Today, August 15, 2022, marks what would have been Julia Child's 110th birthday! To celebrate her accomplishments and support our "What's Cookin', Laurel?" food history exhibit,  we are pleased to share with you this story from a local Laurel resident who was a friend of Julia's. Enjoy - and Bon Appetit!

Julia and I had been friendship for many years. In fact, I was present and helping (as best I could) at every one of the cooking shows taped in her home in Cambridge.

After those series were completed, we stayed in touch in many ways.  I was present also for many of the shows she later did jointly with Jacques Pepin.

Julia spent quite a lot of time in California, where she lived much of her childhood in Pasadena. She and Paul particularly liked Santa Barbara, long before it became so crowded.

Our phone calls had become a longstanding tradition almost every Sunday morning, no matter where we were.

She suggested that I join her for my 60th birthday. I thought that was a terrific idea!

The plan was that we would drive to Napa from Santa Barbara, where she would also would meet with Robert Mondavi. Then we would go to one of her favorite places in the Wine Country where we would have a nice celebration. It was a long drive, but Julia loved to "get out and go!" She commissioned a car and driver, and on November 2, 2000, we set out in the morning.

Of course, we had to stop at one of her beloved "In and Out Burgers" for lunch.  We arrived in Napa and checked into our hotel. She went out for a business dinner with Mr. Mondavi, and I went out on my own.

She told me at breakfast  that she and Robert Mondavi had agreed that a restaurant would be opened in Napa and it would be named "Julia's Kitchen." This would be the first (and only) time she had ever agreed to allow her name and reputation to be associated with a commercial venture. Although she would not be an owner, she would be in charge of dining standards and even menus opening months. She was so excited!

November 3, we just wandered around. She was using a walker by that stage and had had back surgery, which made her a bit uncomfortable, but totally undaunted! We had a great day, and dinner someplace new that evening. The
staff had never seen her before in person and it became a party of its own! Julia just loved it.

So, the next day, November 4, 2000, was my 60th. Somehow she had planned something rather special. Her nephew Alex showed up, and we all went to a Mexican restaurant (I forget which one). Well....they had decked it out for a party! A few other folks I had known through Julia over the years also were there. We just had a blast,
complete with a Mexican pinata!

I had never seen Julia drink so much beer! Dos Equis.  She said she loved beer with this cuisine and she was right! I have drunk Dos Equis ever since. Julia gifted me something which was very personal and very moving.

November 5, we drove back to Santa Barbara. Julia had some business to attend to, but we got together for dinner that evening. More Mexican food!  La Super Rica Taqueria....   Julia loved excellent Mexican cuisine almost as much as French.

The next day I flew home.

I did not know at the time that this would be the last time I would see her. We continued our phone calls but it was not the same as the in-person exuberance I had come to know and love. Julia would pass away four years later. Her calendar had remained full right up until the end.

Photo credits:
Julia Child in her kitchen as photographed ©Lynn Gilbert, 1978, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lynn Gilbert, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Julia Child's Kitchen on display at the National Museum of American History. RadioFan at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Lisa and Dave Everett are the owners of the Laurel Manor House Bed & Breakfast, located at 1110 Montgomery Street, the site of Prince George’s County first B&B. The couple purchased the  historic property in 2011, and moved into the house the following year. Even though they had lived just four miles from Laurel in Howard County, they were not aware of Laurel’s history until the house beckoned. The historic inn was built in 1888 by businessman Edward Phelps, who would become mayor of Laurel in 1897 and serve for seven terms. The Phelps family moved out of the house in 1915. It was in tracking down the history of the property and Phelps family that Lisa first connected with the Laurel Historical Society and her Oldtown neighbors.
 
Lisa knew that she wanted to run a B&B and the Phelps mansion held many possibilities. Although the property was livable, it  required much work to convert the house not only to modern  standards, but also to accommodate guests. Fortunately, Dave is an engineer by trade and handyman and landscaper around the    property. The pair make a great team, complementing each other’s talents and abilities.

The team spent almost seven years renovating the historic structure, completing major projects like adding bathrooms and upgrading utilities. However, they were careful to retain many original features and  preserve the details of the house that they had fallen in love with, such as the door hinges and window latches. Their preservation ethic was recognized in 2019, when they were awarded the “Best of Maryland Community Choice Award” by Preservation Maryland. Their labor of love had been  nominated by the City of Laurel, who had long been champions of the Everetts and their rehabilitation project.
 
Lisa enjoys being an innkeeper and the opportunity to connect to different visitors, engaging  newcomers in the history and city of Laurel while serving delicious made-from-scratch baked goods and breakfasts. Since the B&B is a walkable distance to Oldtown Laurel, guests enjoy taking a stroll to get dinner or enjoy the other historic buildings in the area. Lisa recognizes the changes along Main Street in the years that they have lived here, pointing out the positive growth and improvements, and the arrival of diverse new businesses and restaurants.
 
After a period of closure due to the pandemic, the Laurel Manor House B&B is set to open again, as the Everetts continue to lovingly work on their house and welcome new visitors to Laurel.
 
LHS interview, 2021. Photo credit: Lisa Everett
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Deborah Randall is the founder of Venus Theatre, the longest running regional women’s theatre in the nation. Located at 21 C Street in Laurel, the company has produced at least 70 woman-empowering scripts and given over 1000 opportunities to an array of artists. Venus Theatre was established in 2000 and it arrived at its Laurel location in 2006. Previously, Deborah toured shows and ran improv performances under the title Venus Envy. This name was born out of the SHE Company in Washington, DC, which led Take Back the Night marches and empowerment workshops at House of Ruth.
 
When Venus Theatre first opened, Deborah offered classes, summer camps, and workshops to parents and children. She and her husband, Alan Scott, wrote three different musicals for children: Juanita the Walrus Goes on a Shopping Spree, Boogsnot and the Disco Dancing Snows and Fiona the Fish and the Musical Carwash. She eventually returned to her true passion of presenting solo shows and women’s empowerment plays. In addition to performing work written by other artists, she resurrected her own solo show titled Molly Daughter, which is now published through Chicago University Press. Deborah even makes sustainable creativity a priority. Venus Theatre recycles set pieces and borrows to avoid building.

Deborah is also a trained actor who once performed political satire in Washington, DC. However, she considers herself as more of a writer. This prompted her to develop and perform solo shows. She later made a shift to more collaborative productions and started reading the work of other playwrights. Deborah hosts public staged readings, which involve holding the script and reading from the play, often with the use of music stands. She describes staged readings as “a part of the theatrical creative process which allows writers to get out of their head with the work, take some feedback and make any necessary adjustments.”
 
Deborah Randall has amplified the voices of women and children for over twenty years. Her work not only contributes to the history of arts and activism in Laurel, but it also makes an impact on women’s history throughout the nation.

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Materials from LHS collections and interview, 2021, M. Sturdivant
Photo by: Marvin Joseph, The Washington Post

The Honorable Valerie Nicholas has been a Laurel history maker since her appointment to the Laurel City Council in 2011.  She is the first and only African American woman to serve in the role, to date.  A highly spiritual woman, Valerie said, she saw an ad in the Laurel Leader for the Council seat vacancy, upon the          resignation of former Councilwoman Gayle Snyder and God said, Valerie make your petition.  Even though she had doubt, she did and she was appointed.  From that date to this, she has remained undefeated for re-election.  Valerie continues to make history as the first African American to hold the Council At-Large position since 2019 and her 2020 nomination as the first African American woman to serve as City of Laurel Council President.

Valerie is a compassionate community servant and considers her role as a “labor of love and legislation”.  2011 was an inspirational year for her, as in addition to adjusting to her new role as  Councilwoman, she also revived her non-profit, Love Is Not Enough, Inc..  This organization was born from her own painful  experiences of Domestic Abuse, from a young girl to adulthood. 

The work she does in the name of her organization is her way of turning her pain into purpose and  honoring the grace she feels from God, to live to tell her story.  Though Valerie works full-time as a  Patient Advocate at the new Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center; she is up every morning at 3:00 am with a full trunk of groceries, toilet paper, toiletries, masks, hand sanitizer and more, to make deliveries to people in need; before going to work.  She has established strong donation partnerships over the years and now has two full storage units of supplies.  In April of 2020 Valerie’s organization received its first Maryland state grant.  She is now able to deliver service throughout the state.

Prior to Valerie’s life pivot to City Council and business owner, she worked for the Federal Government for 20 years, until her resignation, to selflessly become a full-time caregiver to her brother undergoing dialysis treatments, over 17 years; until his passing.  Before her current role at Adventist HealthCare Medical Center, she worked 8 years at the former Laurel Regional Hospital, as a Chaplain, Volunteer  Recruiter, and Patient Advocate. 

Valerie says that most people don’t turn to her for help with getting a street paved or adding a stop sign. Most of the time, people turn to her for help with housing assistance, employment, job readiness, food, help with utility bills, transportation, and other basic needs.  She makes it her mission to leave people better than she found them.  She has been called the “Wounded Healer”.

Valerie considers it an honor to reside in and serve the City of Laurel.  She points to the Main Street Business Grants and the City-wide public Wi-Fi, that is so critical to those without access, among her most proud legislative accomplishments.  Valerie is ready to continue making history in and out of Laurel.

CLICK HERE for the PDF version of this article.

Sunday March 20, 2021 LHS Interview ~AVF

  While much of the nation’s attention has focused on removing many monuments and renaming streets that honor slaveowners and Confederate heroes, little attention has been given to the issue, or even identifying those who owned enslaved people here in Laurel. An examination of the 1840, 1850 and 1860 slave census reveals that many early Laurel founders and honored citizens were in fact, slaveowners.
 
Robert Pilson, a Laurel Factory superintendent owned five enslaved persons; William Warfield, owner of a store on upper Main Street, owned two. Jesse Duvall, whose shop and possibly Post Office were on lower Main Street, one. Not surprisingly perhaps, Theodore Jenkins, owner of Montpelier, and a key figure in both the Laurel Cotton Mill and the founding of St. Mary of the Mills Catholic Church had 14 enslaved persons at the last (1860) slave census. More surprising to some might be the fact that his brother-in-law Horace Capron owned enslaved people for at least 10 years.

Gertrude Poe was a pioneer for women in law and journalism. Known as “Maryland’s First Lady of Journalism,” she was editor of The News Leader, now The Laurel Leader, for 41 years.

Gertrude graduated from Laurel High School in 1931, at the young age of 15, and took a job as legal secretary for George McCeney. Poe graduated in 1939 from the Washington College School of Law and returned to work for the law offices of Bowie McCeney at 357 Main Street in Laurel.  However, McCeney handed her control of the local newspaper, which he had recently acquired. At the helm of the Leader, Gertrude reversed the decline in readership and the publication thrived.  She wrote a weekly column called “Pen Points,” which was like a personal note to her readers addressing local and national issues.

Gertrude covered the news of a changing world with passion and professionalism. During World War II, Poe also managed The Bowie Register, The College Park News, and The Beltsville Banner, and became a broadcaster at the WLMD radio station in Laurel. In 1958, she became the first woman president of the Maryland Press Association. She received the Patriotic Civilian Service Award in 1963, for bringing attention to the base issues at Fort Meade.  Her exacting standards resulted in many local and national journalism awards, including for her coverage of the George Wallace shooting in 1972. Poe retired from the Laurel Leader in 1980. In 1987, Gertrude was the first living person and first woman inducted into the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011.

Gertrude Poe was a published author, patron of local arts and culture, and dedicated supporter of the Laurel Historical Society. In 2004, the Laurel Historical Society honored her at our annual Gala, themed as The Wizard of Oz. Known for her chic sense of style, the beaded emerald-green gown she wore to this event was one of her two dresses displayed at the Maryland Historical    Society’s exhibit Spectrum of Fashion in 2019.

LHS has several of her personal and iconic items in our collection, including her electric typewriter and small oak desk. Gertrude Poe passed away at her home in Ashton in 2017, at the age of 101. In a 2016 Laurel Leader article, a year before her passing, Gertrude wrote that hers had been “a good life and a good livelihood.”

Click HERE for the downloadable PDF version.
 
Information and photograph pulled from LHS collection and exhibit files. ~Updated 2021

Randy Kroop is a fourth-generation shoe and boot maker. Her family name is synonymous with high quality leather boots. As a teenager, Randy’s grandfather, Adolph Michael Kroop, known as “Mitch,” emigrated from Latvia, Northern   Europe and made his way to Baltimore, Maryland; where he opened his first shop, near Pimlico Park, in 1907. He later moved to set up shop on Main Street in Ellicott City, across from Kaplan's Department Store and in  1927 he took occupancy in a building on Laurel’s Main Street.  By the 1960’s he expanded and relocated operations to the leather factory building, A.M. Kroop and Sons, on C Street. Being located near Laurel Park, Kroop specialized in riding boots for jockeys, who required very sturdy yet lightweight boots in sizes much smaller than the typical man’s shoe.    

Kroop boots, using the tagline “often imitated, never duplicated,” were worn by famous jockeys and celebrities. Mitch Kroop made boots for Red Pollard, the jockey who rode Seabiscuit to fame in the late 1930s. In 2003, when the movie Seabiscuit was made, Randy made the reproduction boots for the actors. She also made riding boots and jockey boots for the movie Secretariat, released in 2010. Carly Simon, Madonna, and Leon Redbone are also included in their customer roster.

From the beginning, A.M. Kroop and Sons was a family business. Having learned to cobble from his father, A.M. Kroop taught his sons the trade, while his daughter helped with bookkeeping. Randy recalls childhood days spent at the factory, and when the jockeys came into the shop in the mornings since they rode in the afternoons. Randy was very skilled in sewing and made many of her own clothes growing up, often because they did not have the means to buy the pretty clothes the girls in her school wore.

But this talent, work ethic, and hands-on attitude were a perfect fit when it came time for the next generation to take over the family business. At the time, the horse racing industry was changing, and Randy soon specialized in helping people with problem feet or those wearing braces to have custom shoes that actually fit. She remembers these experiences as very rewarding. She inherited ten employees who had worked with her grandfather and/or her father. Many of them had watched her grow up from a little girl, which added to the challenge of being their new manager. Her given name worked to her advantage in many cases, as people assumed the owner was a male, or that she was one of the “sons” in the business.

However, the work was very difficult and labor intensive, involving many steps in the boot-making process. The machines were big and heavy, and required a lot of training. Randy took on new employees over the years. However, she operated alone by the time of her retirement in 2019.  She still keeps in touch with some of the grandchildren of those employees, fondling recalling the time a former employee - the first female hired by her grandfather- chose for her 80th birthday present to return to Laurel (from Delaware!) and visit the factory one more time. Randy remembers her walking right over to her old sewing machine. The woman was French-Canadian, and Randy remembers that her father and grandfather often hired refugees or immigrants, including other Jewish families. Although the Kroops lived in Baltimore, they were one of about only five Jewish families working in Laurel, at the time.

Randy recalls other changes to the industry. When she started, Randy remembered when jockey boots were wearing size 2 or 3 boots; the famous jockey Willie Shoemaker had a size 1 last. But toward the end of her career, it was common to make bigger boots for jockeys who were 5’7” or so in height. Randy also specialized in riding boots for motorcycle police, indicating that one pair she made had a boot shaft of 21 inches around!

Although she did not grow up in Laurel, Randy spent many days of her childhood in the family factory. She remembers when Laurel had a reputation for being “shady” and remembers that her father kept the children away from the racetrack. It wasn’t until she took her dogs out for walks along Riverfront Trail that she started to get to know the history of Laurel. She remembers long walks and conversations with Jim McCeney and Jim Frazier, who pointed out historic buildings and places of interest.

Today, Randy Kroop is keeping busy in retirement and misses her old family shop. She has donated many items to the Laurel Historical Society, adding to our history and knowledge of a family business that has celebrated being in business ‘for upward of a century.”

Information and photograph pulled from LHS collection files and oral interview with Randy Kroop, 2021.

Click here for the PDF version of this article.

Catherine Johnstone Hopkins, lovingly called “Miss Katie”, was born in the Grove neighborhood of Laurel, in 1906. Her parents were Elizabeth and Frank J. Hopkins. The surname is suspected to have been given from ancestral enslavement.* Miss Katie was one of only two children. Her sister Ethel died just seventeen days before her 100th birthday and Miss Katie lived in Laurel for all of her 105 years.
She attended day and night school in Prince George’s County and was taught piano lessons from Mrs. Dora Mack Carter, of the entrepreneurial Carter family of Guilford, MD; the first black woman to provide private music lessons in Howard County and own a country music studio. Miss Katie grew to share her talent as a singer, during the 1940s, in the Union Gospel Chorus, a local community band and as the organist and pianist, 46 years in service to St. Mark’s Church, for which she received recognition.

During her early years of employment, she worked with children at the St. Mildred’s Academy; known today as St. Mary of the Mills School. She later worked as a seamstress at Ft. Meade, during WW II, a job for which she expressed a lot of love and enjoyment.

Thereafter, she was employed at the University of Maryland for many years. Through her retirement in 1973, Miss Katie worked at the O.W. Phair Elementary School, which was located at 1100 West Street (intersecting with Park Avenue). The school ceased operation around 1979 and was later renovated and used for temporary WSSC offices in the 1980s.

Prior to the passing of Miss Katie and her sister Ethel, both sisters were featured in a 1983 Laurel Leader article**, where they described remembering when there was an oak grove in the Grove community, named for the stately, shady trees. They also recalled when the streets were dirt roads and the sidewalks were wooden boardwalks.

Photograph and information pulled from the Laurel Museum Collection. Updated~Laurel Historical Society/AVF2021

*In 2020, new evidence showed that Johns Hopkins claimed four men as his property on the 1850 Census and often had business dealings using Black people as collateral). https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/09/johns-hopkins-university-founder-enslaved-people/
**The Grove: Rooted in a Proud Tradition.” Laurel Leader, September 1, 1983

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Bertha Levi Moore arrived in Laurel at 11 months old.   She attended the first “Colored School #2”, located at 803 West Street, with 54   other children and a single teacher.  When she   became of high school age, Laurel High School was open to white students only.  Bertha boarded with a family in Washington, DC to attend high school classes offered by Howard University.

Bertha would herself become a school teacher and teach at the “Colored School #2” where she was first educated.   She settled in Laurel,  eventually marrying.  She and her husband  built a house on 10th Street and were considered “Blockbusters”, as the first African Americans to reside on that block.   They farmed their plot of land and sold their produce, while raising 13 children.

Bertha’s accomplishments were significant, as she was the daughter of slaves.  Her father escaped slavery and eventually joined the Union Army to fight in the Civil War.  Her mother would have been considered fortunate, at the time, learning to read and write from white teachers traveling from the northern states to give free lessons to black children.  Her mother’s last name was Hall, suspected to be named after the Hall family, to whom she was enslaved.  They lived in a small African American town off Rte.197 in Laurel  called Halltown.  In the 1890s, Bertha’s parents were among the earliest members of St. Mark’s church, still thriving at 601 8th Street.

During an interview in the 1970s, Bertha shared memories of the Laurel Sanitarium  for mental illness and the Keely Institute for the treatment of alcoholism as being  the primary employment for African Americans at the time.  Prior to its relocation to the grounds of the Laurel Sanitarium, the Keely Institute was located at 5th and Talbott Streets, which was the dividing line between the black and white communities.  She recalled memories of the local chapter Ku Klux Klan burning crosses at Ivy Hill    Cemetery and near St. Mary of the Mills Church on 8th Street.

Photograph and information pulled from the Laurel Museum Collection. Updated~Laurel Historical Society/AVF2021

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