Lawyers Hill

Howard County residents who wish to comment on the proposed historic district for Lawyers Hill will have a chance to do so tonight at a public hearing before the zoning board.The hearing takes place at 8 p.m. in the Banneker Room at the county office building.The proposed Lawyers Hill historic district in Elkridge encompasses 54 homes along Montgomery Road, Belmont Woods Road, Elibank Drive, Old Lawyers Hill Road, Lawyers Hill Road and River Road.If the zoning board were to approve the request, Lawyers Hill would become the county's second such district after historic Ellicott City.

Before it became "The Wall That Ate Some Cars," it was just a stone wall on Mulligans Hill Lane, bracing a 20-foot-high embankment - stalwart as the steep hills that give Ellicott City's historic district much of its character. Then in early September 2011 came the rains of Tropical Storm Lee, and in the dead of night a section of the wall that had stood since before the Civil War collapsed. Six cars parked along the wall were crushed or damaged. Parking spaces vanished under tons of stone quickly trucked in to shore up the embankment.

In 1924, a Sun writer described the Lawyers Hill section of Elkridge as "a neighborhood which clings affectionately to the traditions of the past."Those words still apply, as evidenced by the efforts of Lawyers Hill residents to have their community listed on the National Register of Historic Places.A more likely candidate for the National Register would be hard to find. One of America's first commuter suburbs, Lawyers Hill was established 150 years ago as a summer community for a group of Baltimore judges and attorneys.

One thing has always been clear to the residents of Lawyers Hill, a historic neighborhood perched along a dramatic ridge of land where the state's tidewater basin leaps 300 feet to the Piedmont Plateau and sweeping views of the Patapsco River Valley are common. The world will change around them, even if they resist. The small Elkridge neighborhood, located at Interstate 95 just south of the Patapsco River, began in the 1840s as a summer retreat for prominent Baltimore families escaping the bustle of the city, who built ornate homes veiled by acres of woods.

When faced with the possibility of historic designations for their properties or communities, homeowners and business people often fight like mad. They argue that such a designation robs them of control over their own structures, allowing some local committee to give thumbs up or down to any paint job or addition a building owner might propose.The folks in the Lawyers Hill section of Elkridge feel differently about historic designations. For the past few years, in fact, residents have sought to have their community officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is nice to know, in this material age, when society rushe from one season to another, that there is still a neighborhood which clings affectionately to the traditions of the past . . .That assessment of the Lawyers Hill section of Elkridge, in eastern Howard County, was offered by a Sun writer in 1924. Nearly 70 years later, the words still ring true, as evidenced by the efforts of Lawyers Hill residents to have their community listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Finding a more likely candidate for the register would be difficult.

Calling a plan to develop single-family homes in Elkridge's Lawyers Hill historic district "irresponsible" and "destructive," members of the Howard County Historic District Commission have recommended that the county reject the project.But the commission's recommendation, decided at a meeting Thursday, is only an advisory opinion that will not immediately derail the plan by Lawyers Hill residents Timothy and Susan Coleman to build nine homes on 5 acres surrounding their 1850s mansion known as Hursley Manor.

Calling a plan to develop single family homes in Elkridge's Lawyers Hill historic district "irresponsible" and "destructive," members of the Howard County Historic District Commission have recommended that the county reject the project.But the commission's recommendation, decided at a meeting Thursday, is only an advisory opinion that will not immediately derail the plan by Lawyers Hill residents Timothy and Susan Coleman to build nine homes on 5 acres around their 1850s mansion known as Hursley Manor.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT the significance of Howard County's historic district designation are at issue in the Battle of Lawyers Hill being waged in Elkridge. The would-be developers and the residents of that 19th century summer retreat of the forensic class appear to be at odds over the county's 1994 protections for the historic community.The designation doesn't mean that no new buildings can be erected in the residential district. But neither does it allow common zoning subdivision codes to override the historic preservation considerations.

In the late 1600s, when colonists sailed inland along the Patapsco River, a port sprang up just below a ridge that was inhabited by a number of elk. The area was called the "Ridge of Elk," while the port became known as Elk Ridge Landing. Today, Elkridge has an identity just as unique. According to Kevin Doyle, former president of the Elkridge Community Association and co-chair of the Route 1 Revitalization Task Force, there is a strong sense of community in the area, despite the fact that the town is bisected by Interstate 95. "The location is a blessing and a downfall," he says.

The tie that binds in Lawyers Hill is a small, aging community hall -- optimistically named the Elk Ridge Assembly Rooms, as it has a grand total of four. Inside its quaint main room, residents gather for summer potluck dinners and Fourth of July parties, keeping alive the traditions of times gone by. Neighbors say the hall is the reason they're an unusually close-knit group. And as it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the 130-year- old wooden structure -- the hall is again offering residents a reason to rally together.

The tie that binds in Lawyers Hill is a small, aging community hall - optimistically named the Elk Ridge Assembly Rooms, as it has a grand total of four. Inside its quaint main room, residents gather for summer potluck dinners and Fourth of July parties, keeping alive the traditions of times gone by. Neighbors say the hall is the reason they're an unusually close-knit group. And as it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the 130-year- old wooden structure, the hall is again offering residents a reason to rally together.

Quick quiz: Who was John Brown, and what are the poems about him? Score one meager point for remembering "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave." That's the line from a popular Civil War ditty "John Brown's Body" about firebrand abolitionist John Brown. In 1859, Brown led an anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, W.Va. (about an hour west of Howard County). Brown's attempt at revolution and slave-liberation failed, and he was hanged six weeks later in nearby Charles Town, W.Va.

Elkridge resident Franklin Cager, 88, and his nephew William were interviewed by folklorist Alison Kahn on June 21, 1999, as part of an oral history project coordinated by Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway Inc. This is the second of two installments from that interview. Franklin Cager: See, that's where my mother worked at [Lawyers Hill]. ... She was a cook ... [for the] Dobbins. Yeah, Dobbins and Murrays and Bowdens. ... used to call them the blue bloods. Now all them, you know, all them people is gone, but Lawyers Hill is still there, and they call that "Historic District."

Helen Voris is a local historian who lives on Lawyers Hill in Elkridge. These excerpts are from her book "Elkridge: Where It All Began," published last year, describing 19th-century life on the hill. Residents of Lawyers Hill mentioned in the book include Judge George Washington Dobbin and lawyers Thomas Donaldson, J.H.B. Latrobe and Benjamin Waters. The Dobbin sisters - Jeannette, Annette and Rebecca - were granddaughters of G. W. Dobbin's; George Dobbin Brown was his grandson. Helen Voris and her family purchased their home, a property then called "Wayside," from Jeannette Dobbin.

ELKRIDGE, LIKE many towns in Maryland, is a fusion of old and new. With origins dating to the 17th century, Elkridge is the oldest settlement in Howard County. However, the recent residential and commercial development boom has concealed much of that history from all but longtime residents and discerning observers. Last week, longtime Elkridge resident Helen Voris conducted an Elkridge heritage tour, pointing out historic sites in the community. Sponsored by the Elk Ridge Heritage Society, the tour began with a slide presentation at the Elkridge library branch - a building with a modern design that epitomizes the new Elkridge.

Set in the shadow of the historic Thomas Viaduct, Lawyers Hill is, most likely, one of Baltimore's oldest suburbs.And today, the area located near Relay and Elkridge still resonates of the past. "We're trying to preserve this neighborhood as a way of life that is a little less hurried," said one longtime resident."The neighborhood has a candlelight tour every Christmas, and the tours still have the feel of an old-time get-together," said Ellicott City attorney David Thomas.One of the area's first residents was Judge George W. Dobbin, who visited the country setting in the early 1840s to find relief from his asthma.