Black Families Helped Cultivate Severna Park’s Early History

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On the edge of the Severna Forest community – on the other side of a winding, pothole-ridden, single-lane road flanked by woods – is a neighborhood known by its inhabitants as Packtown. That area, named for a black family that has lived there for generations, is just one of many Severna Park landmarks named for a host of families – the Whites, the Packs, the Days, the Jennings, the Cagers, the Johnsons, the Glenns, the Somervilles – who were vital to the early development of Severna Park.

One of the earliest black community leaders was Rev. George Asbury White. Born on March 5, 1896, White grew up on a farm by what is now the intersection of Whites Road and Ritchie Highway. His family picked fruits and vegetables from the fields and sold them in Annapolis, and as a 10-year-old boy, White helped Oscar Hatton, the developer of Severna Park.

“Mr. Hatton must have loved trees of all different types: spruce trees, holly trees, white pine trees and gum trees,” said Severna Park historian F. Scott Jay. “The catalpa trees that [White] planted with Oscar Hatton are still on Maple Avenue.”

If White and Hatton had anything in common, it was work ethic. As he got older, White bought a septic truck and ran his own business. He also cut the knee-high grass at the corner of Riggs Avenue and Evergreen Road, planted corn by Benfield Road and was a bus contractor. He worked day and night with those jobs, and he later cut railroad ties for the old Baltimore Annapolis Railroad.

While he maintained a close relationship to God, it wasn’t until 1960, at the age of 64, that he became a pastor of Mount Tabor United Methodist Church in Crownsville. He had previously attended services at Wayman GoodHope A.M.E. Church and Asbury Town Neck United Methodist Church – two churches that have served as staples of the black community in Severna Park for more than a century.

White lived to be 101 years old after having two successful marriages, seven children, 16 grandchildren and more than 40 great-grandchildren.

While the Whites are one family that worships at Asbury Town Neck, another is the Pack family. A descendent of the Pack family, Cyril Palmer grew up when schools were still segregated. His mother, Gladys Palmer, was instrumental in the conception of Jones Elementary. Cyril said there were about 150 black people living in his Jones Station neighborhood during his childhood.

“We didn’t have any recreational place to play until [Jones Elementary] was built,” Cyril said. “There were no sidewalks, and the B&A train went through there … Nobody in the community, in my early days, had running water. We had to go outside to use the toilet. But we had a tight-knit community.”

Delores Cager, also a Pack descendent, said that closeness was why so many black parents raised their families in Severna Park. “Families loved together, they stayed together and they prayed together,” Cager said.

Religion was essential, not only as a lifestyle, but also because many of the children were without TVs and other forms of entertainment. “Not having TV, we prayed every morning,” Cager recalled. “Before bed, the whole family came together and there might be three or four families in one room. A house might have eight or nine rooms.”

Cager said it’s not uncommon to see large family reunions – a joyous scene that some passersby may have witnessed during a past summer while cruising along Hoyle Lane or a residential street near Packtown. “When black folks have family reunions, it ends up being big,” Cager said. “We could have 200 or 300 people show up.”

Black families continue their traditions today, worshipping in the same churches. Palmer attends Wayman Good Hope A.M.E. Church, which has been around for 131 years under various names. Its initial facility was built on 3 acres of land that now serves as Carpenter's Hill Cemetery in Round Bay. The congregation now gathers on Hoyle Lane.

Members of Asbury Town Neck United Methodist Church have prayed together since 1888, although the church name has changed several times. The White, Pack, Jennings and Glenn families all attend Asbury Town Neck.

Though there is still a strong foundation of leaders in the black community, the population has dwindled because some descendants could not afford to stay in Severna Park. Cyril estimates that his community is down to about 40 people, less than one-third the population when he was growing up. Still, there are lingering signs of the people who called Severna Park home – Whites Road, Jennings Road and Packtown.

“It’s not what it used to be,” Palmer said. “But as long as [black homeowners] are not selling out to developers, the future doesn’t look bleak.”

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