A Visit To Mount Rainier
In the mid-1990's, I often passed through Mount Rainier on the bus en route to visiting a friend in a neighboring town. I remember looking at the downtown streets with their quaint storefronts. I had the opportunity to read this new book in the Images of America series about Mount Rainier written by Bryan Knedler and Jimmy Tarlau.. It reminded me of the trips I took through the town and made me want to see it for myself. I retraced my steps from years ago and took the local bus from the Takoma Metro station that I remembered. This time, however, I got off in downtown Mount Rainier instead of passing through. I walked the downtown Rhode Island Avenue area together with 34th street, a commercial strip that crosses it. I walked up and down some side streets to look at the old houses. I visited the small Mount Rainier Library on Rhode Island Avenue. In fact, I am writing this review on the Mount Rainier Library computer.
Mount Rainier, in Prince Georges County, Maryland, is a "streetcar suburb" of Washington, D.C. and borders the city. In my walk, I crossed over into D.C. briefly on Rhode Island Avenue. Streetcar service began from Washington in 1898 and the transportation hub on 34th and Rhode Island is still there, filled with buses rather that streetcars going to and fro. The community has seen many changes over the years while maintaining a sense of itself. The town prepared commemorative booklets celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1960, its 75th anniversary in 1985, and its 100th anniversary in 2010. This Images of America history of Mount Rainier draws heavily on the commemorative volumes and on other sources. The two authors are active in community life. Bryan Knedler served a term as the mayor of Mount Rainier while Jimmy Tarlau was elected a delegate to the Maryland Legislature in 2014. Both Knedler and Tarlau played active roles in Mount Rainier's centennial celebration.
This short book traces the history of Mount Rainier from the years before its incorporation through the present. The book consists of a series of photographic images together with detailed commentary from the authors. As the authors state in their Introduction to the book: " One fascinating aspect of Mount Rainier is its evolution from segregated beginnings and an active Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s to a multicultural community that has in recent years elected a city council composed of renters as well as homeowners, and that is gay, straight, white, African American, Asian American, Latino, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and atheist."
The book begins with photographs of the area that became Mount Rainier in its rural early days. The story picks up with the arrival of the streetcars which made the area accessible to the middle class blue collar and government workers who for a long time formed the core of the town's population. Incorporated in 1910, the city was at first nicknamed Mud Rainier until the streets were paved in the 1920s. The book shows many of the towns residents, leading citizens, churches, shops, and schools. It also emphasizes the heavily segregated character of Mount Rainier until well into the mid-20th Century. The book describes the growth of the town during WW II and the later demise of its downtown into a string of pawnshops and liquor stores. Some of that background was still visible to me as I walked the downtown, but Mount Rainier has worked hard to reinvent itself. The city is diverse and has a burgeoning population of young artists. I saw new construction during my visit geared to attract young, creative people; but I also saw many boarded-up storefronts. The demographics of contemporary Mount Rainier are diverse and the city is forward-looking. It now calls itself a "city on the move." Much of Mount Rainier is listed as a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places.
I enjoyed seeing places on my visit that were discussed in the book. These places include the City Hall, Police Station, Fire Station, the Glut Food Coop, built during the Vietnam Era, the Washington Bridge Unit (p. 83) purchased by African Americans in 1932 who at the time were denied the right to play bridge elsewhere, and -- the city library. I enjoyed seeing the site of the old streetcar barn. I also enjoyed learning about an academic study, Joseph Howell's "Hard Living on Clay Street: Portraits of Blue Collar Families" which documented the changing life in Mount Rainier during the 1970s.
I am learned a great deal about the Washington, D.C. community I call home through the books of photographic local histories in the Images of America Series. This book on Mount Rainier brought back memories of the times I travelled through the city and encouraged me to spend a day visiting. There is much to be learned and appreciated in places close by.
