company, George E. Kessler, a Kansas City architect who had studied under Olmsted and with planners and architects in Germany, laid out the first plat, east of Roland Avenue in 1891. This "Plat 1" plan was of a somewhat traditional design, because of its location between the parallel railroad track and Roland Avenue, and because the relatively flat land did not require unusually creative site planning. Although considered modest, it was designed in the romantic tradition.
The Country Club, one of the early selling features, was organized in 1898 and a year later began its activities by building an attractive clubhouse on 100 acres of ground extending on both sides of Fails Road. Designed by the architectural firm of Wyatt and Nolting, and since replaced because of fire, this building represented one of many versions of shingled eclecticism. The club was sponsored largely by the Roland Park Company, and it greatly accelerated the development of the area.
In 1901 the Roland Park Company expanded its development and laid out "Plat 2," comprising the western portion of the present Roland Park, below Elmhurst Road. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the chief designer of Plat 2, rose to the challenge presented by the difficult terrain of this parcel, and thus somewhat overshadowed Kessier's earlier work on Plat 1. He designed areas that followed the natural contours of the land, preserving and heightening the picturesque succession of hill and valley, open space, and forest. A number of well-known architects designed homes both for themselves and for others to be built here. The architectural firms of Wyatt and Nolting, Ellicott and Emmart, and Palmer and Lamdin were all active here. Charles A. Platt, the New York architect, designed an entire street of houses on Goodwood Gardens. All contemporary fashions of suburban architecture can be found in this portion of the development, including half-timbered English Tudor, revived versions of Georgian and Regency styles. and original designs identified with the British "Arts and Crafts" movement. Roland Park, although predominantly a Oueen Anne, shingle-style neighborhood, shows considerable stylistic variety, which is unified by abundant vegetation and interestingly irregular terrain.
Built near Plat 2, the Roland Park Water Tower has served as a local landmark throughout most of the community's history. Abundant spring water, acclaimed as equal in purity to water from any of the well-known mineral springs, was pumped 70 feet high into the tower and distributed under pressure through a large main to every community residence. Located at the intersection of Roland Avenue and University Parkway, this monumental Italianate octagonal tower was designed in 1904 by William J. Fizone. The tower stored water until 1930, when the City switched the community to the reservoir system.
The Roland Park Company opened a third plat in 1905, it generally comprised the area west of Roland Avenue, between Deepdene and Elmhurst Roads. Plat 4, covering land north of University Parkway, was also designed in 1905. Much of Plat 4 was superceded by Plat 5, which covered most of the same land. Plats 4 and 5 were developed south of Cold Spring Lane. In the handling of Plat 5 some very interesting engineering problems were worked out. To construct University Parkway, the washing down of hills and the filling of ravines was accomplished by the sluicing methods first employed in the west in hydraulic mining. Also, five attached houses of poured concrete, constructed in the 800 block of West University Parkway, were considered an innovation when built in 1905.
Plat 6, in the farthest northwestern corner of Roland Park, was developed by 1910. While the Plat 6 plan generally called for individual houses on separate lots, it also contains the "Meadow Block," an ensemble of residences with shared open space.
During the first decade of the twentieth century, the Roland Park Company's English investors withdrew in order to put their money in the Kimberly Diamond Company's mines in Africa. However, the well-established Roland Park Company continued with Edward H. Bouton as general manager. He is considered by many to have been the driving force and visionary behind the company from its inception until his retirement in 1935.
Bouton also established the Lake Roland Elevated Railway in 1893. This electric streetcar line, running from City Hall to Roland Park, within a few years boasted of frequent trips scheduled 24 hours a day. Advertisement and promotion of this 25-minute trip caused prospective home buyers to consider year-round residence in Roland Park a feasible possibility.
Another innovative amenity which Bouton built is the Roland Park "shopping center," one of the first in the United States. Constructed in 1896, it was intended to serve the needs of residents living far from the downtown retail areas. Designed by Wyatt and Nolting, it has been cited as the first such center to provide off-street parking, a convenience later promoted by zoning boards all over the country.
Perhaps Bouton's greatest contribution to the quality of Roland Park was the inclusion of land-use restrictions in each property deed. These so-called "restrictive covenants," by which the owner agreed to abide by certain regulations established by the Roland Park Company, were intended to run in perpetuity.
After completing Roland Park, the reorganized Roland Park Company, without its original British financial backers, went on to plan first Guilford and then Homeland. While these newer subdivisions also emerged as communities of the well-to-do, Bouton and his successors had learned enough about planning principles and community amenities to make them applicable on a more modest scale, later, in Northwood.
In contrast to the dull uniformity and indeterminate character of most speculative real estate developments before or since, Roland Park is unusually complex in style with a subtly stated yet distinctive identity. Combining site design, land-use and architectural control, creation of common amenities, and provision for transportation facilities, Roland Park is the product of an intensive planning effort virtually unknown at the time.
|
