Community Corner

Vintage Parkville-Overlea: The Blizzard

Check out an interesting photo from the history of Parkville-Overlea.

So far we've had a pretty mild December, knock on wood, but as you know Maryland winters have the potential to bring with them a ton of snow.

This photo, originally posted to the Overlea Community Association Facebook page, illustrates that perfectly.

Doris Franz-Poling, whose father George Franz took the photo, explains in her posting that the wintry weather on display is none other than the "Blizzard of 1958."

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A Baltimore Sun archives story by Jaques Kelly notes that the storm didn't actually occur until March, but brought with it around 2 feet of snow and left about 100,000 without power or heat for 5 days.

"No Baltimore snow has ever scared me the way the one in March 1958 did," Kelly wrote in 1991.

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"Under the weight of the wet snow, it didn't take long for trees to start snapping — on Charles Street, all over Roland Park, in Parkville, Hamilton, Mount Washington and Forest Park. Before long, electric power lines and transformers fell. Roofs, porches and sheds gave way," he wrote.

Aside from the snow, Franz-Poling points out that St. Michael the Archangel Church is out of view on the right of the photo and on the left, in the midground you can see just how much gas cost at the time.

A sign outside Sinclair Gas Station advertises an impossible-to-conceive-of-now 29 cents per gallon.

Did you live through the Blizzard of 1958? Do you think the winter has some snow in store for us yet? Tell us in the comments.


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