Text Box: GLEN ECHO HISTORY BOOK DISTRIBUTED AT PARTY Town residents picked up their free copies of the newly-published “Glen Echo: The Remarkable Saga of a Very Small Town” at a well-attended book party at the town hall on July 15. Author Carlotta Anderson also provided several display boards of photographs of the town and townspeople dating back to the 1900s that were contributed by past and present residents. She signed many of the books. Anyone who didn’t receive a copy and is a resident of the town may pick up their book at the town hall during regular office hours (see p. 2). Each address is entitled to one book, with additional books for sale to residents for $10 each. The cost for non-residents is $15. The 172-page paperback, with 58 illustrations and a map of the town, was financed by a $2,500 grant from the Maryland Historic Preservation Commission with a matching grant from the town. However, volunteer work by the author covered all but $196 of the $2,696 cost for the printing of 200 copies. The party was organized by Nancy Long, with assistance from Julia Wilson and Andrea and Steve Matney. Text Box: THANKS TO MORE DONORS OF HISTORICAL ITEMS FOR BOOK Many past and present residents of Glen Echo are among the recent contributors of historical photos, documents, and reminiscences that were used by Carlotta Anderson for the book, “Glen Echo: The Remarkable Saga of a Very Small Town.” All these items will be filed in the town archives, generously enlarging its historical records. Betty and Billy Briggs, of Bryn Mawr Ave., who have lived in town all of their lives, had photos and many recollections, which were taped by interviewers Diana and Norman Hudson-Taylor, and provided many insights into Glen Echo of old. Lee Clune, Dorothy Lumsden, and Irene Cannon also provided photos and tales of the past. Andy Malmgren shared his extensive research into the history of his house at 42 Wellesley Circle and “Oakdale Villa” at 44 Wellesley Circle. Ann Houghton Eberhard, whose grandfather Ernest D.Houghton was a Justice of the Peace and lived at 6105 Yale Ave., provided valuable photos. Photographs of Trav’s were made available by Bob Witt of Cabin John, and of the collapse of the Glen Echo Park parking lot in 1989 by Stan Fowler, a park ranger. Tom Meeks, whose Meeks and Miller relatives were prominent in town life, gave the town scores of CDs taken from the family collection. Tommy Denell, whose family’s presence in the area goes back to the late 1800s when his grandfather was the lockkeeper at Lock 7, had an impressive recall of names, addresses and events going back to his childhood on Oberlin Ave. in the 30s. Now a resident of Cabin John, Mr. Denell’s memories were invaluable in reconstructing the town’s history. Richard Cook, who has been studying the area since his teenage years and is acknowledged to be the most knowledgeable historian of Glen Echo Park and its surrounding area, offered much information and photographs that would have been lost had he not preserved them over the years. Because the Rev. George Stuart of the Church of the Little Flower was researching the history of the mission chapel that once existed on upper Cornell Ave., he spent many hours in the town archives, reading through old minutes. For his work, he created genealogies of many of the Catholic families of early Glen Echo and amassed hundreds of newspaper accounts of the town. He made copies of all of these for the town. Additionally, he put author Carlotta Anderson in touch with two relatives of the first mayor of Glen Echo, John Garrett. Rosemary Hartley, Garrett’s niece, and Mary Catherine Dempsey, Garrett’s granddaughter, had wonderful photos of the Garrett family as well as family stories to pass on. All of these, and others not mentioned, provided much of the material that made the publication of a full-length town history possible. Text Box: