Book Sale Oct 2010

Fall Book Sale: Saturday October 23rd.

We are currently accepting donations of good used books, for children or adults, general interest (no textbooks please). Thanks to everyone who has donated. You have been very generous.

B. Y. Morrison Park

This small, urban, pocket park is located in the commercial "Takoma Junction" area of Takoma Park. It is named for Benjamin Yeo Morrison, the developer of the Glen Dale azaleas and a resident of Takoma Park for many years.

Morrison first became interested in azaleas when, after receiving an M.A. in landscape architecture from Harvard in 1915, he traveled to Asia on a Sheldon Fellowship. After serving in World War I, he became a horticulturist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and eventually the director of the National Arboretum and a founder of the American Horticultural Society. Although Morrison named his azaleas for the Glen Dale Station of the Department of Plant Exploration and Introduction, he developed many of his hybrids in a two acre garden in Takoma Park.

Azaleas grow all over Takoma Park, but they are notably absent from the park named in Morrison's honor. It is instead dominated by the James Colwell mural pictured above, which commemorates music, not flowers. Yet art and music were Morrison's other great loves. He was a landscape painter and a master of botanical drawing. He composed an opera libretto, Salve Regina, and gave professional lieder concerts.

According to his Takoma Park friend, Eugene Hollowell, as quoted in Hybrids and Hybridizers,

He had a fine, sensitive baritone voice and he often was his own accompanist. He sang as a soloist with choirs, and occasionally gave voice lessons. I have been told that he was offered an opportunity to try out for the Metropolitan Opera.

Francis Patterson-Knight is quoted in the same work, describing a visit to him in Mississippi where he lived after his retirement:

Each day brought new surprises, for not only was he a great plantsman, and an able artist, but his love and knowledge of music added to our enjoyment. He gave us a wonderful evening in the little church where he worked and prayed - here he sang for fully two hours accompanying himself on the piano. We listened spellbound to ballads, Jewish chants, the songs of John Ireland and Brahms ... it was unforgettable.

Hybrids and Hybridizers: Rhododendrons and Azaleas for Eastern North America, edited by Philip A. Livingston and Franklin H. West. Harrowood Books, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, 1978.

In addition to the above book, the Takoma Park Maryland Library owns a copy of Morrison's 1953 U.S.D.A. monograph, Glenn Dale Azaleas, and a 1978 reprint published by Thophrastus.

The Morrison Garden at the United States Arboretum
Copyright for the picture at the top of the page is held by the City of Takoma Park. The artist is James Colwell.

Guarding the Neighborhood Eighteen years ago, James Colwell painted the brilliantly colored, vibrantly animated mural, “Guardians of the Neighborhood,” in the pavilion at the corner of Carroll and Ethan Allen avenues. Last month, he did a major touch-up, repainting the piece to brighten its effect and keep the artwork from showing its age. “Guardians,” which depicts a lively jazz club-type scene, is one of the most familiar of Takoma Park’s public art pieces, as it is geographically central to the City at Takoma Junction. It is painted on the wall of what was originally a gas station, then a thrift shop; the structure is part of B.Y. Morrison Park, named for the Takoma Park azalea collector responsible for the “Azalea City” designation. The pavilion’s columns are covered in ceramic tiles by Takoma Park artist John Hume; these also illustrate the town’s quirky heritage, with representations of Roscoe the Rooster, Motorcat, and Root Boy Slim, among others. Colwell, who is a professional piano restorer by trade, remembers that the mural stirred some controversy when it was new: he had to raise the neckline of the sensuous dancer on the right.

please note: this page was originally part of the local reference section of the library's web site.
parks, gardens and athletic fields

Takoma Park Churches

Other area churches

please note: this page was originally part of the local reference section of the library's web site.

Apartments

Here are some places to find apartment information for this area:
The Takoma Park Housing and Community Development Department publishes a landlord tenant handbook and model lease forms for Takoma Park rentals. It also offers mediation and conflict resolution.
Craigslist: Maryland suburbs | whole DC area
City Paper classifieds
Washington Post Apartment Showcase Choose Takoma Park in the drop-down box of cities.

Please remember, many places with postal addresses of Takoma Park 20912 are not actually in the City of Takoma Park. For example, Fairview Avenue is in an unincorporated area of Prince Georges County. So is 6733 New Hampshire Avenue. The zip codes do not correspond to the political/service/school boundaries.

Weekend Without Trains

All Labor Day weekend the Takoma Metro station will be closed, as will all stations north of Takoma. If you want to go downtown via Metrorail, you will need to make your way to Fort Totten, not easy unless you live along New Hampshire Avenue which has the K6 bus (a pdf file).

Closed Period: Friday, September 3rd shortly before 10 PM to Tuesday morning September 7th at 5 AM
More information about the Labor Day closing .
Trip Planner.
Bus routes in Takoma Park (a pdf file).

That same weekend, Labor Day 2010, the library will be open Saturday, closed Monday. The computer center will be closed both Saturday and Monday. (Both are normally closed Sunday.)

List of Schools

Takoma Park does not have its own school system. Children attend private schools or Montgomery County public schools.
elementary | middle | secondary | parochial | college | adult ESOL
current Montgomery County school schedule
Montgomery County school phone numbers
Montgomery County curriculum
School Assignment & Facility Information Locator
Board of Education
Maryland School Report Card for Montgomery County (State Board of Education)     
          by individual school
summer reading lists

• Takoma Park Elementary in Takoma Park (grades PreK-2)
• Piney Branch Elementary in Takoma Park (grades 3-5) Check out the work of their Web Wizards
• Rolling Terrace in Silver Spring (grades PreK-5)
• Sligo Creek Elementary in Silver Spring (grades K-5)

• Takoma Park Middle School in Takoma Park (grades 6-8). Please read Faith Stern's history of the Takoma Park Middle School / Junior High.
• Silver Spring International Middle School in Silver Spring (grades 6-8)

• Montgomery Blair in Silver Spring stats Check the Blazer wrestlers
• Takoma Park students are now allowed to choose one of the other area high schools: Kennedy (stats); Einstein (stats); Wheaton (stats) or Northwood (pdf map)

• Washington McLaughlin Christian Elementary School
• John Nevins Andrews Elementary School
• Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School

• Blair High School PTSA
• Takoma Park Middle School PTA
• Piney Branch Elementary School PTA
• Takoma Park Elementary School PTA

• CASA de Maryland offers ESOL classes. 301.431.4185
• Literacy Council of Montgomery County, Maryland, Inc. free reading, writing and English language tutoring as well as basic, intermediate and advanced classes. 301.942.9292

• Washington Adventist University (formerly Columbia Union College)
• Montgomery College Takoma Park / Silver Spring Campus

• American University
• Bowie State University
• Catholic University of America
• Gallaudet University
• George Washington University
• Georgetown University
• Howard University
• Trinity University
• University of the District of Columbia
• University of Maryland at College Park.
• Specialized Graduate Programs: Washington Theological Union

Geography and Maps

Takoma Park lies right on the fall line, the border between the Piedmont Province and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Piedmont soils in the north and west parts of the City are derived from an ancient underlying schist. Soils in the southeast section come from more recent upper Coastal Plain sediments.

Elevation		214 feet above sea level (at the library).
Latitude & Longitude		38o 58.862' North 77o 00.645' West (at the Library)
Climate		Yearly Precipitation (inches) 39.2 (average) Yearly Snowfall (inches) 16 (average) Average Summer Temp. 74 +/- 5 F Average Winter Temp. 37.2 +/- 5 F The climate is very similar to that of College Park, which is only four miles away. The Weather Channel also has some local climatology statistics. see also: Maryland State Climatologist Office.
Current Weather		National Weather Service outlook for Takoma Park National Weather Service Baltimore-Washington Office current satellite Geos 8 FEMA's advice for severe weather preparation.
Sky		Current time (official) -5 UT Current sky Sunrise/Sunset Position of sun in sky Clear sky clock
Watershed		Anacostia [see also the Anacostia Watershed Society] Friends of Sligo Creek Nearest USGS satellite-monitored stream gage, current readings
Size		2.36 square miles before unification/annexation
Maps		ward map topo map (37 k) created from DeLorme's Topo USA DVD from a bicyclist's point of view (34 k) Mapquest map of Takoma Park click "Launch 360 View" to see street views beginning at the library.
More Maps		Topozone 1:25,000 topographic maps (takes time to download.) Landsat images of this area from a University of Virginia site. generalized geologic map of Maryland. distribution of mosquitos carrying West Nile virus upcoming visible passes of the International Space Station View Larger Map

please note: this page was originally part of the local reference section of the library's web site.

Open 08/12 !

Yes, we know that if you don't have electricity or an Internet connection you can't read this, but we are open. The Takoma Branch of the DC library system is closed, as are the nearby Montgomery County libraries: Silver Spring, Long Branch, White Oak and Wheaton. But, as we are substituting for so many places, we have a shortage of outlets for laptops so we are plugging in a variety of power strips and UPS boxes.

We now have enough public computer stations as the computer rooms in the community center opened at 2 PM. All 28 stations are operational. You need our library card to use them. Library Cards - Takoma Park Maryland Library

Power is surging here so we don't know what will happen this evening.

Geology

Geology of the Takoma Park Area

The following image clips are from the generalized geologic map of Maryland produced by the Maryland Geological Survey. Please note that the Montgomery - Prince George's County line as shown in the map reflects the old placement, before the City was unified into one county.

	Neighboring Areas

for fun: Earth science picture of the day

please note: this page was originally part of the local reference section of the library's web site.