Loch Raven Village

Neighborhoods: The cheek-and-jowl Loch Raven Village and Knettishall Location: Mostly in Towson (Baltimore County) Average sales price: $219,000 (January through June) Notable features: Brick townhouses built in the 1940s and '50s, with more personality than most of the newer stuff. The yards are large enough for flower gardens, and Interstate 695 is less than a mile away. (Why "mostly in Towson"? Because the eastern half of Loch Raven Village is in Parkville.

Tryko Partners LLC, a Brick, N.J.-based private equity real estate group, said Tuesday it purchased the 253-unit Park Raven apartments in Baltimore from Continental Realty Corp. The purchase price was not immediately available. With the acquisition, Tryko owns and operates 1,137 apartment units within a three-mile radius. Park Raven, with 55 brick buildings on nearly 20 acres on Ramblewood Road, was built in 1949 and is about 95 percent occupied. The property, near Good Samaritan Hospital and two miles from Belvedere Square, underwent a major renovation in 2006, including updated kitchens and baths.

In an attempt to distinguish Loch Raven Village from what residents see as the urban sprawl of Towson, the neighborhood association has put up a series of colorful banners to give the area an identity.On light poles along busy roads, including Putty Hill Avenue, Pleasant Plains Road and Glen Keith Boulevard, hang 34 banners identifying Loch Raven Village -- an unusual, county-funded effort to make the community stand out from the surrounding areas of Towson and Parkville, which residents feel threaten to overshadow it.There's a tendency to see suburban neighborhoods "all as one great sea of homes, and yet they're not," said David Nielsen, member of the Loch Raven Association's board of directors.

Over 50 years ago, Calvert Hall relocated from its cramped site on Cathedral and Mulberry Streets in Baltimore to a more spacious, 30 acre location in Towson. As both the school and the surrounding neighborhood developed, Calvert Hall has taken particular measures to assure harmony for all concerned. Each day, over 1,225 college-bound young men fully utilize our state-of-the-art facilities. Within the last three years alone, over $15 million has been invested on a variety of enhancements ranging from improved landscaping to building additions and renovations that help ensure that Calvert Hall is a safe and comfortable educational environment.

With its Colonial, brick Georgian townhouses and wide, tree-lined streets, Loch Raven Village, a horseshoe-shaped community just north of the city line, east of Towson and west of Parkville, is a neighborhood with a storybook feel.At night, white candles cast their lights from many front windows, giving the neighborhood a Norman Rockwell glow."They are not Christmas decorations," said Wayne Skinner, a four-year resident and board member of the Loch Raven Village Community Association. "The candles are pretty, and people like to keep them up all year long."

The Rev. Kevin Walter Brooksbank, an associate pastor at a Loch Raven Village Roman Catholic parish, died of a viral infection and kidney failure Sunday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 35. Born in Baltimore and raised in Cockeysville, he attended Warren Elementary School and was a 1990 Dulaney High School graduate, where he played soccer and was active in dramatics. He earned a degree in computer science at Frostburg State University, where he also played soccer and was twice awarded the Gilbert Gray Memorial Award for "exceptional work ethic on the field, an outstanding attitude toward his teammates, and a determined overall desire to play to the best of his abilities and have fun while doing it."

Tryko Partners LLC, a Brick, N.J.-based private equity real estate group, said Tuesday it purchased the 253-unit Park Raven apartments in Baltimore from Continental Realty Corp. The purchase price was not immediately available. With the acquisition, Tryko owns and operates 1,137 apartment units within a three-mile radius. Park Raven, with 55 brick buildings on nearly 20 acres on Ramblewood Road, was built in 1949 and is about 95 percent occupied. The property, near Good Samaritan Hospital and two miles from Belvedere Square, underwent a major renovation in 2006, including updated kitchens and baths.

Mollie C. Kirk, several of whose survivors live in Maryland, died Sunday of heart failure at her home farm in Independence, Va., at age 102.Services are set for 3 p.m. today at Gold Hill Baptist Church in that southwestern Virginia community.One of Mrs. Kirk's five surviving children, two of her 12 grandchildren and one of her five great-grandchildren live in Maryland.Born in 1890 in Bridle Creek, Va., the former Mollie C. Phipps attended schools there. She was married in 1917 to C. Mastin Kirk, who died in 1972.

Neighborhoods:: The cheek-and-jowl Loch Raven Village and Knettishall Location:: Mostly in Towson (Baltimore County) Average sales price: : $219,000 (January through June) Notable features: : Brick townhouses built in the 1940s and '50s, with more personality than most of the newer stuff. The yards are large enough for flower gardens, and Interstate 695 is less than a mile away. (Why "mostly in Towson"? Because the eastern half of Loch Raven Village is in Parkville.) You've got all the locational benefits of Towson here - malls, colleges, recreation - without the usual Towson price.

A proposal by a Sheppard Pratt subsidiary to open two homes for the mentally ill in Loch Raven Village near Towson has created an uproar in the 50-year-old townhouse community of almost 1,500 homes.Residents are bombarding elected officials with letters and faxes of protest. Towson Republican Councilman Douglas B. Riley, who supports his constituents' opposition, calls the furor one of the hottest issues in his seven-year tenure."It's a very emotional issue," said Lily Raines, who lives near the site of one of the proposed homes in the 8100 block of Clydebank Road.

Woodward Reese "Wood" Smith, a retired ironworker who during his nearly 50-year career worked on some of the nation's most notable bridges, died July 13 of pneumonia at his Loch Raven Village home. He was 93. The son of a construction superintendent and a homemaker, Mr. Smith was born and raised in New Market, Pa., and was a 1935 graduate of New Cumberland High School. Mr. Smith worked as a laborer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. After attending business college for a year in Harrisburg, he went to work for Bethlehem Steel Corp.

Residents of the 1,470 brick townhouses of Loch Raven Village say they are hoping for the best now that the 500-unit Loch Raven Village Apartments complex in their midst is up for sale. The apartments have changed hands a number of times over the years, said real estate professional Leslea Knauff, who has lived in the village since 1975. "We're waiting and watching and hoping the sale results in a good buyer," said Knauff. "It will be a huge investment for anybody who buys it. Nobody who does that will let the property run down.

Neighborhoods: The cheek-and-jowl Loch Raven Village and Knettishall Location: Mostly in Towson (Baltimore County) Average sales price: $219,000 (January through June) Notable features: Brick townhouses built in the 1940s and '50s, with more personality than most of the newer stuff. The yards are large enough for flower gardens, and Interstate 695 is less than a mile away. (Why "mostly in Towson"? Because the eastern half of Loch Raven Village is in Parkville.

Neighborhoods:: The cheek-and-jowl Loch Raven Village and Knettishall Location:: Mostly in Towson (Baltimore County) Average sales price: : $219,000 (January through June) Notable features: : Brick townhouses built in the 1940s and '50s, with more personality than most of the newer stuff. The yards are large enough for flower gardens, and Interstate 695 is less than a mile away. (Why "mostly in Towson"? Because the eastern half of Loch Raven Village is in Parkville.) You've got all the locational benefits of Towson here - malls, colleges, recreation - without the usual Towson price.

William F. Logan Sr., a retired Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. electrical engineer who was active in his church, died Oct. 5 of esophageal cancer at his Loch Raven Village home. He was 79. Mr. Logan was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated in 1948 from Fort Hamilton High School. He served in the Army in communications from 1951 to 1954. In 1956, he moved to Baltimore to go to work for the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River. Two years later, he joined BGE. While working at BGE during the day, Mr. Logan earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering studying at night at the Johns Hopkins University.

No fireworks for the Fourth of July? Residents of Loch Raven Village exploded when they heard their beloved tradition was in jeopardy. The spark of civic protest was lit when residents learned that the Associates of Loch Raven Village, a volunteer group that manages and pays for the show, was told it would have to pay for a $3,100 fence around a construction site at Loch Raven Academy where the display is held. The group, whose funds come from voluntary membership dues and fundraisers, said it could not afford to pay for the fence and the fireworks show, which alone cost over $8,000.

The Rev. Joseph L. McManus, the retired pastor of a Loch Raven Village Roman Catholic church and a Towson University chaplain, died of heart disease Saturday at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 76. Born in Baltimore and raised in Mount Washington, he attended the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Parochial School and was a 1948 Loyola High School graduate. Father McManus, who attended Loyola College and received his religious education at St. Mary's Seminary, was ordained in 1956. He became an associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Towson and remained there until 1977, when he was named chaplain at the Towson University Newman House.

Loch Raven Village has all the traits that Baltimore County officials find so worrisome in neighborhoods inside the Beltway.The brick rowhouses, nearly 50 years old, lack the features of modern housing. The original homeowners are elderly, and many are moving away. Busy roads connecting commercial strips slice through the community. Poverty presses at its edges.Still, the community of 1,472 rowhouses is proof that the county's older suburbs can thrive. Thanks to a vigilant community association and a neighborliness that dates back to the development's origins, Loch Raven Village provides a model for the county's campaign to preserve those areas -- and a testament to the power of community spirit.

The Rev. Kevin Walter Brooksbank, an associate pastor at a Loch Raven Village Roman Catholic parish, died of a viral infection and kidney failure Sunday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 35. Born in Baltimore and raised in Cockeysville, he attended Warren Elementary School and was a 1990 Dulaney High School graduate, where he played soccer and was active in dramatics. He earned a degree in computer science at Frostburg State University, where he also played soccer and was twice awarded the Gilbert Gray Memorial Award for "exceptional work ethic on the field, an outstanding attitude toward his teammates, and a determined overall desire to play to the best of his abilities and have fun while doing it."