CJ History of the Past and Present
This Fourth of July marked our country’s 250th birthday. Cabin John’s celebration was a fine tribute and fun for all. But that was just the beginning of our efforts to mark the semiquincentennial – which means we are halfway to our 500th anniversary.
Unless you are one of CJ’s “longtimers,” you might not know how grandly the town celebrated the USA’s bicentennial with firsthand accounts of life in Cabin John through 1976. Now, the Cabin John History Committee plans to pick up where that left off. And they need your help.
In 1976, CJ hosted “Chautauqua ’76: The Bicentennial in Cabin John.” As background, the Chautauqua movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries provided popular education combined with entertainment in the form of lectures, concerts, and plays. The CJ Chautauqua consisted of many such events on June 5, 1976.
Another aspect of the bicentennial celebration was Elizabeth Kytle’s work conducting oral histories from 17 longtime neighbors, published in the booklet “Time Was.” Now, our history committee is launching the sequel: “Time Was–Again.” It will continue that tradition and conduct oral histories of Cabin John residents of 50 years or more, as well as gather recollections from residents who grew up here in the 1970s and 1980s.
The result of the project will cover history where author Judy Welles’s book Cabin John Legends and Life of an Uncommon Place leaves off. The overarching aim is to publish some of these stories here in The Village News and potentially generate other publications.
Here is where you come in. Longtimer or not, if you would like to be involved in this project, please get in touch at 301-908-8906 or marcyharrison@earthlink.net. If you have more general interest in getting involved with CJ history, please see Judy Welles’ article below!
By Marcy Harrison
Conttributing Writer
Calling All History Buffs
Cabin John has always had a neighbor who liked to write about the history of this exceptional place. Since 2017, Rachel Donnan has written history articles for The Village News, which can be found on the history tab at cabinjohn.org. She has continued a long tradition of investigating and documenting the intriguing history of our area. After all, who doesn’t love a good tale? Rachel stepped up to the task when I stepped back. And now both of us are looking for residents who want to explore Cabin John’s past.
Today, Cabin John history is documented primarily through articles in The Village News which began publication in 1967. Twenty years before, in 1947, Edith Armstrong, whose husband helped form the Cabin John Citizens Association, wrote a “Brief History of Cabin John Park” on a mimeographed sheet. She also wrote the book Days in Cabin John about life in Cabin John in 1920 when she and her husband lived here.
Years later, in 1974, former resident and journalist Morris Fradin, wrote a book Hey-Ey-Ey, Lock! Adventure on The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, and, in 1976, he and resident Janet Dence wrote about Cabin John history in a booklet “Chautauqua ’76 The Bicentennial in Cabin John.” For that occasion, former resident Elizabeth Kytle conducted oral histories of longtime Cabin John neighbors and chronicled the memories of 17 “oldtimers” in the booklet “Time Was.” One of them even remembered, as a child, the Cabin John Hotel. Kytle later wrote the classic Home on the Canal with the oral histories of several lock tenders and boatmen.
In 1996, Andy Rice, former editor of The Village News, began writing a monthly “Looking Back in Cabin John” column to explore Cabin John history. In 2006, Andy wrote that if anyone wanted to organize columns he had written over 10 years and look at the writings of others, such as Armstrong, that could be “a solid basis for a comprehensive history.” He wrote “any volunteers would be welcomed.”
I volunteered in response to Andy’s column and, as they say, the rest is history. I wrote the book Cabin John Legends and Life of an Uncommon Place based on his materials, other sources, and oral histories. Now, twenty years later, we are welcoming volunteers to look at existing and new sources.
Interested? Please contact judywelles@verizon.net and we’ll arrange a convenient time to see Cabin John’s history resources, including our digitized vintage photographs, and talk about exploring more tales of Cabin John.
By Judy Welles, Author
Past CJ Historian