by Diana Kohn
photos by Julie Wiatt

A few happy tears were shed when Kay Daniels-Cohen was announced as one of the Azalea Award winners in April. Since last summer she has battled breast cancer even as she kept to an unflagging schedule of volunteerism--doing the nitty-gritty to reopen the Piney Branch pool, leading the campaign to start a new winter basketball league, resurrecting the SS Carroll Neighborhood Association, decorating McGinty's for an inaugural ball and pitching in whenever anyone asked.

National Park Service Ranger Ron Howard is a Civil War buff. On May 24, Memorial Day 2009, his job was to tell the story of Battlefield Cemetery to those gathered to honor the soldiers buried there. The 41 graves hold the remains of Union soldiers who died defending Ft. Stevens (and by extension, the Federal Capital) from the invading confederates under the command of General Jubal Early on that hot July 1864.

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Ron Howard has spent 10 years researching the men buried there. He knows them all by name. He speaks emotionally of the 19-year-old soldier who was lying wounded in a hospital bed before being recalled to the front lines and sacrificing his life for the Union cause. By amazing coincidence Ranger Howard was able to locate a medallion belonging to the soldier as it was up for sale on the Internet. That medallion, a precusor of the modern dog-tags soldiers wear for identification, is now one of his prized possessions.

On Saturday July 11, the National Park Service will celebrate Ft. Stevens Day, in remembrance of the battle. Ranger Howard will be on hand from 11 AM-4 PM to be a witness to history.

Ft. Stevens is located at 13th Street and Quakenbos NW. Battlefield Cemetery is on Georgia Ave, north of Van Buren St NW.
In many ways, Takoma Park owes its reputation as a liberal bastion of activism to the period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when its citizens protested loudly and vociferously to save the town from destruction in the name of progress. Much like the anti-war movement then occupying the national headlines, they employed the same tactics: marches, petitions, sit-ins, and found the same sense of cameraderie and empowerment gained from shared struggle. 

Takoma Park's origins are linked with the railroad, but by the 1960s automobiles were the primary mode of transportation and  were threatening to engulf the community. 
Both Piney Branch Road and New Hampshire Avenue had been extended in the 1930s, pushing out from the heart of Washington DC. But these were on the outer edges of town and didn't much alter the lay of the land. Takoma Park slumbered on its tree-lined streets of aging family homes until construction of the Capital Beltway forced it to confront the issue of development.


Friends of Sligo Creek chose to celebrate Earth Day, April 18, with it's semi annual "Sweep the Creek." Volunteers are given plastic bags and gloves and turned loose to collect trash. Every year more people turn out, and become astounded by the piles of trash. But that wasn't the case in the year 2000. 

That spring, Sally Gagne, who on the edge of Sligo Creek Park in North Sligo Hills, noted with alarm the increasing invasion of exotic plants into Sligo Creek. Looking for someone to listen, she found a sympathetic ear in John Galli, then chief engineer for the Council of Governments (a collective of all the municipal bodies).

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by Diana Kohn

Photos by Julie Wiatt


March 2009


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When the scaffolding on the Takoma Park DC library comes down this month, the newly renovated interior will match the elegance of the exterior. State-of-the-art technology has been married to the elegant style that recaptures the library's 1911 heritage as a Carnegie library. The grand re-opening will be held on March 21.



On rare occasions, a renovation project turns into a work of art. The Takoma Park DC library, reopening this month, is one such case.


Built in 1911 it was the first branch library in the metropolitan Washington system. Andrew Carnegie himself donated $40,000 for its construction, along with a basic blueprint that was replicated across the country.


The library became a popular gathering spot. Few changes were made to the outside of the building over the decades. Inside, however, much was altered. The interior suffered  from several makeovers that obscured the oak woodwork and elegant lines. The front entryway was turned into a barricade.


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Workmen put the finishing touches on the interior - hanging lamps and clearing away the last of the debris. The open entranceway is a marked contrast to the old.


As the building aged, the roof leaked, parts of the ceiling collapsed, and the systems failed to keep pace with the technological advances necessary to library services.


Even so it was surprising that the Takoma Park branch would be the first one chosen to undergo a complete renovation. (Georgetown with its devastated Peabody Room is next.),


Last fall, Takoma's books were packed up and placed in storage and a bookmobile was parked on Fourth Street to serve the neighborhod for the duration of the renovation. 



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The restored woodwork emphasizes the elegant lines notable in a Carnegie library.



Chris Wright stepped in as Project Manager. His passion is history--he dug into the records in an effort to respect the architecture while modernizing the system. He found the original drawings, hired master woodcarver Robert O. Greene to create woodwork and furniture that matches the originals, uncovered a skylight hidden by a painted ceiling, and oversaw the work of Forrester Construction to bring the project in a month ahead of schedule. 


The staff is thrilled. Rachel Meit, the children's libarian,  said, "we're even more exicted than the neighbors to be back in such a gorgeous space. Chris couldn't have picked better people - they had the vision and the work ethic to get the job done early."


Working in the library pre-renovation was difficult. Meit described trying to focus on programs while being diverted by a leak in the ceiling. 



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Project Manager Chris Wright was responsible for recreating the appearance of the original Carnegie library.



After months spent in the tight quarters of the basement and bookmobile, they look forward to moving back in. But it has created a camaraderie among the staff. Lindsay Halkola joins Rachel as children's librarian and Heather Petsche is the newly appointed young-adult librarian under the supervision of head librarian Helen Hiltz. 


Aside from the elegant new interior, the first thing patrons will notice is the prominance given to new technologies. Every table has computer hookups and the entire building has wi-fi. 


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The DVD and audiobook collections are front and center. Self-contained audiobooks called Playaways come with their own batteries and earphones that don't require an MP3 player.


One example of the merging of the past and future is the computer tables. According to Wright, the Mission-style tables (and chairs) are based on drawings of the original furniture, but the tables sprout plugs for computer hookups. "We had all the original furniture plans so we were able to mimic the style of the original furniture, even though we didn't have any of the pieces left. It's one of the neat things about being a library. We keep all the drawings."


When Wright chose cork for the floor it was partly based on its value as a "green" material, but also because it was the traditional flooring used in the early 1900s. 


Ultimately it is the woodworking that captures the eye. The key is the white oak, explains Greene, who was charged with recreating all the additional woodwork. "It is quartered to show off the beautiful figures in the wood." Once the dark finish had been stripped off the original moldings, the wood grain is shown in all its splendor.


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BEFORE: Upon entering the library, you faced a glass box and maze-like path around the information desk. The renovation has stripped it all away. (Photo Courtesy of DC Public Library)



Most impressive is the vestibule replacing the "fortress" that has been removed from the entrance. As Wright tells the story, "The original plans show this amazing vestibule, so we put it back and Greene did a spectacular job building it." The central desk is a replica of the original.


When it came to choosing the color of the wall paint, Wright acknowledges a little help from the Voice. He figured out which of the paint chips were the original color "based on the reference to green paint in your Voice article (April 2008). "


"When asked about the enduring nature of Carnegie library style, Wright remembered a recent visit to California: "I went to the Carnegie library in Noe Valley in San Francisco last year and it's amazing how smiliar it is to this one. Same floor plan, door in the same place, wider adult area, with children's area in back and a fireplace.'


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AFTER: The front entrance is now graced with a wooden vestibule and an information desk based on the original drawings uncovered by Chris Wright and faithfully recreated by Robert Greene in quarter-cut oak. The re-discovered skylight has been opened up.



It is worth remembering that the Takoma library was nearly lost in 1965. The powers that be were insisting on the need to tear down the building and replace it with a modern structure several blocks away.


The neighborhood resisted and succeeded in saving the building. Luckily this time around, the library system appreciates the treasure it has.


With the renovation completed, the library will be in great shape to celebrate its centennial in 2011.



Grand Re-opening Celebration

Saturday, March 21: 10a.m. to 3p.m.


The Takoma Park DC staff welcomes the neighborhood to the Grand Re-opening on March 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Highlights include storytelling at 10:30 a.m. with Ginnie Cooper, the Chief Librarian, and a second storytime with Rachel Meit at 11:30 a.m. In the afternoon, Chris Wright will discuss the history behind the renovation.




Diana Kohn is Education Chair of Historic Takoma, Inc., which is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the heritage of both Takoma Park MD and DC. More can be found at www.historictakoma.org.

The collection of Takoma Archives columns is available online at www.takoma.com/takoma_archives. For tales of Silver Spring history, check out Jerry McCoy's columns in the Silver Spring Voice, available online at www.silverspringvoice.com/ssthenagain. 

Abe Lincoln

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February 2009

This month's Takoma Archive was covered by Jerry McCoy in his article "Abe Lincoln in Silver Spring".
by Diana Kohn

January 2009

The images of 2008 have been seared into our collective memory and pundits continue to spout analysis. Twenty years ago, in 1988, the Takoma Voice completed one year of publishing as a local community paper. Revisiting the events of that year proves that no matter how much things change, in many ways they hardly change at all.

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Silver Spring development: Facing the first test

The County agreed to fund a proposed $23 million parking structure between Ellsworth Avenue and Pershing Drive in Silver Spring. Citizens Referendum on Over-Development gathered 18,000 signatures to force a vote on the question. Takoma Park answered "No" by a resounding 74%. But the measure passed countywide with 54% in favor. 
Moore received conditional approval from the Planning Board to turn the Silver Triangle into a mall twice the size of Tyson's Corner Center. It fell through when he failed to secure two "acceptable" department stores to serve as anchors. 
But other developers moved forward: "Early next year construction will begin on a new retail project, City Place with 60 shops, half the size of White Flint." Folger Platt had already completed the first of four office buildings to house the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).


Maryland's unique approach to gun control

On May 23, Maryland enacted the first law in America prohibiting the manufacture and sale of Saturday Night Specials and non-detectable handguns, by creating a handgun register of banned weapons. In the November election, voters re-affirmed the measure, and it remains on the books, making Maryland one of the strongest states on gun control. 


Carroll Avenue delays anger City 

"A car ride across parts of Takoma Park's Carroll Avenue rivals a drive over the worst back roads of Appalachia." 
The worst blocks were between Flower and Garland Avenues where mis-communicatioin between the city and WSSC meant that sewer work was done after the roads were newly-resurfaced. 
Bob Berger lamented that "For the time being, Takoma Park appears to have no option but to deal with the WSSC. Their relationship is mandated by an act of the state legislature which put Takoma Park in the WSSC's jurisdiction."

2008: Sounds famliar to drivers who spent much of the year negotiating a chopped-up Carroll Avenue from Old Town to Sligo Creek as sewer lines were once again replaced. 


Takoma Park recycles

On August 29, the City of Takoma Park hired Daryl Braithwaite as its first recycling coordinator. She helped push for passage of the 1988 state recycling legislation and helped create the city guidelines. Her appointment came as the City completed its first year of recycling -- which includes only newspapers (700 tons were collected, the equivalent of 2800 cubic yards of landfill space). In those days, the County had no program. 

2008: Twenty years later, Braithwaite continues to oversee recycling from her post as head of Public Works. The expanded program now covers mixed paper, glass, metal cans and most plastics except wide-mouthed #1s and polystyrene (#6) packaging. Unlike the County, where collection is done by private contractors, the City uses its own trucks, then turns the collected material over to the County for processing. More details are available on the city's web site: www.takomaparkmd.gov. 


Take note 
 
• The Takoma Park Farmers Market was only open May 15-November 20.
 
 • The Women's Health Center, at 7005 Carroll Avenue, celebrated its second anniversary on October 27, 1988. 
2008: The center was forced to close and the space remains vacant. 

 • Peter Franchot lost a tough battle to unseat Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella. 
2008, Franchot is State Comptroller and Chris Van Hollen sits in Morella's seat. 

 • Spring Knolls Cooperative School, founded in 1949, turned 40.
2008: Now located at 8900 Georgia Ave, it remains a local institution at 60 with classes for ages 3-5. Interested parents are invited to tour the school at open houses set for Tuesday, January 27, 2009: (9:30 am-Noon), Wednesday, January 28, 2009: (9:30 am-Noon), and Thursday, January 29, 2009: (9:30 am-Noon or 12:30-3 pm). Call 301-650-0086 for an appointment. 

 • On Dec. 31, The Takoma Café ceased operations, "causing hundreds of dazed, confused vegetarians to wander the streets aimlessly." 
2008: The site at 1 Columbia Avenue has housed several tenants since then, but is currently vacant.)

• The 1988 tuition rates for Montgomery College were $40/hour (not quite a bargain in 2008 at $163/hour). State residents paid a little more ($76 in 1988, $267 today), and non-residents were assessed $104 (versus $344 today).


Revitalizing Takoma Junction

Two years of work has spiffed up the businesses and streetscape. But money has yet to be found to renovate the Sister City Thrift Shop (surrounded by a new pocket park named for azalea genius B.Y. Morrison.
"A new veterinary shop will open soon and plans are in motion to build an office building to house the TPSS Food Co-op on the empty lot adjacent to Turner Electric." 
2008: The thrift store eventually lost its walls and became a shelter graced with a mural. The Co-op ended up buying the old Safeway building. This fall the empty lot sprouted a canvas tent which is the temporary home for the fire engines while the station undergoes a two-year transformation. 
 

Where have all the trees gone?

Ed McMahon took note that "The city has not planted a single new street tree in any Takoma Park residential neighborhood since 1985. Not a cent is budgeted for street trees.... Landscaping and street trees are not frills or cosmetics. They are basic city architecture and a major factor which contributes to community pride, quality of life and economic development.
2008: The City Arborist has again raised a hue and cry and is spearheading an effort to rectify the problem. 
by Diana Kohn

December 2008

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Takoma Park's Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance reflected decades of activism including marches like the one pictured above. The public is invited to celebrate the ordinance's 25th anniversary on Wednesday, December 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Community Center.



Twenty five years ago, the Takoma Park city council voted to declare our fair city a Nuclear Free Zone.


Takoma Park at 125

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by Diana Kohn


November 2008


Places, like people, have an official moment when they come into existence. For Takoma Park that moment was November 24, 1883. 


On that day a deed was drawn up between B.F. Gilbert and Joseph & Sarah Burr. In exchange for $6,500, Gilbert pur-chased 93 acress of abandoned farmland from the estate of Gottleib Grammar.

 

Gilbert had no interest in farming. He was a real estate developer who envisioned houses nestled among the close-set trees, offering middle class families an alternative to the unhealthy living conditions that were their only choice in the District. 

These 93 acres were the first of 14 parcels of land that would be stitched together to form Takoma Park.

 

The world has changed so profoundly in the last 125 years that it is hard for us to imagine life in 1883. Queen Victoria, who gave her name to the whole era, still had more than 20 years left as monarch of the British Empire.


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Gilbert's first purchase was the Grammar parcel, land once owned by Charles Carroll of Bellevue, brother of Daniel Carroll of Duddington who provided most of the land in Federal City, including the National mall and Capital Hill. Writing in 1890, the Washington Post extolled the "purely rural, untamed chatter of the forest there, in the depths of which the town has been laid out."



Along with no cars, airplanes, air conditioning or television, we would have to get along without yet-to-be-invented Lifesavers, cornflakes, Hershey chocolate bars, and Coca-Cola.

 

Telephone lines were just now stretching between New York and Chicago. Edison was still investigating tungsten as the secret to creating an electric light bulb.The newly-opened Brooklyn Bridge and the first 10-story skyscraper in Chicago gave glimpses of the future, while Remington was revolutionizing business with its new-fangled typewriter.

 

Treasure Island, Huck Finn and Sherlock Holmes were delighting readers everywhere while the National League resumed baseball games suspended since 1876. And the railroads agreed to create four time zones.

 

The American nation was barely 20 years beyond the wrenching turmoil of the Civil War. Chester Arthur had assumed the Presidency in the wake of Garfield's death from a crazed madman's bullet.

 

The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which attempted to guarantee all persons equal treatment in "public accomodations" and then declared that American Indians were not citizens.

 

The Washington Monument was finally nearing completion. It stood alone on the marshy fields that would one day be the Mall. The Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials were decades away. The city proper ended at K Street for all intents and purposes, though Boundary Street (Florida Avenue) marked the furthest reaches of development. It took most of a day to travel from Georgetown to Baltimore by horseback.


The Capital itself was flooded with post-war workers, eager to join the ranks of the government. Clerical jobs were now possible thanks to the Civil Service Reform Bill of 1883. Examinations and a merit system made it fairer. The presence of these workers who deserved healthy living prompted the 42-year-old Gilbert to undertake his radical scheme.

 

This was not Gilbert's first development project. Born in upstate New York in 1841, he gravitated to the Capital as a young man. Over the previous decades he had tried his hand building rowhouses on K Street, and in a visionary attempt to develop the area now known as Dupont Circle (which failed when his fellow investors got cold feet).

 

But "suburb" was still a relatively new concept. People lived either crowded together in cities or isolated in the vast rural stretches. Gilbert envisioned a combination - men working in the city while their families grew up in the healthy air of the countryside. He realized that the new Baltimore & Ohio railroad provided a way to link the city job and country home.

 

Moreover, this would free families from the crowded tenaments and dangers of malaria and unsafe drinking water which plagued the marshy District.


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The Grammar tract ran from the intersection of Piney Branch & Blair Rds., NW southeast on Blair to Willow Street, NW, then NE along Willow to Valley Hill in Maryland and west to Chestnut.



He jumped on the train to see what he could find. Six miles north of the Mall, he found the Grammar estate. The parcel included one of the 1791 boundary stones marking the District-Maryland border which divided the parcel in half. It was a distinction that he disregarded, an attitude which continues to this day among some residents.


Gilbert, a stickler for healthy living was attracted by other amenities: a multitude of underground springs not to mention Sligo Creek a mile north promised pure drinking water. A ridge of land (following today's Cedar, Carroll and Ethan Allen) stood 300 feet above the District's marshes and guided him laying out the streets. The tract, though densely wooded, was crisscrossed by Indian and tobacco trails that provided access.


The only thing he didn't like was the name given to the train stop: Brightwood. But that was solved when one of his fellow guests at the DC hotel he called home, made a suggestion. Ida Summy offered "Takoma" - as an Indian word meaning "high up" or "near heaven." He immediately adopted it, adding "Park" to complete the image. Fittingly enough, Ida and her husband soon joined Gilbert in the new community.


His first sale, however, was made on November 24, the same day he took title. Amanda Thomas purchased four lots (within a year she and her husband Isaac would occupy the first completed house in the suburb).


Gilbert offered lots at 5 cents a square foot (versus 50 cents in town), making home ownership a reality of dozens of families. Despite his real estate experience expansion was slow. By the end of the first year 70 souls (counting children) called Takoma Park home. By the end of 1886, there was a population of 100 in a total of 16 houses.


Each year brought more residents, who began to turn their attention to amenities like churches, schools, paved roads, a public water system. By 1890 the town incorporated as a Maryland municipality, with Gilbert elected as first mayor.


His last years were less successful. Buying additional parcels of land, com-bined with unwisely undertaking the construction of a 160-room hotel in North Takoma, left him overextended when nationwide financial panic hit in 1893.

 

Gilbert never recovered and spent his declining years as an invalid, dying in 1907. But the community he founded was ready to stand on its own.


The independent nature that Takoma Park residents consider their hallmark, was nurtured in the wilderness of early Takoma Park and is Gilbert's most enduring legacy.



Diana Kohn is the Education Chair of Historic Takoma. To commemorate the 125 anniversary of Gilbert's first purchase, Historic Takoma has asked the City Council to declare November 24, 2008, as B.F. Gilbert Day.


Catch more history: Jerry McCoy's "Then and Now" column in the Silver Spring Voice relates the tale of Montgomery Blair's mansion at Falklands. Pass columns of both "Takoma Archives" and "Then and Now" and are available online at takoma.com and silverspringvoice.com.  


Over the last month, a gigantic half-dome white-canvas tent has sprouted up next to the Takoma Park Fire Station on Carroll Avenue.  This signals a new stage in the ongoing drama that will eventually see a new fire station rise in place of the current 81-year-old building.

With the temporary tent-and-trailers station in place, construction is due to begin in mid-October. The official groundbreaking complete with government dignitaries is set for 1:30 p.m. on October 23, but don't be surprised if that timetable is delayed like every other step in this process.
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Nonetheless, after 10 years of debate, the long-promised modernized fire station, large enough to accommodate today's ever-longer fire engines, is finally closer to reality. 
What Takoma Park gains in up-to-date convenience, however, will be at the expense of losing one of its oldest landmarks.  The station was built in 1928 by the Volunteer Fire Department as its first permanent home.  The Department itself dates back to the earliest days of the town. 

In 1893, a disastrous fire destroyed the three businesses that made up the core of the city's commercial district (where the Takoma metro station now stands). New stores quickly replaced the lost Watkins Hotel, Birch's Store and Hall, and Favorite's Store, but more action was needed. Within a year, the Takoma Park citizens had formed a volunteer fire department - the first in Montgomery County - to serve both Maryland and District residents. Fittingly, the first fire chief was G.L. Favorite, who had lost his store. 

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1928: First Permanent fire station completed. Built by volunteers on current site at 7201 Carroll Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Historic Takoma)


A Howe Model 4 hand pumper was purchased and stored in the old log cabin built by city founder Benjamin Franklin Gilbert at the junction of Carroll and Laurel (where Video Americain stands today). When the cabin burned down in 1916, a temporary cinder block building was built nearby. 

Officially incorporated in 1922, the volunteers began raising money for a real home. They picked the current site, several blocks northeast along Carroll Avenue in the open stretch before the intersection with Ethan Allen. Takoma Park Volunteer Fire Department bought the land, and boulders were hauled from Sligo Creek for the façade.

Over the following decades, the building served as the center of Takoma Park activities. City Council meetings were held in the paneled room with a fireplace to the left of the truck bay, as were as innumerable award dinners for Boy Scouts and all manner of civic groups.  Dorothy Barnes, the godmother of Historic Takoma, recalls that her father built glass cabinets to hold the European flags collected by returning World War II soldiers. (The flags have since disappeared.)  Downstairs was a gym that generations of local youth used for basketball, indoor soccer, volleyball, and rollerskating.

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2008: Remodeled in the mid-1980s, the station as it appears on the eve of its extreme makeover. (Photo by Julie Wiatt)

Meanwhile, the city grew up around the station.  In 1948, the fire department became a branch of the city government with volunteers serving alongside career firefighters.  That remains the case today. 

Many career firefighters volunteered in their off-time, but few have been as committed over the years as the Jarboes. 

In October 1956, Ted Jarboe joined as a volunteer.  Jim followed in December, then three more brothers (Bobby, Bill, John), along with their father (A.J.), his brother (Steve) and Steve's son (Mike) until there were eight Jarboes in all. Jim Jarboe was honored in 2003 for 50 years of service as a firefighter. Currently Volunteer Chief, he is a familiar face at local events, the favorite teacher of babysitting classes, not to mention the keeper of the department archives and organizer of a recent reunion of volunteers, past and present.

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2009: Proposed design for the new Takoma Park Fire Station. Once completed the county will own the station and "Takoma Park Volunteer Fire Department" will no longer appear over the doors. (Photo courtesy of Historic Takoma)

The original 1928 building went through a renovation in the mid 1980s. Chief Jarboe remembers spending a year bunking in the basement while the building was remodeled. The triple-door entrance was reconfigured as one large door, leaving the left  and right sections of the building intact. About the same time, the department was reorganized under county control.

Then ten years ago, the city and county began talking about the need for a major overhaul. One scenario would have moved the Fire Station permanently out of Takoma Park, a proposal which raised an alarm by local residents. 

The county finally agreed to pay for replacing the building on site (there isn't any other open space), in exchange for the volunteers and the city ceding title to the land and the building. 
That solution faced more hurdles. The space limitations of the site are daunting. There is a steep dropoff directly behind the building with houses and businesses close on either side.  The county proposed demolishing two neighboring houses to accommodate needed parking.  Again citizens protested. 

Finally a creative compromise was reached: only the nearest house would be taken, and the county agreed to purchase the second house at 7133 Carroll, renovate it, and give it to the Hevia family in exchange for demolishing the Hevia house at 7135 Carroll. That demolition and move happened this spring.  

Enter the trailers and tent.

The fire station itself will be torn down to make way for the new building. Firefighters and residents will have to live with disruption and traffic jams for the next 18 to 24 months in the name of progress.  

As projected now, it will cost the county $11 million (up from $4.1 million) to replace the original station built for $45,000 in 1928. Chief Jarboe notes that current county plans call for retaining as much of the northeast wall and fireplace as possible. If all goes well, the boulders hauled up from Sligo Creek 90 years ago may continue to distinguish our firehouse. 

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