About the Area (Fairland and Musgrove and Beyond)

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Calverton-Galway Park

From Left to Right: Calverton-Galway Park from the Marlow Road Entrance; A Plaque Marking the Lee Family Cemetery; A Jungle Gym at Calverton-Galway Park; Jogging and Biking Trails near the Lee Family Cemetery Memorial.

Calverton-Galway Park, along with the area surrounding it, was once all farmland. During the nineteenth century, records show this land was owned by the Shaw family. An early nineteenth-century farmhouse still standing and occupied on Musgrove Road may have been their residence at one time. As the memorial in the park shows, Evan Shaw willed 137 acres (where the park and Galway Elementary stand now) and freedom to his slaves, the Lee family in 1857. Until the 1970s, the land behind the elementary school was a landfill serving the rapidly growing Calverton neighborhood. It later became two parks - the first, Galway Park, consisted of playing fields and tennis courts adjacent to Galway Elementary School. The second, known as Fairland Park, is pictured above. In 2000, the two "parks" were combined, refurbished and rededicated on June 10, 2000 as Calverton-Galway Park.

Street Scenes

From Left to Right: Deer Ridge Drive in Fairland Green, with Calverton-Galway Park in the background; Hawkshead Terrace in Fairland Green on a sunny Fall day; Musgrove Road near Marlow Road; A vacant lot on Musgrove Road; Willows Run, along East Randolph Road.

Until the 1950s, this area was farmland. To serve the great demand for housing after World War II, massive developments such as Calverton and to the south, Springbrook and Springbrook Village, began construction. Rapid growth continued in the area until the late 1960s with further residential development along with the Bell Atlantic building on the east side of Columbia Pike. Another housing boom began in the early 1980s with Tanglewood, Snowdens Mill and Greencastle to the north.

More Pictures

From Left to Right: A Realigned Cherry Hill Road; The Verizon buildings seen from Musgrove Road; Office buildings at Cherry Hill Road and Columbia Pike; A play area at the Westfarm development; A "Courtyard" on Hawkshead Terrace and Deer Ridge Court in Fairland Green.

Suburban sprawl has dramatically changed life in this area and continues to do so today. After large subdivisions began construction in the 1990s (Willows Run, Cross Creek Club, etc.) the roads became more congested than ever. At the intersection of Cherry Hill Road and Route 29 (Columbia Pike), construction has began on a massive interchange similar to the one at the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and Columbia Pike. Phase One was realigning Cherry Hill Road, displacing two homes and a nursery in the process. And this isn't the first or the last planned by the State Highway Administration. The InterCounty Connector (or ICC), a massive highway favored by many in the county and state government (thank you, Robert Ehrlich) has already been completed at Route 28 (Norbeck Road) and construction has already begun in Burtonsville. Also planned is a stretch that would run directly between the Montgomery Auto Park and Tanglewood.

Come back soon - there's always more on the way!

The New Urban Suburbanite The New Urban Suburbanite's Community Reviews Dan's Literature Page Last Updated August 8, 2002