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Historical Society of Catonsville, Catonsville, MD (2026)

05/27/2026

Jean Walsh: Catonsville Historian

Jean Walsh loved Catonsville and spent the majority of her life documenting and preserving Catonsville's history. In addition, she served as the editor of the Catonsville Times/Argus newspaper from 1964-1974. Although having no newspaper experience, when she was asked by the retiring editor if she knew anyone who might take the position, Mrs. Walsh nominated herself for the role. Following her retirement, she continued to publish a popular weekly column featuring events from 25, 50, and 100 years ago, sharing historical and often humorous moments in Catonsville’s past.

On May 17, 1968, Jean reported on the Catonsville Nine protest during which draft records were burned as a protest against the Vietnam War. This protest occurred at the Knights of Columbus Hall building at Fredreick Road and Beamont Ave. She photographed the nine protestors after their arrest, and the image was published nationally. Reporters were barred from trying to interview/photograph the “Catonsville Nine” after their arrest, however a Wilkens police lieutenant recognized Mrs. Walsh from her local reporting and brought her into the police station, where she shot the historic and widely circulated photo of the group minutes after their arrest (the only one taken of them in the police station just after the protest burning.)

The attached picture shows Jean Walsh at her typewriter from an article in the October 20, 1977, issue of the Catonsville Times. Walsh was named Citizen of the Year by the Catonsville Business Association in 1977 for her community work and strides to document Catonsville history.

Jean served as a board member of the Friends of the Catonsville Library in 1963 and participated in creating the library’s Catonsville Room. She also helped found the Catonsville Historical Society, which named the “Jean Walsh Room” after her. In addition, she was involved in establishing the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella, plus numerous other community projects.
Jean died in 2018 at age 100, but her influence on Catonsville history endures and her legacy continues.

The Historical Society of Catonsville recently created and installed a Historical Wayside Exhibit sign in the outside garden of the Catonsville Library to recognize Jean for her contribution to the preservation of Catonsville history and for her long-term support of the Catonsville community. Her family and friends attended the dedication ceremony. Please visit the library to view this sign and pay tribute to Jean. See the attached picture of the sign.

The Historical Society of Catonsville has installed several Wayside Exhibit signs in Catonsville and has plans to install several other signs throughout Catonsville to highlight Catonsville’s history. Plans are also in the works for historic plaques to be placed on historic buildings in Catonsville. Your funding toward these and other projects would be appreciated. Donation information is included in the page and web

04/24/2026

133 S. Prospect Avenue: The Stork-Medcroft Cottage

The house at 133 South Prospect Ave is on the Baltimore County Historic Landmark Property list. (Landmark item 188). The modest single-family dwelling at 133 South Prospect Avenue was constructed circa 1889. Situated in the neighborhood originally known as Paradise, the house was adjacent to the Catonsville Short Line Railroad, near the Paradise Station. Tipton L. Tinsley purchased the original 55-acre tract of land in 1879, subsequently conveying it to William L. Stork in 1888. Stork is responsible for the development of the small subdivision known as Paradise. One of the first dwellings erected in the subdivision, the resident of 133 South Prospect Street appears to have served as a depot or ticket office for the Paradise Station stop along the Catonsville Short Line (CSL) Railroad, which began operation in 1884. The property still exists today. [It was placed on Final Landmarks List in 2001].

Also pictured in this post is the Paradise Train station of the CSL railroad, which was directly across from the 133 S Prospect house. The pictures of the Paradise train station were located in the Smithsonian archives and were taken in the 1890s by Dr. G. Howard White, who lived at 116 Prospect Ave (the house is still standing today). There were several CSL stations, including the main depot in Catonsville (next to today’s Bill’s Music House), and stations at the Catonsville Casino, Bloomsbury, Spring Grove, Paradise, Kenwood, St Charles seminary, and the terminus at St Agnes station, where it then connected to the RR mainline to Baltimore’s Calvert Station.

Finally, note that present day Paradise Ave (West of S Prospect) was originally called “Spring Grove Avenue” because it led to was one of the three Gatehouse entrances to the Spring Grove hospital; it became known as the “Paradise entrance”. Gate houses were built at each of the three hospital entrances (Asylum Lane, Wade Ave, and Paradise). The “Paradise Gatehouse” and Asylum Lane Gatehouse are still standing today. (the Wade Ave Gatehouse was demolished in the 1970/1980 timeframe).

04/18/2026

Streetcar Funeral Transport

As provided in an earlier Post, Baltimore had a robust streetcar network throughout the city and suburbs. Catonsville had horse-drawn streetcar service from Baltimore to Catonsville via Frederick Road as early as 1862; this line ended and returned to Baltimore at the Terminal Hotel (today’s Mathews Restaurant). In the 1890’s streetcars were electrified. Catonsville had three streetcar lines, the #8 on Frederick Road, the #14 on Edmondson, and the #9 to Ellicott City. For nearly 100 years streetcars were a prominent mode of transportation in the Baltimore region. This post addresses how streetcars were used for funerals to transport the casket and funeral attendees.

Baltimore’s United Railways streetcar company had one dedicated funeral car named “Dolores”. [See picture #1]. It was used from 1900 until it retired in 1927. It had a casket compartment, visible from the street, a flower shelf above the casket, and a separate compartment for pallbearers and mourners. A company office car, the “Lord Baltimore” would sometimes be used to accommodate larger groups.

The funeral streetcar would meet the funeral procession at the nearest intersection with a main streetcar line and would then utilize the tracks of multiple streetcar lines to arrive as close to the destination cemetery as possible. Fortunately, when the streetcar lines were first laid out, cemeteries were considered a major destination and therefore streetcar lines often ran near cemeteries.
Once the car arrived at the cemetery a variety of methods were utilized to deliver the casket to the grave site using a cemetery hearse, or if a short distance, carried by the pallbearers. But due to the size of these cemeteries, even with a streetcar hearse, transferring the departed and the mourners to the actual grave site could be quite inconvenient.

Loudon Park had entrances at both Frederick Road and Wilkens Avenue but for streetcar funerals they would have used the Frederic Road entrance. Loudon Park uniquely had their own trolley line, but the Loudon line was not connected to the main line streetcar tracks, so the casket had to be taken off the main line funeral-car “Dolores” at the Frederick Road entrance and then carried through the cemetery gate in order to be transferred to the Loudon cemetery streetcars (known as the “Linden” and “Loudon) within. [See Picture #2 of Linden and Loudon].The internal Loudon streetcar line went from Frederick Road, past the mausoleum ( as shown in the picture), over a stream bridge, into the Wilkens sections, then past a manmade lake (since filled in) and then connected to a rail corridor that the Loudon streetcar line shared with the Catonsville Short Line ( CSL) Railroad that ran through Loudon on its way connecting to the RR main line in Baltimore (these RR tracks still exist today) . And still, those trolleys could only get so close to the grave site as the trolley tracks could take them, so further transport by wagon, cart or pallbearers to the gravesite was necessary.

For burials at Cemeteries that entered off Edmondson Ave, such the New Cathedral Cemetery, they would’ve meet the funeral party at #9 mainline at Edmondson, then proceed East along Edmondson Ave to the New Cathedral Cemetery and then would deposite the funeral party at the cemetery gate. So as not to block the mainline streetcars, “Dolores” would’ve laid over at the nearby Edmondson Ave car-house while the gravesite services were taking place and afterwards would return the funeral party to as near to their homes as was possible using the mainline #8 or #9 streetcar routes.

04/06/2026

The Three Lurman estates

Estate #1: The “Farmlands Estate” (Today’ Catonsville High School grounds)

The “Farmlands Estate” (Today’ Catonsville High School grounds) was at one point part of a larger estate known as “Bloomsbury”, which included the lands of the High School, the Rolling Road Country Club, and the current school complex at 901 S Rolling Road. Going further back, the Bloomsbury estate (including the Lurman High School property) was initially part of the “Taylor’s Forest” estate that was surveyed in 1678.

The "Farmlands" estate was purchased by Theodore Lurman Sr. in 1848 and was known for its lush gardens and specimen trees. In 1948, Frances Lurman sold the “Farmlands Estate” to the Board of Education and it became the location of the current Catonsville High School (the 4th High School in Catonsville’s history). The Lurman Woodland Theater on the school's grounds is named in his memory. The campus spans 64 acres.

(Use the following Link to a lithograph of the Farmlands estate from the Maryland Center for History and Culture:
https://www.mdhistory.org/resources/view-from-the-porch-at-the-farm-of-gustav-w-lurman-baltimore-county-maryland-u-s-a-the-house-at-the-farm-of-gustav-w-lurman-baltimore-county-maryland-u-s-a/.

Estate #2: The “Bloomsbury Farm,” (Todays Rolling Road Golf Club)

The “Bloomsbury Farm,” was on land where the Rolling Road Golf Club currently resides. It was initially a part of the “Farmlands” Estate owned by the Gustav Lurman Sr. In 1881, Gustav Lurman Jr. inherited a portion of the “Bloomsbury estate owned by his Father Gustav Sr., and he built the estate known as “Bloomsbury Farms” and the large mansion house on this land. [See attached picture]
In 1919, what was “Bloomsbury Farm” officially became Rolling Road Golf Club. The Bloomsbury Farms mansion later served as the clubhouse for Rolling Road Club and was actually the earliest US clubhouse in continual use from 1919 to 1991, when it burned to the ground in a fire. Today’s new club house was built in the same location as the mansion.

The first 9 holes of the golf course were built by hand and the golf course officially opened on July 1, 1919. In 1922, the second of the 9 holes were designed and completed by a world-renowned player and golf course architect Willie Park, Jr.

Estate #3:” Lurman-Riggs House (Also known as “Notting Hill”, 901 South Rolling Road

The Lurman-Riggs House was built for Theodor Lurman and his family as a summer home in 1887. The house was built on 5 acres of land inherited from his father Gustav W. Lurman Sr. and had been originally part of a larger “Farmland” parcel that was broken into smaller lots after Lurman Sr’s death.

The house was erected during the height of popularity for cottage construction during the “Gilded Age” era in Baltimore County. At that time, the village of Catonsville was a popular place for the construction of summer homes due to the proximity of the railroad and streetcars that provided convenient transportation to and from Baltimore City for many of the businessmen and their families that called Catonsville home during the summer. Amenities provided by the Catonsville Casino provided ample sources of entertainment and social events for the prominent families that summered there. The local papers would publish announcements about when prominent Baltimore families would move to their summer homes in Catonsville.

Theodor Lurman contacted the notable architectural firm of Wilson & Wilson to design his new summer home, which was constructed out of brick and frame and cost $6,000.00. Henry Smith, a Baltimore builder, completed the construction. Theodor Lurman and his family only owned the house for ten years before it was sold to Mrs. Mary Cromwell Riggs in 1897. Mrs. Riggs was the daughter of Richard Cromwell who lived at “Foxhall” across the street.
After the Riggs’ sold the house in 1921, the property changed hands several times. It was later sold to the Baltimore County Board of Education in 1957 for use as a school and continues as an Alternative Studies school today.

03/26/2026

THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF CATONSVILLE

There have been FOUR High Schools for Catonsville, and all 4 buildings still exist today:

School #4: Catonsville High School is located at 421 Bloomsbury Avenue; High School from 1954 to Present. (See Picture #1)

As a result of the post-war migration of residents from Baltimore City to the suburbs, Catonsville, like many surrounding suburban communities, experience a dramatic increase in population. This was followed by the “baby boom” generation [the largest generation (79 million) in US history] which created the need for more school capacity at all school levels. Catonsville created the new high school at 421 Bloomsbury Avenue and S. Rolling Road) primarily to accommodate this rapidly increasing student enrollment and to replace the overcrowded 1925 building at 106 Bloomsbury Ave.

In 1948, Frances Lurman sold the “Farmlands Estate” to the Board of Education. The "Farmlands" estate had been owned in the 19th century by Theodore Lurman Sr. and was known for its lush gardens and specimen trees. The Lurman Woodland Theater on the school's grounds is named in his memory. The campus spans 64 acres. (Use the following Link to a lithograph of the Farmlands estate from the Maryland Center for History and Culture :

https://www.mdhistory.org/resources/view-from-the-porch-at-the-farm-of-gustav-w-lurman-baltimore-county-maryland-u-s-a-the-house-at-the-farm-of-gustav-w-lurman-baltimore-county-maryland-u-s-a/.

The main mansion and greenhouse were torn down in 1950, but the Carriage House and the Caretaker’s House were incorporated into the high school campus (the Caretaker’s (Lapole) House still exists today and is on the Baltimore County Landmark list.

At one point the Lurman Farmlands property was part of a larger estate known as “Bloomsbury”, which included the lands of the High School, the Rolling Road Country Club, and the current school complex at 901 S Rolling Road. Going further back, the Bloomsbury estate (including the Lurman High School property) was initially part of the “Taylor’s Forest” estate that was surveyed in 1678; not many schools can trace their land’s history to the 1600!

The New Catonsville High School building at 421 Bloomsbury Avenue and South Rolling Road was dedicated in 1954. The new facility included modern features like a new auditorium, gymnasium, and industrial arts building, and allowed the old High School location at 106 Bloomsbury to transition into a Junior High School (grades 7-9) in 1954.

Save for minor modifications, the 421 Bloomsbury Avenue building remained virtually unchanged for the next forty-five years. By the early 1990s, however, it became clear that the building’s infrastructure was unable to keep pace with both the needs of the school’s evolving instructional program and the increasing student population.
In 1994, under the direction of principal Donald I Mohler, III, a small committee was formed to propose a modest expansion of the school building. When State and County funding became available for a 600- seat, 77,000 square foot Addition to the Catonsville High School, a new committee was formed. Administrators, faculty, staff, parents and students worked on the design with architects and engineers to help plan the layout and usage of the new facility. The decision was made to locate the school’s science, math and technology programs in the Addition, as well as the school’s new library and fitness center. The school’s art program was to be relocated to the former industrial arts building.

Ground was broken for the Addition in March 1998, and the building was open for students in August 1999 for the 1999-2000 school year. Luckily, additional funding then became available for electrical and mechanical upgrades to the 1954 building. Work began in 1999 that brought data, voice and video networking, new classroom and hallway lighting, and a new ventilation system to the school’s main building. The renovation project’s final stages also included the complete refurbishment of the Catonsville High School gym and replacement of the school’s track.

After the relocation to the new High School building at 421 Bloomsbury in 1954, the former High School at 106 Bloomsbury school became the Catonsville Junior High School (grades 7, 8, 9), and in 1981 the 106 Bloomsbury school became the Catonsville Middle School (grades 6, 7, 8). In the fall of 2016, the 106 Bloomsbury building became the “new” Catonsville Elementary school, after a $28 million renovation

02/16/2026

THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF CATONSVILLE (Part 3 of 4)
There have been FOUR High Schools for Catonsville, and all 4 buildings STILL EXIST today:

School #3: Catonsville High School; 106 Bloomsbury Avenue; High School from 1925 to 1954.

Let's recap the history of Catonsville High School #2 which was located at 615 Frederick Road. While it was named a “High School” it was an actually “all-grades” school, with grades 1 through 10 (10 being the highest level of High School at that time.) In addition, it was drawing students regionally from Catonsville, Relay, Halethorpe, Arbutus, St. Denis, etc. The combination of being an all-grades school, plus a regional school, quickly made the Frederick Road school overcrowded. As a result of this overcrowding, the 615 Frederick Road school was only used as the High School from 1910 to 1925. Thereafter (Fall 1926), the High School students moved to the new High School building at 106 Bloomsbury Avenue, and the Frederick Road building began providing schooling to only Elementary students. I believe most Catonians remember the Frederick Road school as an Elementary School, which lasted from 1925 to 2015.

As stated, the school building at 106 Bloomsbury became the 3rd Catonsville High School and was built to relieve overcrowding at the High School building at 615 Frederick Road. [SEE PICTURE #1]

In 1925 Baltimore County purchased land and buildings from the Catonsville Casino at 106 Bloomsbury Avenue. The Catonsville Casino was an elite social club that was built in 1891 as a “ gathering spot” for wealthy residents of Catonsville. The Casino even had its own train station stop on the Catonsville Shortline railroad. The Casino complex was built on 18 acres donated by John L Glenn, (owner of the Hilton estate which is now CCBC Catonsville). The grounds were home to a wide variety of sports, including a bowling alley, a nine-hole golf course, baseball, tennis, cricket, lacrosse, and a winter tennis court made of crushed stone. Wilber and Orville Wright proportedly played tennis there. The deed of the propertyy stipulated that it was to used for recreation purposed only and this delayed the sale to the County, but utltimaetly the sale did occur. Note that the pickleball courts, open fields, and the three ballfields behind the school building are a legacy of this “recreation use only” mandate from the Glenn deed.

The Casino complex had a beautiful, ornate, 3 story clubhouse but unfortunately this all wood building burned down in 1906. [SEE PICTURE #2] A smaller, less ornate, building was built to replace it in 1908, and the Bloomsbury complex was thereafter renamed the Catonsville Country Club. (This organization became the predecessor of the current Rolling Road Country Club). The replacement Clubhouse building (SEE PICTURE #3) remained until 1963 and was temporily used by the school (then a Junior High) to house the school Principal. It was also used as the Junior High School cafereria before a new cafateria was added to the Bloomsbury building.

In the fall of 1926, Catonsville High School officially moved into the new 106 Bloomsbury building. The building consists of a long brick building, three stories high plus a basement; and multiple window bays. The high school was enlarged with an end wing in 1930. Additional wings were added at the South and North ends in the 1950/1960s, but these wings were razed in 1999. The 106 Bloomsbury building remained the High School until the fall of 1954, when the current High School at 421 Bloomsbury Avenue opened.

After the relocation to the new High School building at 421 Bloomsbury in 1954, the 106 Bloomsbury School building became the Catonsville Junior High (grades 7, 8, 9). In 1981, it became the Catonsville Middle School (grades 6, 7, 8). It closed in 1987 when the Catonsville Middle school was relocated to a new facility on Edmondson Avenue (the former Westchester Elementary) and students in portions of Catonsville were redistricted to the Arbutus Middle School.

The school board wanted to demolish the 106 Bloomsbury building in 1995, but community protests resulted in the 70-year-old building being added to Baltimore County landmarks list. However, this landmark designation only covered the original building and a wing added in 1930. The more recent portions of the school, which include a cafeteria wing and a shop wing built in the 1950s and 1960s were not recommended for landmark status, and were ultimately demolished. Residents continued to lobby for the return of the school as a Middle School, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. But with the main building saved, it “lived another day” as the Bloomsbury Community Center beginning in 1998.

To address school overcrowding in southwestern Baltimore County, a decision was made in the 2014-2015 time-period to convert the former Bloomsbury Community Center building into an elementary school, with construction and renovations taking place shortly thereafter.

In the fall of 2016, the 106 Bloomsbury building became the “new” Catonsville Elementary school, after a $28 million renovation project that included a 36,000-square-foot addition, air conditioning and IT improvements. The renovated building enjoys a seamless blend of the old and the new, which kept the character of an older brick school building, but with multiple modern upgrades. [See Picture #4]

This Year, the building will celebrate 100 years as a Catonsville school building, surviving as High School, Junior High School, Middle School., and now as an Elementary School. Few communities can make this claim, and it shows how Catonsville values its history.

(Pictures courtesy of the BCPL.)

01/05/2026

THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF CATONSVILLE (Part 2 of 4)

There have been FOUR High Schools for Catonsville, and all 4 buildings STILL EXIST today:

School #2: Catonsville High School; 615 Frederick Road; High School from 1910 to 1925.

As Catonsville grew, the school at 20 Winters Lane became overcrowded, so a new school was constructed at 615 Frederick Road and opened in 1910. [See 1910 picture (courtesy of BCPL)]

In 1907, the Catonsville School Committee went to the Baltimore County School Board to ask for a new school building. In support of their cause, the Committee pledged to raise $10,000, estimated to be a quarter of the building cost. They also agreed to find a location for the new school. However, they had trouble both in raising money and in determining the location. The proposed location on Frederick Road was a concern to some parents who didn’t want their children educated in such close proximity to three local bars. In addition, an alternate Frederick Road site was rejected by local residents. Finally, some residents pushed for the renovation and expansion of the Winter Lane school vs a new school. But eventually the fundraisers finally succeeded enough to move forward, and the Committee purchased a three-acre blacksmith shop from Remus Adams as the location for the new school. (Remus Adams was an African American free man, that had owned the shop at 615 Frederick Road before the Civil War. He was also a community leader in the Winter Lane community of Catonsville.)

The blacksmith shop was razed in 1909 to make way for Catonsville Elementary School and construction of the new building began in the Spring of 1909. It opened in the Spring of 1910 and was officially dedicated on April 29, 1910. It was an imposing building, built in the Classical Revival architectural style. It was considered a “architectural jewel” of Catonsville and still is today, 115 years later.

When it opened in 1910, the school contained fourteen classrooms, an assembly room, teacher rooms, a science lab, a typewriter room, a "domestic science" room, a manual training room, a playroom and “toilet rooms.” The school newspaper was called the “June Bug”, and the literary journal was the “Blue and Gold” (which are Catonsville Schools’ colors). Students who didn’t walk to school usually rode their bicycles or rode the Fredrick Road streetcar. Some came by horse and wagon and parked at Davis’s Hay and Feed business next door to the school.

Even though the school would serve students of all grades, the School Committee wanted it to be called “Catonsville High School” to emphasize the fact that they offered classes up through tenth grade. (10th grade was the highest High school level offered at the time).

Soon after opening, the school was drawing students from Relay, Halethorpe, Arbutus, St. Denis and even Randallstown. Within only a handful of years after it was built, the combined Catonsville High School/Grammar School was so crowded that two “portable” buildings had to be set up behind the main building to provide enough classroom space. By 1922, the high school yearbook reported that approximately 300 hundred students were attending classes in makeshift surroundings. Five classes met in portable buildings out in back, two met in an overcrowded annex, two met in offices, and the gym and study classes had to use the hallways. The school had no library, and the administrators had to use the corner of a cloakroom as an office.

Because of this overcrowding, the 615 Frederick Road school was only used as the Catonsville High School until 1925. Thereafter, the Frederick Road High School students moved to the new High School at 106 Bloomsbury Avenue. Fron then on, the Frederick Road building provided schooling to only Elementary students. By the 1930s and 40s, Catonsville Elementary was one of the largest Elementary schools in the county. In the 1960s, Catonsville Elementary added a kindergarten program, which served students from other schools as well.

In 1971, the school became empty of students. A major renovation and addition project had fallen behind schedule, so for the first few months of the school year, Catonsville Elementary students attended school at Hillcrest Elementary, with one school population attending in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

In 2015, school administrators decided that rather than update the building again, they would simply send the students someplace else. Teachers and students moved around the corner to the former 106 Bloomsbury high school building built in 1925, which had since been turned into a middle school. The Frederick Road school building was then decommissioned and became vacant. And then the debates began: “ what to do with the 1910 Frederick Road building”.

In 2015, a study on the vacant century-old building was commissioned by Baltimore County and it recommended that the old Catonsville Elementary School on Frederick Road be demolished. Other options were studied, including a major remodeling of the building for an estimated $19.4 million, or tearing it down and building a modern replacement. Ultimately, renovating the building didn’t fit the county’s already committed plans for several new schools and renovations in other locations of the County. Some community groups recommended that it become a community center.

In 2016, an application by local residents to designate the former Catonsville Elementary School on Frederick Road a County Landmark was submitted to intentionally block any county government action to demolish the building, while the Baltimore County Landmarks Preservation Commission evaluated the landmark application. Ultimately the former Catonsville Elementary School on Frederick Road DID became a County Landmark.

Today the 115-year-old building is a Board of Education Administration building. Ironically, prior to being used as an Administration building, the County installed many of the renovations that had been recommended in earlier 2015 renovation study. [See 2025 building picture]

MY RECOLLECTIONS: I attended Catonsville Elementary in the 1960’s. My memories include:

Standing in line in the basement cafeteria to load up with food and milk. I loved the peanut butter cookies!!
The Harvest Festival/Halloween parade.
Beating chalk erasers outside to remove the chalk and creating a cloud of dust
The 3 ball fields, where we played kickball/softball and Rec League baseball and soccer.
My 6th grade teacher Mrs. Clopper (Her husband was the School Principal). She was a special, no-nonsense teacher that made you love to learn. She challenged me and made me feel “smart”. I still remember her today.

Historical Society of Catonsville

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