The oldest African Amrican community in College Park, Lakeland will be celebrating its 120 years of heritage this weekend.
The series of events will begin at the College Park Community Center (5051 Pierce Avenue) with a parade through Lakeland at 12:00 PM with a viewing stand at Lakeland Park (contact Pamela Randall Boardley at (301) 474-3855 for more). The parade will then follow picnic at Lakeland Park. Bring your lunch and enjoy the afternoon with entertainment and games for the whole family. Rita’s of College Park will visit with free Italian ices! (contact Jean Gray Matthews at (301) 773-0413 for more). The rest of the day will see a trolley tour at 1:00 PM (by ticket only), a trip to heritage Theater (opens at 1:00 PM), jazz music by the Kash Wright Trio 2:00 PM and a trolley trip to Lake Artemesia 2:00 PM. Tomorrow’s events will end for at 6:00 PM.
The celebration will continue on Sunday with a worship service beginning at 11:00 AM on the grounds of First Baptist Church of College Park at 5018 Lakeland Road. Light refreshments will be served following the service.
Maxine Gross (maxine.gross@att.net) is the lead organizer of the lakeland Heritage weekend. She has also been actively helping us in organizing the College Park day on October 9.
If you’re new to the rich history of Lakeland, I’d strongly encourage you to visit the heritage project’s site at http://lakelandchp.com/. There is also an excellent book on Lakeland’s heritage, called “Lakeland: African Americans in College Park (Images of America)”. I’ve recently bought the book and strongly recommend you to buy it also. You can get the book from amazon.com. Here is the link.