Old Timers remember the early days of Severna Park

When Scott Jay was 9 years old and his hometown, Severna Park, was just a small village, he came down with appendicitis.

It was 1952, and the local doctor told Jay he had to go to University Hospital in Baltimore for treatment. But Jay's mother didn't have a car. Undeterred, the doctor called Clif Dawson, who owned a store in town, and told him to close up shop and drive Jay straightaway to the hospital.

"Back in the '40s and '50s, we were all in this together," said Jay, recalling the incident yesterday at the annual meeting of the Severna Park Old Timers. "We all looked out for each other, and it was really wonderful."

Nostalgia, tempered with unflagging love for Severna Park even as it has changed over the years, was in the air as the Old Timers met during Severna Park Heritage Day at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church. Jay is a founding member of the Old Timers, a Severna Park group started in 1988 to keep the history of their town.

About 60 people turned out to hear Jay's presentation, some as young as 6 and as old as 95. All shared a love of Severna Park, and many recalled the town as it once was: A tiny Severn River settlement founded near a train station.

Back before the shopping centers and housing developments, and even before Severna Park students had their own high school, a man named Oscar Hatton sold parcels of land in an area called Boone for $500 apiece, Jay said.

He held a contest to rename the town, and a Baltimore schoolteacher won by submitting the name Severna Park, said Carl Rogge, who dressed as Hatton for Heritage Day. The name stuck, and Severna Park was born.

For years the town stayed small and sleepy, but after World War II, it boomed. Young couples flooded in with a vision for raising families where "the railroad meets the road, meets the river," Rogge said.

It was a simpler time, people said, full of friendly neighbors, small shops and haircuts for $1 even after most barbers started charging $5.

Helen Sheats, 95, said she could call the town's telephone operator, who knew everything, and ask whether her husband would be home in time for dinner.

But slowly, as more people moved in, the area started to change. Jay attended fifth grade at the old railway station, because Severna Park Elementary School had run out of space. Dawson's store, with its soda fountain and popularity among the after-school crowd, burned down in 1957.

"We didn't have to go to school that day," Jay said.

Dawson's was rebuilt and later expanded to include a country store. It's still in operation today, but as a liquor store.

In 1959, students finally stopped going all the way to Annapolis for high school when Severna Park High was built. More neighborhoods sprang up around Severna Park, slowly making the town a little bigger, a little less cohesive and perhaps just a little less safe, said Marjorie Holt, a longtime resident who was a U.S. Congressman for the 4th District.

But even so, residents still love Severna Park. Ruth Smith, 95, was once a teacher at Severna Park Elementary School, and now her great-grandchildren are the fourth generation in her family to attend the school.

"A lot of young people move away, but they come back... for the people who are so friendly, and the good schools," she said.

"Severna Park is Severna Park. There's no place like it," said Kathleen Giddings Hankins, 83. "It's still home."