Olde Severna Park Celebrates 100 Storied Years

Once upon a time, in a land far from Baltimore, some businessmen from the city saw an opportunity to develop the pristine land at the Boone train station along the mostly untouched Severn River. That undeveloped land — registered with the state of Maryland in 1908 — is now known as Olde Severna Park, the first established neighborhood in Severna Park.

On August 25, hundreds of residents gathered at Hatton Beach to celebrate their community’s roots and to bid farewell to the 100th summer in Olde Severna Park.

An Olde Community

Early requirements set out by the development company were that houses complied with the standards of the time as “of a good size and quality.” By 1910, all the land that is now Olde Severna Park had been platted in much the same layout as exists today, lots had been sold and houses built, though some buyers bought lots just to have a place to swim and picnic in the country.

By 1918, there were enough people living in the community — though it was still small — for the residents to establish a corporation called the Severna Park Improvement Association, Incorporated (SPIA), which they registered with the state of Maryland in August 1918.

The purpose of the new corporation, as stated in its articles, was to promote improvements in Severna Park and the welfare of its residents.

“By the late 1970s, Severna Park had become a postal district stretching far beyond the boundaries of the original Severna Park development, and the community decided that it needed a new name, to distinguish it from the rest of the postal district,” said Alison Burbage, the unofficial historian of Olde Severna Park. “They decided on ‘Olde Severna Park,’ and in December 1976, SPIA officially registered with the state of Maryland a change of name to Olde Severna Park Improvement Association Inc. (OSPIA).”

A new description of the organization’s purpose was included, with a focus on promoting general welfare; regulating and maintaining the parks, beach, walks and landings; and owning real estate for the benefit of residents.

“At this time also, the remaining owners of the Severna Company wanted to wind up the company’s affairs and became willing to negotiate the turnover to OSPIA of all the company’s remaining property in Olde Severna Park, including the beach and waterfront area, which the Severna Company had always tightly controlled, and which the association had urgently desired to acquire since its founding,” added Burbage.

The Severna Company agreed to OSPIA’s proposal that it deed its property by “quit claim” to Anne Arundel County, which would then deed it, also by quit claim, to OSPIA. The 1977 quit claim deed from the county, after describing the area affected by this deed, reserved for the county certain residual rights in the property. The property was to be used for the benefit of the lot owners of the community as described in the deed, and if it were used for other purposes, the property would revert to and become the property of Anne Arundel County.

By late 1976, too, the first houses in “The Village” were under construction, and an area on the east side of the beach parking lot was cleared and grassed over to make a place for a swing and other playground equipment. Then, with the construction of the Point Somerset Lane houses, begun in 1980, Olde Severna Park and its beach reached its full present and, probably, final configuration.

In the near century since its incorporation, the association has worked in every area of activity described in its two certificates of incorporation. The new association’s first project was the construction of a new railroad station building, which still stands on the corner of Riggs and Holly avenues, and is registered with the Maryland Historical Trust. A replacement for the original Boone Station, it served commuters until 1950, when passenger service ended.

From 1921 to 1951, the post office rented part of the station, and after that, it housed a branch of the county library and, for a time, classes from the Severna Park Elementary School.

Since the 1960s, the Severna Park Model Railroad Association, a nationally known organization, has rented the building for club meetings and to house its lavish model train layout. Until the early 1950s, the association was also responsible for trying to maintain most of the community roads, which were unpaved and needed to be scraped and graveled at least once a year, whenever the association could borrow a scraper from the county or elsewhere. Only Evergreen Road was paved, and only it, Riggs Avenue, and Old County Road were the county’s responsibility.

By the late 1930s, the association was negotiating with the Severna Company, which actually owned the community roads, and the county to turn the roads, except the roads to the beach, over to county administration. This was a slow and involved project, which continued throughout the 1950s, until the association was at last free of the burden of road maintenance.

From its beginning, SPIA focused its efforts and money on maintaining the beach and piers. The first SPIA-sponsored entertainment of which any record survives was a “fair” in the summer of 1922, to raise money to fill the swamp near the beach and the “public park” surrounding the beach to get rid of mosquitoes.

In 1928, the association began work to raise money to build a new pier, since the one in existence had been condemned as unsafe. An agreement was reached with the developers granting SPIA the right to build and maintain a new pier.

Throughout the rest of its history, the association maintained, repaired and built replacement main piers, smaller piers west of the main pier, diving/swimming platforms some distance out from the main pier, mooring pilings, and boat ramps. It also worked to create solid ground for parking and for play areas at the beach, where only a grassy marsh and wet woods had originally existed. In the early days, beach maintenance consisted largely of cutting the grasses away from the beachfront, filling in swamp areas to get solid ground, and trying to drain the swamp.

From the beginning, also, pollution from septic systems was often an urgent worry, and in 1952, the association wrote to the county health department about pollution in the Severn. As a result of worries about erosion and pollution along the river, the community joined the Severn River Association (SRA).

Increasing development in the county, and effects of the installation of new storm drains in the early 1970s, added the problems of increasingly shallow water in Sullivan’s Cove and much more pollution, to the association’s beach maintenance concerns.

In 1975, SPIA/OSPIA joined the SRA’s new Operation Clearwater in order to have the water in Sullivan’s Cove regularly tested for harmful bacteria. In the late 1990s, the association joined the bay-wide efforts to rehabilitate the land and water environment, drawing up a buffer management plan, clearing invasive vegetation, and replanting to reduce erosion and pollution. In the 21st century, with the same goals, it has worked on growing oysters in the cove and installing rain gardens to reduce polluted storm runoff.

“Although this activity is a great change from a century ago, still, it is very much in the spirit and letter of the intentions spelled out in 1918,” said Burbage. “Other new efforts may be needed in future, even as OSPIA strives to fulfill all the objectives it spelled out so long ago.”

Today, there are approximately 400 homes in Olde Severna Park. OSPIA president Jeff Johnson presented a commemorative centennial plaque to residents during the gathering on August 25.