Law and Order

... But serious concerns could not be escaped. The Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925, pitted William Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow over the teaching of evolution and creation in public schools. The nation was mesmerized by the trial of Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The professed anarchists were convicted of murder during a Massachusetts shoe factory robbery, causing worldwide protests by those who believed they were convicted because of their political beliefs. They were executed in 1927.

The last execution in Anne Arundel County was in 1919, when John Snowden, a black man, was hanged at the Anne Arundel County jail on Calvert Street for raping a white woman. Efforts to clear Snowden's name continue to this day.

"People said everyone used to line up down at the jail to watch the hangings," said Strohm Evans, an attorney whose father was a county Circuit Court judge. The 1920s were not an easy time for black residents of the county. Jim Crow laws and school segregation were considered the normal way of life.

But extremists were a concern everywhere. In 1922, Oklahoma was placed under martial law to control violence and curb Ku Klux Klan activity. Fear existed here as well. "I recall when I was 8 all the white Protestants were Ku Klux Klansmen," said Joseph W. Alton Jr., 80, former county executive and state senator.

"I'll never forget standing on the curb with my father, watching the men in hooded suits marching down Chesapeake Avenue to Horn Point in Eastport. The white horses were curb to curb," Mr. Alton said. "My father told me, 'Take a good look because someday those men are going to be so ashamed of what they are doing.'"

Bustling Annapolis

Long before the idea of shopping malls was born, Annapolis was a marketplace. Main Street was full of shops owned and operated by local people. In many instances store owners lived above the shop. "I can remember when Main Street was two-way parking on both sides and the trolley would run both ways," said Morris Snyder, owner of Snyder's Bootery. Annapolis was a central point, drawing people from the outlying areas and even from across the Chesapeake Bay. "The ferry was at the foot of King George Street and it went from there to Matapeake," Mr. Snyder said.

Many of the stores on Main Street today occupy buildings that have been in commercial use for centuries. The Snyder's building on Main Street and Conduit was one of the city's oldest drug stores in the 1920s.

The Naval Academy was the city's largest employer just as it is today, although in those days, its grounds and populace were much less imposing. In 1925, there were 445 graduates compared to the 868 who entered the fleet in May, said Gary LaValley, archivist with the academy. And the academy itself was much smaller, with much of its expansive grounds yet to be created by landfills along the Severn River.

The seat of three governments

As the seat of three governments the state capital, the county seat and municipal government Annapolis bustled with legislative activity. Albert Ritchie, a Baltimore Democrat, was ensconced in the Governor's Mansion from 1920 to 1935, the longest serving governor in state history. A strict states rights advocate in the face of increasing federal expansion, Ritchie fought to streamline government, and for the state to determine issues like women's suffrage. His rigorous scrutiny of new programs and administrative reforms allowed him to cut state property taxes from about 36 cents per $100 of assessed value 1919 to about 26 cents in 1929. The national Democratic Party in the White House all during the decade wasn't much help to Ritchie. It was racked by the problems with the League of Nations, the continuing burden of World War I taxes and the high cost of living. Meanwhile, local government was firmly rooted in the City Council and County Commissioners systems. "The City Council was concerned about many of the same things it's concerned with today," said Emily Peake, a local historian who was born and raised in Annapolis and now lives in Riva. "One thing they seemed to be very much into was getting more houses built, and trying to give people the services they needed."

The needs of a growing population

Roads, water and sewer needed to accommodate a growing population were just beginning to be created.

As far back as 1925, residents were complaining about traffic on West Street, according to The Evening Capital. Louis Phipps Jr. remembers well the subject of roads. His father, Louis Sr., at the age of 27 was the youngest Annapolis alderman. He was a proponent of improved roads but that made quite a few people mad.

"My father wanted to widen Constitution Boulevard and Amos Garrett Boulevard," he said. "People said he wanted to do it because he was in the (car) business. But he had a vision that cars would eventually dominate the nation and they did." Mr. Phipps later become a mayor and four-term Maryland senator, selling cars in Annapolis for more than 60 years.

Police protection emerged as the most important service in the public's mind. If officers were at a minimum it was probably adequate for the population.

"The police department in Annapolis by 1916 only had six people," Ms. Peake said. "You're talking about a town with a population of 7,500."

A lost identity?

For some old-line Annapolis families, changes in lifestyles over the last hundred years have not been all good, raising questions about what the next millennium will bring. "Anne Arundel has lost its integrity as a county. It's just lines on a map. The culture has been overrun and all the old things have been buried in terms of values, attitudes, dialect, and the importance of agriculture," said Mr. Kelbaugh.

For Mr. Campbell, the millennium is a day he has been waiting for all his life. "When I was in my teens I used to think I'll have to be 80 to see it come to pass," he said. He reached that goal in October and now only has a month to go. Next

Published 11/28/99, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright 2000, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

Anne Arundel County History: Roaring Changes, Law and Order, The Depression, The New Deal, An Education, War & Remembrance.

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