CASA de Maryland celebrated its 25th anniversary with the grand opening of its new Multicultural Center in Langley Park. The three-story brick building sits four blocks east of University Avenue at the end of 15th Avenue, in the midst of the 400-unit Willowbrook apartment complex.
CASA's new headquarters was originally built in 1924 as the country residence for American heiress Henrietta McCormick-Goodhart and her British nobleman husband on 565 acres of Prince George's County farmland they dubbed Langley Park, after the Goodhart ancestral lands in Kent. The $13.8 million renovation of the 28-room Georgian Revival house brings Langley Park's past and present full circle.
Henrietta McCormick was born into wealth in 1854. Her grandfather Robert McCormick was the tinkerer who created the first reaper that enabled farmers to mechanize the harvesting of grain. Her uncle Cyrus and her father Leander perfected and patented the invention that laid the groundwork for the family's fortunes.

photo courtesy Casa de Maryland
CASA director Gustavo Torres addresses the assembled politicians and crowd; "Maryland is not Arizona."




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