Dublin Core
Title
Oral history with Mrs. Mary Hollomand
Subject
[no text]
Description
An oral history interview conducted with Mrs.Mary Hollomand by Eli Pousson as part of an IMPART funded oral history research project.
Creator
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Source
[no text]
Publisher
[no text]
Date
10-Jul-07
Contributor
Stephanie Stevenson/ University of Maryland, College Park American Studies/ Historic Preservation Department
Rights
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Relation
[no text]
Format
digital
Language
[no text]
Type
[no text]
Identifier
hollomand2007
Coverage
[no text]
Contribution Form
Online Submission
No
Posting Consent
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Submission Consent
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Contributor is Creator
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Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Eli Pousson
Interviewee
Mary Hollomand
Location
[no text]
Transcription
Birthplace & Home
Mrs. Mary Hollomand was born in a two-story-single-family home in Lakeland at 5112 Navajo Street. She notes that her mother was born in the same house, and that it is still there with a “little added to itâ€. Her grandmother and grandfather bought the home a few years before Mrs. Hollomand's mother was born. She does not know why grandparents came to Lakeland. She notes that before her grandparents moved to Lakeland they lived somewhere on the other side of the University of Maryland, College Park. When she was a child most of the homes didn’t have running water and plumbing. Her family did not have plumbing and running water until she got out of high school. She always had electricity since she was younger.
Family
Mrs. Hollomand's biological father grew up in Bladensburg. Her parents met through social relations. They lived with Mary’s grandmother. He died when she was five years old.
Mrs. Hollomand says that her grandmother was a very strong woman. She had four children and her husband died when Mrs. Hollomand's mother was two years old. Her grandmother had never worked and they were in the process of buying a house when Mrs. Hollomand's granddad died. She found work and also took care of an additional foster child. She didn’t want Mrs. Hollomand to live in Washington D.C. when she married her first husband, because city life was frowned upon.
Mrs. Hollomand has a half brother and half sister, because her mother remarried when she was nine. Her stepdad and mother bought a home on P.S. Avenue in 1955. Her step-sister, Diane Ligon, now lives there. Her brother passed away. They went to Lakeland Elementary School where Lakeland High School used to be.
Marriages & Home Purchases
In 1956,Mrs. Hollomand got married and moved to Washington, D.C. She met her husband while shopping in College Park. She says that the Route 1 shopping center near McDonalds has not changed much since it was built in the 1950s. Her husband is from Georgetown, Washington D.C. She was not married to him for very long.
She came back to Lakeland when she separated from her 1st husband and moved back to Washington, D.C with when she married her second husband in 1962. She and her family returned to Lakeland in 1970 because she thought that it was a safe place to raise her children.
She lived on land that used to be owned by her great aunt. Her aunt’s home burned down, so Mary and her husband bought the land in 1967 and built the house in 1970. Mrs. Hollomand bought the home for $1800, from a white insurance man, who bought the land from her sick aunt, but he let her grandmother stay there until she died.
She had the land cleared after the 1970s. They didn’t have immediate plans for using it, but she and her husband had two children and need a bigger home. She thought that Lakeland was a good community to grow up in (“better than D.C. “). She still knew most people in Lakeland and the new school was being built. Mrs. Hollomand’s other aunt, Bernice Walls, baby-sitted her children every day until Mrs. Hollomand retired, in addition to other children in the community. Today Ms. Walls is 93 yrs old. She was comforted to know they were safe.
Employment
Mrs. Hollomand’s mother did clerical work for the federal government. She started working when she was a teenager and continued to live with her mother. She caught the streetcar to D.C, and later drove. She retired at National Security. Mrs. Hollomand also worked there and they carpooled to work.
Mrs. Hollomand's dad worked at UMD in the dining hall.
Her grandad worked in the laundry room at UMD. She doesn’t think that the building is there any more on the campus.
Her grandmother worked at the University of Maryland, College Park laundry service with several employees from Lakeland. The laundry put sheets on a mangler and the sheets would roll out like a paper dispenser. Mrs. Hollomand was excited to visit her grandmother’s work when she was younger.
Mrs. Hollomand responded to many ads for government jobs, but you had to be 18 to take the test. She tried to take the test before she turned 18 years old, but she was not accepted. She became a temporary clerk at the Veterans Administration in 1950. It was hard for local people to get permanent jobs, because more were allotted to people from other states. Each state had a quota to fill. She later worked at the Census Bureau and the General Accounting Office. In 1955, she received a permanent job at National Security in Fort Meade. She worked there for 20 years until she was 43 yrs old. She then received disability payments. She encouraged her mother to take a job there because there were more promotions. Her stepdad worked at the printing office in D.C. for 30-40 years and then retired.
Neighbors
Adams lived next door, but their house burned down.
Education
Mrs. Hollomand attended the elementary school by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks, it is now a church. She walked to school and back home every day. Several children lived on Navajo Street and attended classes with her. The school had two classrooms, where the 1st-3rd grades were taught in one room, and the 4th-7th grades were taught in the other. There was also a teachers’ office, and two outside toilets. Although her elementary school did not have indoor water and plumbing, she describes her high school as a good building with facilities and running water.
She went to elementary school in 1937. When she was 5yrs old, she attended the 1st grade at a private school in Brentwood. She says that “they†wouldn’t let her in public school (assuming segregated neighborhood schools, but not sure). Sadie Plumber, of the Plumber family in Maryland, used her home as the school. Sadie Plumber died when Mrs. Hollomand was in the 2nd grade, so she transferred to school in Lakeland.
Her parents may have learned about Plumber’s school by talking to friends that they knew from high school. Segregation limited black students, from Laurel to Brentwood, to attend three designated schools in Upper Marlboro, Bowie/Vista, and one in Lakeland.
Lakeland High school was built in 1928 and her mother attended it during the 1st year it was built, and went to Dunbar High School in Washington before Lakeland High school was built. She started public school in the 2nd grade when she was six years old.
Mrs. Hollomand had good teachers, and it was a good school, but they did not have the resources that they needed. They didn’t have a gym. They had home economics with an old sewing machine. She doesn’t know whether white schools were better, because she never went. She did feel that whites had more schools during that time. There were schools in Laurel and in Hyattsville, so the white children could easily get to school.
Mrs. Hollomand graduated from Lakeland High School in 1947 and it closed in 1950. Fairmont Heights High School was built and it replaced Lakeland High School. Students were bused from Lakeland to Fairmont Heights.
She attended Howard University and took the street car or drove with parents when they went to work, depending on the schedule. She always remembers that her parents had a car. A lot of people in Lakeland owned cars, but not everyone had a car. Before attending Howard she attended University of Maryland and Bowie. Bowie was small. UM was a good school, but not that large. She studied health and physical education. She didn’t work while attending school. She left Howard in her junior year, and went to work for the federal government. She notes “If you had two years of college it helped, it did mean something… an undergraduate degree doesn’t mean much todayâ€.
Her mom went to Lakeland High School during the 1st year it was built. The books and the sewing machines were all old and handed down from white schools. Education was not separate but equal.
PG county schools were integrated in 1954. Diane Ligon finished high school in 1960. Diane did not attend the University of Maryland because her siblings couldn’t go. She attended Howard, although she could have attended UMD.
Mary’s children went to Greenbelt Junior High & Parkdale High School, and they both went to UMD. They lived at home with their parents and walked to UMD.
Racism & Lakeland’s discourse on Civil Rights
Mrs. Hollomand was not involved in the direct marching and protesting in the Civil Rights Movement, but there was a strong community discourse about inequality in America. Segregation was very “inconvenient†for her and many blacks. She was frustrated that she had to travel to Washington, D.C. to go to college when she could have gone to UMD across the road. Virginia didn’t provide higher education for blacks, so some were allowed to go to Howard for free. Mrs. Hollomand did not know about these opportunities.
Engagement of Teachers
Biggest difference in schools since integration was that the teachers had a lot more interest in students than they do now. Mrs. Hollomand doesn’t think that that’s because of integration, just a general trend. She notes that teachers made sure that students learned material and stayed after school. She feels that they used to be more engaged with students. She states that teachers lived in the area. Mr. Edgar Smith, from Baltimore, was the only principal at Lakeland High School from 1928-1950. He caught the train to Lakeland, stayed with the Mack family all week until Friday, and went to Baltimore on the weekends. He finally bought a car. He was Mrs. Hollomand's mother’s teacher. He stayed on the big house on the corner of Ash Street. The Mack’s granddaughter, Mrs. Houston, now lives there. Mr. Smith used to play “P-knuckle,†a card game, with Mrs. Hollomand’s parents. Smith had four or five children, and his travelling must have had a toll on his family. The Lakelanders gave him a retirement party.
The Home Economics teacher was also a dedicated teacher who worked at Lakeland High School and taught bothMrs. Hollomand and her mother.
Entertainment
Mrs. Hollomand had to go to D.C. for entertainment (like movies), because College Park was segregated. She went to theaters on U Street or to Griffin Stadium for baseball games. A trolley ran down Rhode Island Avenue and went to Florida Avenue (in D.C) and Eggington, and change to Street Car to go to U street. Shopped downtown, one streetcar went directly downtown. Transportation was not bad and was not segregated. Blacks could not go skating or bowling. She says that there was a bowling alley on Route One (possibly where Alario’s is located, she noted an Italian restaurant). There was a skating rink was in Beltsville, but was closed instead of integrating the skating rink after 1954 (Brown vs. Board of Education) .
Other communities were similar to Lakeland, such as Laurel and Brentwood. The streetcar took them to Mt. Rainer and Brentwood, but not Laurel. Sandlot baseball was popular on the weekends in Laurel and Brentwood. She played softball on the field that is now a soccer field at the College Park community center in Lakeland.
Affects on Lakeland from WWII
Mrs. Hollomand went to high school in 1943 during WWII. Most men in Lakeland were drafted. Her stepfather went to the Navy, and one of her uncles went to the Army. No one in Lakeland was killed. Many were in the war. Some were disabled. For example, Milton Williams was bitten by an animal while fighting on some island and was 100% disabled afterwards. He was not able to work again. Veterans were not given housing in College Park when they returned, especially because homes were not for sale in Lakeland.
Affects of Lakeland’s Incorporation into College Park
Lakeland incorporated into College Park in 1941. Lakeland started getting trash pickup and mailboxes. As a child she picked up mail in Berwyn at the Post Office. Everyone in Berwyn and Lakeland went to the post office to get mail. Before incorporation, there were dirt roads and no street lights. She was used to walking in the rain to school and getting muddy. Soon after incorporation, streets and sidewalks were added.
The community did not need much development, because there was not an increase in houses that were built. Families held on to the land and houses for a long time. The new elementary school was built in the 1970s. There were many empty lots, but the houses were not for sale. Many families didn’t want to sell the land.
Church
She grew up in the Baptist Church on Lakeland Road. It provided social activities for young folks. In the summer the church took them to a beach in Annapolis. It’s now closed and the government uses it as a water facility. That was the closest beach. There were some beaches in Southern Maryland. The church later took children to camp.
The congregation was composed of approximately 50-60 individuals. Most people were from Lakeland. The Smith family from Beltsville attended the church, because his aunt lived in Lakeland. Ms. Randall (Pamela Bordely’s mother), Mrs. Hollomand's aunt, and the Cagers attended the church.
Urban Renewal in Lakeland
In the late 1960s, College Park officials started planning for the Urban Renewal. Mrs. Hollomand was very active when she came back to Lakeland. She went to several meetings with HUD and the city to try to stop Urban Renewal, but the City Council would not budge. The city council placed all of the low income housing in Lakeland. Lakeland only had one person on the city council out of seven others. Mr. Smith & Mr. Lomax served as councilmen at separate times. Mr. Lomax was councilman for a long time before and after urban renewal, and was the mayor for one term before the urban renewal process.
All of the homes between Route 1 and Rhode Island Avenue were demolished. That was not bad because it flooded there a lot. They planned to build homes on stilts, but they realized that they could raise the land and have regular homes. The problem was that they only replaced the homes with low income housing and apartment buildings. Then they displaced people on the East side of the tracks and replaced it with the park and Lake Artemesia. Mrs. Hollomand used to attend elementary school on the east side. Mr. Lomax grew up on the East Side. 2/3 of Lakeland was displaced by the City Council. College Park probably gave people money and a decent house to live in as payment, but the residents did not want to go. In the 1970s, Lakeland received an influx of people because of the new high-rises.
The city was planning the new elementary school and urban renewal at the same time. They were trying to build homes over there for people who were supposed to return. They did build the school, which is now Paint Branch (elementary), but not the homes. A senior citizen building was built, but few Lakelanders live there. Most people are from other areas.
When Mrs. Hollomand was young, there was one white family that lived on Navajo. Now there are more white families in Lakeland and more renters. Recently, a lot of individuals specifically buy homes to rent it out to students. Near Lakeland Road many students have loud late parties and trash, and it disturbs some neighbors. Mrs. Hollomand's student neighbors have not caused too much trouble though.
Shopping
There used to be a Safeway on Route 1 near the Bowling Alley. There is a rumor that they closed, because students were stealing. They had to go to the Giant on Greenbelt Road. Downtown College Park’s shopping center on Knox Road has not changed much; the stores have just changed a little. The CVS has always been there.
History & Trends
The oldest lady and most lucid lady from Lakeland is Mrs. Braxton, (89yrs) who now lives in assistant living in Hyattsville. Mrs. Randall may be of help. A lot of people left after they got married and came back. They wanted to raise their children in Lakeland and wanted to come back to their family. Many Lakeland residents are family members. They always celebrated together for holidays and birthdays.
Mrs. Mary Hollomand was born in a two-story-single-family home in Lakeland at 5112 Navajo Street. She notes that her mother was born in the same house, and that it is still there with a “little added to itâ€. Her grandmother and grandfather bought the home a few years before Mrs. Hollomand's mother was born. She does not know why grandparents came to Lakeland. She notes that before her grandparents moved to Lakeland they lived somewhere on the other side of the University of Maryland, College Park. When she was a child most of the homes didn’t have running water and plumbing. Her family did not have plumbing and running water until she got out of high school. She always had electricity since she was younger.
Family
Mrs. Hollomand's biological father grew up in Bladensburg. Her parents met through social relations. They lived with Mary’s grandmother. He died when she was five years old.
Mrs. Hollomand says that her grandmother was a very strong woman. She had four children and her husband died when Mrs. Hollomand's mother was two years old. Her grandmother had never worked and they were in the process of buying a house when Mrs. Hollomand's granddad died. She found work and also took care of an additional foster child. She didn’t want Mrs. Hollomand to live in Washington D.C. when she married her first husband, because city life was frowned upon.
Mrs. Hollomand has a half brother and half sister, because her mother remarried when she was nine. Her stepdad and mother bought a home on P.S. Avenue in 1955. Her step-sister, Diane Ligon, now lives there. Her brother passed away. They went to Lakeland Elementary School where Lakeland High School used to be.
Marriages & Home Purchases
In 1956,Mrs. Hollomand got married and moved to Washington, D.C. She met her husband while shopping in College Park. She says that the Route 1 shopping center near McDonalds has not changed much since it was built in the 1950s. Her husband is from Georgetown, Washington D.C. She was not married to him for very long.
She came back to Lakeland when she separated from her 1st husband and moved back to Washington, D.C with when she married her second husband in 1962. She and her family returned to Lakeland in 1970 because she thought that it was a safe place to raise her children.
She lived on land that used to be owned by her great aunt. Her aunt’s home burned down, so Mary and her husband bought the land in 1967 and built the house in 1970. Mrs. Hollomand bought the home for $1800, from a white insurance man, who bought the land from her sick aunt, but he let her grandmother stay there until she died.
She had the land cleared after the 1970s. They didn’t have immediate plans for using it, but she and her husband had two children and need a bigger home. She thought that Lakeland was a good community to grow up in (“better than D.C. “). She still knew most people in Lakeland and the new school was being built. Mrs. Hollomand’s other aunt, Bernice Walls, baby-sitted her children every day until Mrs. Hollomand retired, in addition to other children in the community. Today Ms. Walls is 93 yrs old. She was comforted to know they were safe.
Employment
Mrs. Hollomand’s mother did clerical work for the federal government. She started working when she was a teenager and continued to live with her mother. She caught the streetcar to D.C, and later drove. She retired at National Security. Mrs. Hollomand also worked there and they carpooled to work.
Mrs. Hollomand's dad worked at UMD in the dining hall.
Her grandad worked in the laundry room at UMD. She doesn’t think that the building is there any more on the campus.
Her grandmother worked at the University of Maryland, College Park laundry service with several employees from Lakeland. The laundry put sheets on a mangler and the sheets would roll out like a paper dispenser. Mrs. Hollomand was excited to visit her grandmother’s work when she was younger.
Mrs. Hollomand responded to many ads for government jobs, but you had to be 18 to take the test. She tried to take the test before she turned 18 years old, but she was not accepted. She became a temporary clerk at the Veterans Administration in 1950. It was hard for local people to get permanent jobs, because more were allotted to people from other states. Each state had a quota to fill. She later worked at the Census Bureau and the General Accounting Office. In 1955, she received a permanent job at National Security in Fort Meade. She worked there for 20 years until she was 43 yrs old. She then received disability payments. She encouraged her mother to take a job there because there were more promotions. Her stepdad worked at the printing office in D.C. for 30-40 years and then retired.
Neighbors
Adams lived next door, but their house burned down.
Education
Mrs. Hollomand attended the elementary school by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks, it is now a church. She walked to school and back home every day. Several children lived on Navajo Street and attended classes with her. The school had two classrooms, where the 1st-3rd grades were taught in one room, and the 4th-7th grades were taught in the other. There was also a teachers’ office, and two outside toilets. Although her elementary school did not have indoor water and plumbing, she describes her high school as a good building with facilities and running water.
She went to elementary school in 1937. When she was 5yrs old, she attended the 1st grade at a private school in Brentwood. She says that “they†wouldn’t let her in public school (assuming segregated neighborhood schools, but not sure). Sadie Plumber, of the Plumber family in Maryland, used her home as the school. Sadie Plumber died when Mrs. Hollomand was in the 2nd grade, so she transferred to school in Lakeland.
Her parents may have learned about Plumber’s school by talking to friends that they knew from high school. Segregation limited black students, from Laurel to Brentwood, to attend three designated schools in Upper Marlboro, Bowie/Vista, and one in Lakeland.
Lakeland High school was built in 1928 and her mother attended it during the 1st year it was built, and went to Dunbar High School in Washington before Lakeland High school was built. She started public school in the 2nd grade when she was six years old.
Mrs. Hollomand had good teachers, and it was a good school, but they did not have the resources that they needed. They didn’t have a gym. They had home economics with an old sewing machine. She doesn’t know whether white schools were better, because she never went. She did feel that whites had more schools during that time. There were schools in Laurel and in Hyattsville, so the white children could easily get to school.
Mrs. Hollomand graduated from Lakeland High School in 1947 and it closed in 1950. Fairmont Heights High School was built and it replaced Lakeland High School. Students were bused from Lakeland to Fairmont Heights.
She attended Howard University and took the street car or drove with parents when they went to work, depending on the schedule. She always remembers that her parents had a car. A lot of people in Lakeland owned cars, but not everyone had a car. Before attending Howard she attended University of Maryland and Bowie. Bowie was small. UM was a good school, but not that large. She studied health and physical education. She didn’t work while attending school. She left Howard in her junior year, and went to work for the federal government. She notes “If you had two years of college it helped, it did mean something… an undergraduate degree doesn’t mean much todayâ€.
Her mom went to Lakeland High School during the 1st year it was built. The books and the sewing machines were all old and handed down from white schools. Education was not separate but equal.
PG county schools were integrated in 1954. Diane Ligon finished high school in 1960. Diane did not attend the University of Maryland because her siblings couldn’t go. She attended Howard, although she could have attended UMD.
Mary’s children went to Greenbelt Junior High & Parkdale High School, and they both went to UMD. They lived at home with their parents and walked to UMD.
Racism & Lakeland’s discourse on Civil Rights
Mrs. Hollomand was not involved in the direct marching and protesting in the Civil Rights Movement, but there was a strong community discourse about inequality in America. Segregation was very “inconvenient†for her and many blacks. She was frustrated that she had to travel to Washington, D.C. to go to college when she could have gone to UMD across the road. Virginia didn’t provide higher education for blacks, so some were allowed to go to Howard for free. Mrs. Hollomand did not know about these opportunities.
Engagement of Teachers
Biggest difference in schools since integration was that the teachers had a lot more interest in students than they do now. Mrs. Hollomand doesn’t think that that’s because of integration, just a general trend. She notes that teachers made sure that students learned material and stayed after school. She feels that they used to be more engaged with students. She states that teachers lived in the area. Mr. Edgar Smith, from Baltimore, was the only principal at Lakeland High School from 1928-1950. He caught the train to Lakeland, stayed with the Mack family all week until Friday, and went to Baltimore on the weekends. He finally bought a car. He was Mrs. Hollomand's mother’s teacher. He stayed on the big house on the corner of Ash Street. The Mack’s granddaughter, Mrs. Houston, now lives there. Mr. Smith used to play “P-knuckle,†a card game, with Mrs. Hollomand’s parents. Smith had four or five children, and his travelling must have had a toll on his family. The Lakelanders gave him a retirement party.
The Home Economics teacher was also a dedicated teacher who worked at Lakeland High School and taught bothMrs. Hollomand and her mother.
Entertainment
Mrs. Hollomand had to go to D.C. for entertainment (like movies), because College Park was segregated. She went to theaters on U Street or to Griffin Stadium for baseball games. A trolley ran down Rhode Island Avenue and went to Florida Avenue (in D.C) and Eggington, and change to Street Car to go to U street. Shopped downtown, one streetcar went directly downtown. Transportation was not bad and was not segregated. Blacks could not go skating or bowling. She says that there was a bowling alley on Route One (possibly where Alario’s is located, she noted an Italian restaurant). There was a skating rink was in Beltsville, but was closed instead of integrating the skating rink after 1954 (Brown vs. Board of Education) .
Other communities were similar to Lakeland, such as Laurel and Brentwood. The streetcar took them to Mt. Rainer and Brentwood, but not Laurel. Sandlot baseball was popular on the weekends in Laurel and Brentwood. She played softball on the field that is now a soccer field at the College Park community center in Lakeland.
Affects on Lakeland from WWII
Mrs. Hollomand went to high school in 1943 during WWII. Most men in Lakeland were drafted. Her stepfather went to the Navy, and one of her uncles went to the Army. No one in Lakeland was killed. Many were in the war. Some were disabled. For example, Milton Williams was bitten by an animal while fighting on some island and was 100% disabled afterwards. He was not able to work again. Veterans were not given housing in College Park when they returned, especially because homes were not for sale in Lakeland.
Affects of Lakeland’s Incorporation into College Park
Lakeland incorporated into College Park in 1941. Lakeland started getting trash pickup and mailboxes. As a child she picked up mail in Berwyn at the Post Office. Everyone in Berwyn and Lakeland went to the post office to get mail. Before incorporation, there were dirt roads and no street lights. She was used to walking in the rain to school and getting muddy. Soon after incorporation, streets and sidewalks were added.
The community did not need much development, because there was not an increase in houses that were built. Families held on to the land and houses for a long time. The new elementary school was built in the 1970s. There were many empty lots, but the houses were not for sale. Many families didn’t want to sell the land.
Church
She grew up in the Baptist Church on Lakeland Road. It provided social activities for young folks. In the summer the church took them to a beach in Annapolis. It’s now closed and the government uses it as a water facility. That was the closest beach. There were some beaches in Southern Maryland. The church later took children to camp.
The congregation was composed of approximately 50-60 individuals. Most people were from Lakeland. The Smith family from Beltsville attended the church, because his aunt lived in Lakeland. Ms. Randall (Pamela Bordely’s mother), Mrs. Hollomand's aunt, and the Cagers attended the church.
Urban Renewal in Lakeland
In the late 1960s, College Park officials started planning for the Urban Renewal. Mrs. Hollomand was very active when she came back to Lakeland. She went to several meetings with HUD and the city to try to stop Urban Renewal, but the City Council would not budge. The city council placed all of the low income housing in Lakeland. Lakeland only had one person on the city council out of seven others. Mr. Smith & Mr. Lomax served as councilmen at separate times. Mr. Lomax was councilman for a long time before and after urban renewal, and was the mayor for one term before the urban renewal process.
All of the homes between Route 1 and Rhode Island Avenue were demolished. That was not bad because it flooded there a lot. They planned to build homes on stilts, but they realized that they could raise the land and have regular homes. The problem was that they only replaced the homes with low income housing and apartment buildings. Then they displaced people on the East side of the tracks and replaced it with the park and Lake Artemesia. Mrs. Hollomand used to attend elementary school on the east side. Mr. Lomax grew up on the East Side. 2/3 of Lakeland was displaced by the City Council. College Park probably gave people money and a decent house to live in as payment, but the residents did not want to go. In the 1970s, Lakeland received an influx of people because of the new high-rises.
The city was planning the new elementary school and urban renewal at the same time. They were trying to build homes over there for people who were supposed to return. They did build the school, which is now Paint Branch (elementary), but not the homes. A senior citizen building was built, but few Lakelanders live there. Most people are from other areas.
When Mrs. Hollomand was young, there was one white family that lived on Navajo. Now there are more white families in Lakeland and more renters. Recently, a lot of individuals specifically buy homes to rent it out to students. Near Lakeland Road many students have loud late parties and trash, and it disturbs some neighbors. Mrs. Hollomand's student neighbors have not caused too much trouble though.
Shopping
There used to be a Safeway on Route 1 near the Bowling Alley. There is a rumor that they closed, because students were stealing. They had to go to the Giant on Greenbelt Road. Downtown College Park’s shopping center on Knox Road has not changed much; the stores have just changed a little. The CVS has always been there.
History & Trends
The oldest lady and most lucid lady from Lakeland is Mrs. Braxton, (89yrs) who now lives in assistant living in Hyattsville. Mrs. Randall may be of help. A lot of people left after they got married and came back. They wanted to raise their children in Lakeland and wanted to come back to their family. Many Lakeland residents are family members. They always celebrated together for holidays and birthdays.
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