A circle of friends on West Street

Before bulldozers plowed new twists and folds into the once-straight West Street two people of vastly different backgrounds changed the landscape of that portion of town forever.

William H. Brown, a grocery delivery man of African-American descent, and James Leanos, a Greek immigrant, established businesses side-by-side that eclipsed the segregation of their day.

On May 13, 2000, ten years after the City Council voted to name a park in their honor, members of the Brown and Leanos families finally saw their park dedicated.

Before Mayor Dean Johnson, Gov. Parris Glendening and a host of city officials who gathered to celebrate the completion of Westgate Circle, the little spit of land inside the circle was christened.

"All I wanted was something to memorialize my father's name, so people would know he ran a store there for 40 years," said Philip Brown, 91, the youngest and only surviving child of William Brown. It was Philip Brown who initiated the memorial in 1990, when he wrote to Alderman Samuel Gilmer about the role his father played in Annapolis history.

Around 1890, William Brown who had worked as a custodian at the Naval Academy before becoming a grocery clerk began renting, and later purchased, a store that fronted both West Street and Spa Road.

The business grew from a little grocery store with fresh vegetables from local farms to one that included the sale of wood and coal. Eventually, William Brown was able to buy a home on Spa Road and put most of his 10 children through college with money from the business.

Philip Brown remembers delivering groceries to neighbors along West Street and Spa Road, riding a bicycle equipped with a large basket.

"Three-quarters of my father's business came from white people along West Street who had more money to spend," said Mr. Brown, a retired school teacher and principal who wrote a book about segregated Annapolis called "The Other Annapolis." "But his trade combined the races. He and his neighbor Jim, came to have quite a friendship."

Indeed, the entrepreneurial spirit was a powerful equalizer. Joan Leanos, 49, a grandchild of Jim Leanos, remembers her grandfather's lessons in customer service.

"You learn to like everybody who walks in the door," said Ms. Leanos, a West Annapolis accountant who represented the family at yesterday's event. "He always said, 'Give everybody excellent service.'"

In 1938, both Mr. Brown and Mr. Leanos sold their properties to an oil company that converted the corner into a service station. Mr. Leanos moved his restaurant across the street to where Jim's Corner still stands, though it has been vacant for a year.

In the years following the City Council's approval of the name Brown-Leanos Park for the property, it seemed the park would never materialize. Holdups included debate over the design of the property, which eventually took the shape of a traffic circle, Mr. Johnson explained. The city also spent several years pumping petroleum out of the soil where the gas station had been located.

Today, Mr. Johnson said, the circle and the park inside are a celebration of how two families from different cultures worked next to each other in harmony in the early 1900s.

"It says a lot about Annapolis," Mr. Johnson said. "We are a city of neighborhoods."