[0:00] foreign
[0:03] [Music]
park has an interesting history it's we
[0:16] really are a train town and although we
were Incorporated in 1898 our history
[0:21] really begins with the Metropolitan
branch of the b o railroad which opened
[0:27] in 1873 and investors at that time were
really thinking how do you capitalize on
[0:33] this and in 1886 a man by the name of
Henry Kopp created the Metropolitan
[0:40] investment and Building Company and got
like-minded investors to start buying
[0:45] property they bought 500 acres of land
on both sides of the railroad which
[0:51] eventually became Garrett Park the idea
was to entice people from Washington DC
[0:57] who wanted to get out of the downtown
area come out to what was considered the
[1:03] the highlands of Montgomery County and
settle in Garrett Park my name is Claire
[1:10] McDonald I am the town archivist for the
town of Garrett Park as the town
[1:14] archivist my role is to preserve collect
research and share the town history of
[1:22] Garrett Park and we have a rich history
and we're 125 years old the archives
[1:27] really began in the 1960s we had a town
clerk at the time by the name of civil
[1:32] Griffin who understood that it was
probably important to start collecting
[1:36] and preserving
at that time the town did not have a
[1:41] town office so many of the original
records of the Town were actually in
[1:45] people's homes and civil Griffin went
around collecting those so in a lot of
[1:50] ways that was the beginning of our town
archive but then more formally in 2003 a
[1:58] Woman by the name of Barbara scheidler
became the first paid archivist for the
[2:02] town and started compiling organizing
indexing what we had
[2:08] and she was in that role until 2009.
since May is really our birthday month
[2:14] on May 21st we held an event it was
sponsored by The Archives committee and
[2:19] the town archives and our idea was we
wanted to bring the archives to the
[2:24] people so instead of having residents
come here and see what cool things we
[2:29] have in our collections we brought the
archives to our town hall and set up
[2:34] exhibits to tell the story of Garrett
Park through the decades we had a
[2:38] wonderful Barbershop shop quartet snacks
not with archive materials but in
[2:43] another room we had activities for the
children and it was really it was so
[2:49] wonderful to see families come out and
it was their opportunity not just to
[2:54] read and and look at exhibits but pick
things up and and touch them and really
[3:00] engage in history in a different way one
of my other favorite collections or item
[3:06] that we have in in the archive is what I
have next to me this is a World War II
[3:12] role of honor of the gentleman of
Garrett Park who fought in World War II
[3:19] this was created in 1944 but I also in
the archive I have a photograph of this
[3:26] actually being dedicated so I really
considered this one of the gems of our
[3:31] collection one of the things I find
really rewarding as the town archivist
[3:35] is I helped the mayor and the Town
Council and the town office
[3:39] to provide historical context to today's
issues so many of the problems or
[3:45] questions that come up I have records
here in the archives and so I'm able to
[3:49] provide that historical context as
they're making decisions that impact
[3:54] people today I do get official Town
records from the town office and there's
[4:00] a whole legal component to that and so I
work with the town office to ensure
[4:05] we're complying with Maryland State Law
we have a records retention schedule for
[4:10] those records so they're considered
inactive records of the town and the
[4:15] Maryland state archives ultimately will
receive many of those records I have
[4:21] this other component of the historical
records and that makes me more like a
[4:26] historical society where there are
records that have been donated by
[4:30] private individuals or organizations and
that contribute to the history of the
[4:37] town if you check our town website
archives committee has a page and it
[4:42] describes the type of materials that
we're interested in receiving we have a
[4:46] lot of materials from the 1950s but
materials from the 20s or 30s or even
[4:51] the 60s 70s 80s we'd definitely be
interested in having photographs
[4:57] especially old photographs of the town
are always welcome if you email us at
[5:02] archives at garrettparkmd.gov
we'd love to hear from you