Annapolis Stories:The legacy of Susan C. Campbell

Annapolis Stories tell the living history of the Annapolis area through the lens of individual experiences.

Unless you look for it, it's easy to miss the dedication plaque embedded in the brick decking at the entrance of the newly refurbished Susan C. Campbell Park. It reads: "The kindness, gentleness and fineness of Susan Campbell is so much a part of this park."

The plaque is not showy or colorful, like the prominently displayed poster boards describing historical points of interest. But it holds the key to the history of how this small point of land jutting into the harbor became the heart and soul of Annapolis.

In the first half of the last century, City Dock was still a working harbor. Workboats lined Ego Alley, bringing in their harvest of oysters, crabs and fish on a daily basis to the seafood processing plants on the wharf.

Robert Campbell, Susan's father, whose family home for generations has been located just off City Dock, said he remembers mountains of shells "at least 20 feet high" piling up around the Chesapeake Seafood plant, now the site of the Harbormaster's office. "The shuckers would throw oyster shells into wheelbarrows and dump them into piles. As the piles got higher and higher, they'd run wooden planks up the side as a ramp so they could roll the wheelbarrows up and dump more shells. Kids used to slide down the oyster piles on cardboard."

Louis Hyatt grew up around the docks in the 1930s and '40s, and was an alderman on City Council many years later when the park was dedicated to Susan Campbell. As a kid, he used to sell shoeboxes from shoe stores on West and Main streets to the crab houses for a half a penny apiece. They were used for packaging soft crabs, peelers and shrimp. When asked if steamed crabs were sold in the boxes, he laughed. "Steamed crabs were cheap then," he said. "They were sold in bushel baskets for a dollar and half, a dozen."

Up until World War II, the dock area was a working-class area, populated by blue-collar people, many of them still struggling from the depression. Waterfront property did not hold the same cache as it does today.

The land frequently flooded (as it still does today), and it was not considered an especially desirable place to live. Dilapidated row houses lined the end of Dock Street, many of them rented out by the week.

The property where the current park resides was owned by Standard Oil. Large oil tanks bearing the name "Esso" stood at the edge of the waterway, impeding the view of the harbor. The tanks supplied fuel to the barges and ferries that plied the waterway as well as area gas stations catering to the growing market of automobiles.

Robert Campbell remembers playing around the oil tanks and diving into the water off the wharves. "We swam in there (the harbor) even with all the sewage in it."

Until 1933, sewage and storm water runoff from all the streets leading to the water was dumped into Ego Alley. And until the 1950s, fish heads and other garbage were thrown into the harbor. "The waterfront was a dump," Campbell says. "People threw all kinds of things in there."

In 1949, he was elected to City Council. Having grown up in the shadow of the dock, he was dismayed at the condition of the waterfront. "Only poor people and watermen lived around the water," he says. "No one cared about it."

By that time, years of silt and sand that had washed down from town streets clogged the waterway. Chesapeake Seafood was still there but Standard Oil was no longer in operation. With the tanks gone, the end of the dock was not much more than a vacant lot.

Campbell introduced a resolution that the city clean up and beautify the dock area. "Not everyone in council voted in favor of it," he recalled. "They didn't see why we should spend the money." Despite this, the resolution passed, and in 1950, work began.

The first order of business was to dredge the waterway. According to Campbell, the run-off of sand and silt that had washed down into the head of the dock extended 15 feet or more out into the water. Years of junk came up along with layers of silt. "Not just tires, Campbell says, "but boat engines, all kinds of things."

The dredged silt was dumped onto City Dock and used to raise the elevation several inches. It took a year for the dirt to dry. In that time, plans were drawn to create a small public park, a boardwalk area and parking for about 115 cars.

Campbell took a lot of ribbing for initiating the parking lot and park, called "Campbell's Folly" by some. "People thought I was using the land foolishly, but I was not thinking of 1950, I was thinking of the future." He notes that shortly afterward, George Phillips built his Harbor House restaurant on the site of the razed Dock Street row houses. "I'm sure the parking was an enticement."

The park that the city built at the end of the dock was small, but it had grass, trees and flowers. "It was like a little sanctuary in the middle of the city," says Jane Campbell Chambliss, Robert and Jane Campbell's older daughter. Unlike today, the setting was very park-like. "There were crepe myrtles, grass, tulips, daffodils, all kinds of plantings."

The Campbell family helped maintain the space, planting flowers, mulching and weeding, watering, and generally watching over the park, supplementing the city's maintenance.

"We would go down there every evening," Chambliss says. Susan Claire, the Campbell's youngest daughter, loved working in the park. Robert Campbell remembers how she had her own area where she put in her favorite plants, flowers like Sweet William, Irises and Tulips.

Jane Campbell, whose lovely garden can still be seen through a fence by all who walk the City Dock, smiles as she remembers Susan at work. "She was a little like me. She really enjoyed working in the garden."

The park quickly became a favorite gathering spot for Annapolitans. "There wasn't much air conditioning then, so (in the summer) people would come down to cool off and sit by the water," Jane Campbell Chambliss said. Friends and families enjoyed evening strolls down to the park. During especially hot nights, some people even slept on the benches.

Tending her garden, Susan became a familiar presence in the park. "People would admire her flowers," Robert Campbell says, "and Susan would just glow. She liked people, little children in particular. She got along great with them."

A typical teenager, Susan enjoyed playing clarinet with the Annapolis High School band and sang in the school choir. "She was a gentle soul," Chambliss said. "A very quiet, very beautiful girl."

In January of 1971, Susan Campbell was diagnosed with cancer. True to character, she faced her illness with grace. "Susan was the bravest person I've ever known," said her sister, Jane. "She went through what she did with a smile."

In August, one month shy of her 17th birthday, Susan Claire Campbell succumbed to the disease that took her life. Everyone who knew her was touched by her passing.

Alderman-at-Large Stewart Whelan introduced a resolution to name the little park at the end of the dock in her honor in September of 1971. In November of that year, it officially became Susan C. Campbell Park.

Thirty-seven years later, Susan C. Campbell Park has undergone a facelift. The city recently refurbished the City Dock area, addressing some of the very same issues the original planners had to deal with, as well as adding some 21st century touches.

"This was basically an infrastructure project," says Harry Sandrouni, Chief of Engineering for the city, "mainly to build the bulkhead and put in pilings to keep Susan Campbell (park) from falling into the creek."

In the process, some upgrades have been made. A permanent stage has been added in the park to accommodate band concerts, something Susan would have definitely approved of. And solar power runs the trash compactors for garbage disposal.

Stormwater draining off the parking lot now goes into bio-retention cells in the parking islands instead of draining directly into the creek. "The water runs through the cells," Mr. Sandrouni explains, filtering "3 1/2 feet below ground before entering into the creek pure."

With all its changes, the most important aspect of the park remains the same: the beautiful vista of the Annapolis harbor. Visitors and residents alike still gravitate to this spot to look out over the water. It is a peaceful retreat in the midst of a busy town. And while there may be more brick than flowers in the park now, on warm summer nights when a gentle breeze drifts in off the creek, you can still feel it: "The gentleness and fineness" of Susan C. Campbell.

The rededication ceremony for Susan C. Campbell Park will be held Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the new City Dock Stage during the Annapolis Maritime Festival.

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Janice Gary is an award-winning writer of creative nonfiction. She teaches memoir at Annapolis Senior Center.