A Visit To Takoma Park
There is little to match the sense of both discovery and recognition in reading about a small community that one knows intimately. For many years, I have lived just outside the boundaries of the historic Takoma area of Washington, D.C. I was pleased to find this new book in the "Images of America" series which tells the story of the historic Takoma Park community. This community straddles the line between Maryland and Washington D.C. The D.C. part is usually called Takoma while the Maryland part is called Takoma Park. Arcadia Press' "Images of America" series publishes books of photographs telling the history of American places and communities. I have read many books in the series, but of all of them this book comes closest to home. The authors of the book, Caroline Alderson, Diana Kohn, and Susan Schreiber, are members of a group called "Historic Takoma Inc." devoted to the preservation of the history of this community.
Although the book is a history, it appealed to me largely by reminding me of what I see every day. For example, I wrote this review in the local Takoma, Washington, D.C. public library on Cedar Street. This small, elegant library recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. It was built with funds provided by Andrew Carnegie and was the first local library in the Washington, D.C. system. I enjoy seeing a landmark I know well and use actively featured prominently in this book. The Maryland portion of Takoma Park has its own library as well, which was built later.
For the past many years, I have followed my own Fourth of July tradition by attending the annual Fourth of July parade in downtown Takoma Park. This little parade shows a community spirit and a diversity that is truly American with bands, politicians, boy and girl scouts, schools, floats, musical groups, and much more showing what the community has to offer and celebrating American freedom. The first parade took place in 1921 and has been held every year since without fail (until the pandemic). The Independence Day parade remains the single most prominent part of the Takoma Park story. Its history is recounted extensively in this book.
The book tells the story of the Takoma Metro stop and the predecessor railroads and streetcars which were located at about the same spot as the current station. The subway and the parallel railroad run over an underpass for vehicles and pedestrians. I had not known that early in the 20th Century the railroad dug what must have been an enormous quantity of dirt under the tracks and the station, creating the underpass out of one of the busiest streets in the area. The book thus taught me something new about a landmark, the Metro, I have used almost every day for many years.
Other things I enjoyed seeing in the book include the old Takoma Theater which has been closed for years but which perhaps will host live shows again someday. There are photographs of the weekly Farmer's Market downtown and of the folk festival and other fairs that have become annual events in Takoma Park. Landmarks that I missed include Takoma Station, a Washington, D.C. nightclub that enjoyed a brief moment of fame when it was featured on television during the Kuwait Invasion and the gazebo in the heart of downtown Takoma Park, Maryland on Carroll Street.
More of the book is devoted to history than to the present-day community. In seven chapters of photographs, the book describes the founding of the community in 1883 spearheaded by an entrepreneur named Benjamin Gilbert. In the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the Seventh Day Adventist Church moved its headquarters to Takoma Park from Michigan and has played a vital role in the community ever since. The book describes the growth of civic life and civic institutions in the 1910-1930 period followed by a story of the continued growth of the community during the Depression, WW II, and the 1950s. With the 1960's, Takoma Park began to gain its reputation for social activism as its residents resisted, mostly successfully, attempts to build freeways though the city and to demolish its historic old homes. The community became every more active in the 1980s as it was among the first places in American to declare itself a "nuclear free zone" and attained a reputation of welcoming diversity of all types. Only the final chapter of the book focuses on the Takoma Park of the present, as it continues to develop while retaining its small town character. It is a special place.
I enjoyed visiting with fresh eyes a community that I know. This book will appeal primarily to readers familiar with Takoma Park. But it will also interest readers who want to learn about a community that is somehow both highly typical and highly unusual in celebrating the nature of the American experience.
