A Trip to Maryland

Imagine, Dear Reader, if you could,
Historical Cedarburg,
With a Bad Neighborhood

That is pretty much a description of Frederick, Maryland, a charming city settled by Germans in prerevolutionary times. It is in a fast-growing area, where rich farmland is sprouting entire suburbs with all the trappings. The Chief of Police in Frederick says gangs are one of his biggest problems, and sure enough, kids are growing up in culturally-deficient areas with absolutely nothing to do.
Last week an individual was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The driver was finally identified as a 16-year old who had been on his way to a memorial for an 18-year old who had been shot to death by police. These things happen all over.
Frederick City itself is one of those lovely communities filled with Colonial and Federal Era buildings, mostly brick, and some rivalling the finest of their type, with lovely fan windows and sidelights embracing massive doors. The buildings are densely packed together and a walking tour brings surprises at every turn, especially for a northerner whose cities are much newer.
One of the particular surprises is that Frederick includes a number of shabby districts that the locals fear. I, of course, marched through all of them. Except for the matter of painting and maintenance, it is quite hard to tell a poor person's home from that of the gentry. I have also experienced this phenomenon in Baltimore.
Of course, for many years this was a segregated city, so the locals know from instinct what is black and what is white, and I suppose in retrospect, the poorer neighborhoods might be a bit deficient in street maintenance, not to say that the wealthy areas are maintained all that well. (Sidewalks and curbs can last for centuries in this climate. Tuckpointing is virtually unknown. The place would dissolve after a couple of Wisconsin winters.)
One clear sign that I had entered a poor neighborhood was the presence of public housing. And, upon seeing the name of the project, I was flabbergasted. The project was named after native son Roger Taney, the Supreme Court Chief Justice who gave us the dreadful Dred Scott decision and the absurd separate-but-equal concept that set back this country for a century. Taney is buried in a walled cemetery downtown (and not a minute too soon, I feel).
But I, as a northerner, am simply flabbergasted that the local powers had the effrontery to name a housing project occupied largely by African Americans after the man who had cut them such a bad deal.
And I am bewildered that nothing has been done to change the name of the project to something respectable like Thurgood Marshall Homes, so I have embarked on a quest to meddle in the municipal affairs of Frederick to publicize this absurdity and to get the name changed -- hopefully within a year.
It is also significant that I mentioned the Taney Houses to some locals, and they, decent people all, never really had thought about this poor choice of names.

Taney Houses to be Demolished: Frederick, Md. Mayor

Milwaukee, October 14 2005: After I posted the above item about the Roger Taney Houses in Frederick, Maryland, I wrote the letter below to the mayor of the community.

She has responded, in the letter below, and brings the welcome news that the “segregated” (her words) housing project will be demolished within the next 45 days to be replaced with owner-occupied scattered site housing (as we might call it here).

Dear Your Honor:

I had reason to visit Frederick last week and walked through your lovely old city for quite a distance, examining places high and low.

I must say that I cannot fathom that you have what appears to be a public housing facility in your community named after Roger Taney, a local son.

My history books show that he was the author of the Dred Scott decision which gave us the separate but equal concept. I believe you need travel very little in the County of Frederick to find examples of the separate but tremendously unequal school facilities built in your area during that era. I noted a lovely red brick one dated 1904 or so not far from an older certainly not lovely wooden building built I'm not sure when for black students.

I have not yet been able to determine the entity responsible for the public housing in your city, but when I do so, perhaps with your assistance, I shall endeavor even from this distance to see that the name of the Taney project be changed to a less offensive name.

I have already posted my impressions on my website, which is listed below.
I welcome your interest in this matter.

Very truly yours,
Michael Horne
Editor / Publisher
www.milwaukeeworld.com

Good Morning Mr. Horne,

The City of Frederick is a city with a rich and diverse history. For instance, there were many Southern sympathizers during the Civil War -- with our City hall being burned down 2 times -- but our forefathers eventually helped preserve the Union.

The naming of old public housing units is a curiosity that goes back nearly 50 years (since I am not a native of Frederick and only 44, I can take no credit or blame for this titling of a building). I can take some credit for gaining the support of our US Senators Mikulski and Sarbanes to fund a Hope VI project in Frederick that is demolishing this segregated public housing and offering home ownership units throughout our city. Some things change slowly, but this is moving along quickly and will be demolished in about 40-45 days so you can take credit in your hometown of "fighting City Hall" and winning!

Take care,
Jennifer
JENNIFER P. DOUGHERTY

MAYOR
The City of Frederick

Because of the German heritage of Frederick County, about 40 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., where I am writing this missive, it is one of the few places south of the Mason-Dixon line where you can find a Lutheran Church of any vintage.
The Congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Frederick was organized in 1738 -- that's 110 years before members of that faith established their first church in Wisconsin, in Mequon. By 1743 the parishoners were in a log church on the Monacacy river -- oops, I have to run. I am going to race around the District of Columbia. Right now the lovely cousins of Julilly Kohler are giving me a place to crash, and I am hauling my suitcase there right now.
I'll get back to you later.
Michael Horne