Lakeland Community Heritage Project

Preserving the history of African Americans in College Park, Maryland.

Central

This the area of Lakeland between Rhode Island Avenue and the Railroad tracks. Although many buildings are still standing it did undergo significant change as a result of the urban renewal process of the 1970s and 1980s. Homes and business were destroyed. Vacant lots were also built upon.

This part of Lakeland is home to the community’s two oldest congregations, First Baptist Church of College Park (formally First Baptist Church of Lakeland) and Embry AME Church as well as the historic Lakeland High School building. It also is the location of many old homes which have sheltered families for many generations.

Guss House in the forground, IRear is Mack's Market with lunch counter building also held apartments
Lakeland Road near Rhode Island Avenue
In 1901, the First Baptist Church purchased a parcel of land from church deacon John C. Johnson, and the church was relocated to its current location on Lakeland Road.
First Baptist Church about 1945
Embry A.M.E. Church was founded in 1903 in the home of Samuel and Georgianna Stewart. The congregation built a chapel in 1905. In 1918 the building was moved to a site on Lakeland Road. In 1920, a new church on the same location replaced the chapel.
Embry AME Church
Lakeland School circa 1958
The historic Lakeland High School began as a six-classroom high school in 1928. It was expanded in the 1940s to add additional classrooms, and again in the 1950s for a multipurpose room. That building served the community’s school children from 1928 until 1972. It functioned as a high school until 1950, as an elementary and junior high school until 1962, and as an elementary school until 1972.
Girls of Lakeland High School 1930
1938 Lakeland HS Senior Class with Principal Smith
Kintergarden Lakeland Elm 1965
The home of Benjamin Robert Hicks and his wife, Annie L. Terry Hicks, was located on Washington Street (now Lakeland Road) next to the old Lakeland High School. In
Hicks home
Green home
Rosie Gross, Pierce Ave
Laney and Gross homes, Pierce Avenue
Located directly across from Lake Artemesia and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks, the Gray family home was for more than sixty years the site of many gatherings for family and friends.
Gray Home
Gray children at the home of their grandfather in 1948.
Jamea Henry Gray and his children
Gray family members

 

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