Sudbrook Park

Olmsted's Suburban Oasis

Apr 06, 2024

Hi History Friends!

By golly, I’ve missed you! And missed being here sharing my love of history, a subject that has fed my soul since I was old enough to reach the TV and turn the channel to PBS. I’m out of town, seeing an elderly relative through some surgery. Alas, the No Big Deal Surgery has turned into a Medium-Sized Deal Surgery. That along with a book deadline this month — STARDUST, the sequel to IRISH EYES — has curtailed my Substack-ery for the moment.

But I couldn’t resist popping in with a (somewhat) shorter than usual post about Sudbrook Park, the historic neighborhood in Pikesville, Maryland where I grew up. As you can see from the marker pictured above, Sudbrook Park was designed in 1889 by none other than Frank Law Olmsted, Sr. (1822-1903), considered to be the Father of Landcape Architecture in the U.S. and co-designer with Calvert Vaux of Manhattan’s famed Central Park and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Read more about Olmsted here.

**Frederick Law Olmsted, engraving by T. Johnson from a photograph by James Notman, in** **The Century** **magazine, October 1893. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: cph 3a37268)**

Sudbrook Park opened in 1890 as a resort community. Being on the Western Maryland Railroad line made it convenient for residents of Baltimore City to come out on weekends to their “summer cottages.”1 There was no body of water to splash around in, unless you count a shallow and perenially turpid creek, but there was a golf course (now gone), an hotel (also gone), and plenty of greenspace (happily still there).2

Most of the surviving original homes are Queen Anne Victorians (turrets!) or cozy Arts & Crafts bungalows. Nearly all have generous porches.

Over the years, Sudbrook Park expanded beyond Olmsted’s original resort design. Modest brick neo-colonial homes were added in the 1940s and 1950s, perfect timing for the post World War II baby boom! The house I grew up in was one of these.

The mid-century area of Sudbrook Park has been the location for several features including “That Night” starring Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell — my childhood house made the final cut!

**Photo courtesy of Sudbrook Park, Inc.**

As a kid, I didn’t think of my neighborhood as “historic.” It was just a great place to grow up, a bucolic, family friendly enclave of mature trees and traffic slow enough that we kids could play and ride our bikes in the streets. Summer weekends were when all the dads mowed the lawn; the humid air always smelled sweet with cut grass. Yards were blessed with a profusion of birds, squirrels, bunnies, and the occasional deer. They still are.

In 1973, the oldest section of Sudbrook Park, including the entranceway area, was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites and Places. In 1993, a portion of Sudbrook Park including and slightly larger than the National Register District was recognized as a Baltimore County Historic District, with expansions in 1995 (600 block of Cliveden Road) and 1999 (900 block of Adana Road).3

A few of the old timers in the nabe fought the protected status expansion — e.g., “no one’s going to tell me what I can and can’t do to my property.” Fortunately, any uproar turned out to be a storm in a teacup.

A Mardis Gras state of mind? Photo by Me.

Because of Sudbrook Park’s landmark status, the gracious old homes and mature trees and wide front lawns are here to stay.

For a while, at least.

This 60-foot-tall evergreen crowns one of Olmsted’s beloved triangular islands at the preface to the park.

Read more about Sudbrook Park’s fascinating history and legacy here.

Last month I wrote an article for THE IRISH ECHO on my fifteen year journey (yep, f-i-f-t-e-e-n) to writing and finding a publisher for Irish Eyes. The takeaway - if you have a dream and feel the truth of that dream in your bones, hold on tight and don't ever give up!