Anne Arundel felt the Depression, but was spared the brunt

Julia Feldman remembers the Depression years in Annapolis as ones when people did without but didn't really mind because everyone was in it together. The Feldmans might have done better than most because they owned a grocery store. Mrs. Feldman worked alongside her parents and brothers in Levin's Grocery on Calvert Street, one of the few food stores in Annapolis other than A&P.

"Times weren't great, but we always had food," Mrs. Feldman said. "Everybody worked, and it was a living. Not like today where people are afraid of work."

The mom and pop store sold everything from suits to hogs' heads to butter. People bought on credit, paying when they could.

What county residents recall of the 1930s was a time of few luxuries but also simpler joys.

"The old-timers could take anything and make something out of it," said Leon Wolfe, owner of Leon's Barbershop in Eastport for more than 50 years. "We didn't throw anything away. My mother grew apples and made them into apple pudding," Mr. Wolfe said. "Most people had an arbor where they made wine. We also had a cow."

It is the kind of memory that is common for people who survived this century's worst economic crisis.

"We were poor but very resourceful," said former Annapolis mayor Joseph W. Alton Jr., now 80. "I recall having one shirt, and my mother would wash it every night and starch it until it was so stiff I couldn't turn my neck."

From 1929 when the Great Depression hit until Dec. 7, 1941 when the United States entered World War II, the nation was consumed with high unemployment, the aftereffects of World War I and moving toward a more mechanized world.

For many with investments on Wall Street, the Depression spelled total financial ruin. People were jumping off buildings in New York City after Black Tuesday on Oct. 29, 1929.

But few in Anne Arundel County were affected directly by the crash. The state did not feel the full impact of the Depression until the early 1930s.

Through the Depression years, the Naval Academy and the county's 450 acres of shoreline continued to be steady employers.

In 1929, Anne Arundel County contributed to Maryland's harvesting of 1.8 million bushels of oysters. The state number grew to 3.1 million by 1941.

What hurt most here were the plummeting farm prices.

"The Depression wiped out a lot of people," said Willard Mumford, chairman of the Anne Arundel Trust for Preservation.

"People lost their money and fortunes and went into great debt," he said. Farmers were forced to sell off their land at cheap prices, and many of them went out of business altogether. Much of the land was sold to developers, and the truck farming that had dominated the county north of Annapolis migrated to the Eastern Shore.

"You were lucky if you didn't lose your farm and your home," said Martin Zehner, a farmer in Davidsonville. "In my case we didn't have any money to lose, because we had no investments in the stock market."

Navy to the rescue

Some historians and old-time Annapolis residents say it was the Navy that saved the city from the full brunt of the Depression.

Servicemen attached to the Naval Academy frequently remained in the city when their enlistments were up, local historian Jane McWilliams said in William Bradford's book "Anne Arundel County." Families of naval officers also stayed while the men were at sea.

People were lured to Anne Arundel to work for the Naval Academy or the Experimental Station at North Severn. And by 1937, the academy received a staggering $1 million for expansion of Bancroft Hall to relieve overcrowding. The construction project provided numerous jobs.

In short, Annapolis, which had always relied on the academy for good jobs, had become a Navy town.

Wheatley Christiansen, born and raised in Eastport, worked for Black & Decker in Towson several days a week until he was able to get a coveted job with the academy. "I went to work for the Naval Academy in 1938 cutting grass for $20.64 a week," he said.

After a deduction for his retirement, his weekly paycheck amounted to $19.92. "That was a good job, especially when some people had no work," Mr. Christiansen said.

But the academy's role in Annapolis was more than just jobs.

Capt. Richard D. Lazenby, 78, grew up on Taney Avenue about a quarter of a mile from the Naval Academy a factor that has shaped his life.

Although his father, F. Marion Lazenby, was a West Point man, Mr. Lazenby knew he wanted to attend the academy.

"Growing up in Annapolis I just enjoyed watching sports," he said. "The first Army-Navy game I saw was in 1933. It was at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Navy won 3-0." Navy football was a rich tradition, and a popular one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association reported that football revenues during 1937 amounted to $379,612, when returns from 13 other sports only amounted to $1,366.

His love of Navy traditions was born while watching midshipmen march past the famed statue of Tecumseh outside Bancroft Hall.

"During exam time or on the days of the big Army-Navy game, midshipmen would march out of Bancroft Hall by the statue and throw pennies at it for good luck," Capt. Lazenby said. "When you marched you would throw pennies with your left hand and salute with your right hand."

Once Capt. Lazenby got to the academy in 1939 he never missed a game until graduation in 1942. In fact, attendance at the Army-Navy game was compulsory in his day. While he didn't play football, he ultimately lettered in swimming, soccer and lacrosse. Another tradition was born with Capt. Lazenby during the Depression years, that of Navy Rotary night.

His father, owner of Annapolis Dairy Products Co. on West Street, created Navy night to improve relations with the community. The Navy post-graduate school was located in Annapolis and its several hundred young officers and their families lived here. But post graduates complained of a severe housing shortage, high rents and bad treatment from local merchants. At the same time merchants were complaining about competition from the midshipmen's store. Townspeople could buy, at practically wholesale prices, anything from soap to furniture if they had friends connected with the academy.

The Rotary Club stepped in, persuading the Navy department to limit sales to midshipmen and Navy personnel.

The tradition of Navy night with guest speakers and attendance in the hundreds has continued through Capt. Lazenby's term as Rotary president and to this day. Next

Published 12/05/99, 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.

Don't miss these great "Meet the Locals" profiles:

or our comprehensive history pages: