Keswick

Roland Park residents are distressed by the prospect that their neighbor, the Baltimore Country Club, may sell 17 prime acres of open space in the community to a company that wants to build an assisted-living facility on the property. If the sale goes through, zoning officials will face a dilemma: balancing the benefits of preserving the city's green spaces against the long-term need for more housing tailored to the elderly as the population ages. Those goals need not be contradictory if community residents and the Keswick Multi-Care Center, which has offered $12.5 million for the property, are willing to work together.

The insurgents met to plot their next move, over lemonade and chocolate chip cookies. The level of their anger was such that even the tiniest revolutionary, a mere child, used the strongest language that her young ears probably had ever heard. "I think this is inappropriate," she squeaked. The defiance may be largely decorous, but Roland Park is mad. The lawns of this placid neighborhood lately have sprouted, along with the usual summer hydrangeas and lilies, signs of the ire: "Keswick NO!"

About 400 Roland Park residents overflowed St. David's Church and spilled onto the sidewalk last night at a meeting that organizers called to gauge interest in the Baltimore Country Club's proposed sale of 17 prime acres of green space. Neighborhood residents spoke overwhelmingly against a plan that calls for the club to sell part of its property to the Keswick Multi-Care Center, which has agreed to purchase the land for $12.5 million. Since the deal was disclosed last month, Roland Park organizers have protested outside the club, collected hundreds of signatures from residents opposing the deal and held a door-to-door campaign informing them of the proposal.

Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore plans to build a $195 million continuing-care retirement community on Roland Park land now owned by the Baltimore Country Club, its CEO said yesterday. Keswick has agreed to buy 17 acres of club property where members once played tennis. The sale requires approval by two-thirds of the club's 2,000 voting members, with a vote set for July 15. A letter sent by the Baltimore Country Club to members said the price was $12.5 million, which Keswick confirmed.

Jannie L. Campbell, a retired factory worker and housekeeper, died in her sleep Saturday at Keswick Multi-Care Center. She was 85. Jannie Lue Terry was born and raised in Hodges, S.C. After graduating from high school in 1940, she moved to Baltimore with a sister. Mrs. Campbell worked at W.E. Hooper and later was a housekeeper for several decades before retiring in the early 1980s. The longtime Rogers Avenue resident, who had moved to Keswick last year, was a member for 67 years of Gillis Memorial Christian Community Church, where she co-founded several groups, including Just Us Girls and the Friendly Group.

A typical weekday begins this way for several denizens of Keswick: They get out of bed, stroll a couple of blocks away to the Evergreen, the favorite neighborhood coffee bar, trade neighborly pleasantries and then head back home. Where they begin their day's work. An unusually high number of entrepreneurs who work from their homes are clustered in this tiny neighborhood, which is tucked between Roland Park and Guilford. And that common trait among neighbors here has helped them to rely on one another for the kind of workplace networking that might otherwise come from a colleague at the next cubicle.

MARIE ERNANDES HENRY, 81. We mourn the loss of our dearly beloved matriarch MARIE ERNANDES HENRY, who passed away on January 7, 2006, at the Keswick Home in Baltimore, Maryland where she had lived for the past 24 years. As well as playing a central role in the lives of her family, Marie played an important role in the workings and social life at the Home, becoming a friend and counselor to many. Always young at heart, she was President of the Young at Hearts Club and being a true leader, she served as Vice President of the Home's residents' committee.

On January 14, 2005, HOWARD D. WHITTINGTON; beloved husband of Rosetta J. Whittington; devoted father of Ronald H. Whittington; loving brother of Jack Whittington, Joanne Noble and the late James (Bill) Whittington, Jr., and Janice Kreager. Friends are invited to call at the Burgee-Henss-Seitz Funeral Home, Inc., 3631 Falls Road, on Sunday from 3 to 6 P.M. Services will be held on Monday at 10 A.M. at the Keswick Multi Care Center Auditorium, 700 W. 40th Street. Interment in Wiseburg Cemetery.

On May 2004, BARABA KESWICK TRUAX, 56, born in Los Angeles CA. She is survived by her children David, Brian, Catherine and Jacqueline, all of Baltimore, and Alicia Keswick of Temecula, CA; her mother, Alicia Keswick of Temecula, CA; her sister Lorraine Dillender (Les) of Placentia, CA, her sister Eileen Keswick of Temecula, CA, and her brother William Keswick (Judy) of Chico, CA. She is also survived her niece Angela Dillender (John) of Oakland, CA. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, May 8, at the Church of the Nativity, Timonium, at 12 P.M.

Patricia Ellen Bearman Wanner, an office manager and longtime church volunteer, died Tuesday at Keswick Multi-Care Center in North Baltimore of complications from cancer. She was 74 and formerly lived in Mays Chapel. The Indiana native moved to Baltimore after graduating from high school. She was employed at Prudential Insurance Co.'s Padonia Road office for 44 years, working her way up from a secretary to office manager before retiring in 1993, said her stepdaughter, Charlotte J. Wanner of Rodgers Forge.