Long Memories in Land of the Freed

Day's daughter, Brenda Pickett, agreed that life was taken at a slower pace. "We had fun growing up," recalled Pickett, 57. "I still feel like we're in the country, even though they're building up all around us."

One endearing aspect of Muirkirk, Pickett said, is that many natives who have since moved to places such as Fort Meade and Glen Burnie continue to make Queens Chapel their spiritual home. Sundays are a homecoming of sorts during the long day of worship services.

Said Rena Marshall, 49, now of Greenbelt: "It's beautiful country. Everybody knew everybody. I'm not going to say everyone is kin, but you would think they are. I wish my grandbabies had the great outdoors, because the new neighborhoods aren't like this. And the seniors that carry on the legacy at the church -- oh, my goodness!"

The residential part of Muirkirk, tucked away on the east side of the railroad tracks, was settled after the Civil War, largely by freed slaves. Since the 1700s, Muirkirk, named for an area of Scotland, had been a center for iron ore production, according to "Prince George's County: A Pictorial History," by Alan Virta.

Charles E. Coffin, a Bostonian, moved to the county during the Civil War to manage an ironworks at Muirkirk that had started in 1847. In time, Coffin bought the thriving business, which had evolved into a leading producer of charcoal pig-iron. Pig-iron was used by the U.S. Army to make cannons, shot, wagon wheels and other equipment for the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

The Muirkirk area was also the site of Van Horn tavern, located off Old Baltimore Pike. Popular during the Colonial period, the watering hole drew notables, including George Washington. Count de Rochambeau's troops camped there while marching home from victory at Yorktown.

"My family here goes all the way to just after the Civil War," said Brown, who works with special needs students at Kenilworth Elementary School in Bowie. "There were different branches of the family. I am the descendant of Nathan Brown and Matilda Brown," both former slaves.

Old Muirkirk Road "is a well-kept neighborhood with a lot of older homes and a lot of original owners," said Bob Mamula, an agent with Long & Foster in Laurel. "That tells you that people are happy and complacent."

A typical property in Muirkirk, he said, would bring a minimum of $200,000. There are no homes for sale along Old Muirkirk Road.

Many Muirkirk residents work at nearby government agencies, including NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Food and Drug Administration and the headquarters of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

There have been plenty of changes in Muirkirk over the years. There was the closing of a landmark brick plant, which moved to Baltimore last year; the arrival of a MARC station in the 1990s, where trains run between Washington and Baltimore; an ever-widening swath of research and development parks west of the Route 1 overpass; and the arrival of an expansive development of brick Colonials and townhouses just north of the community.

That development, called Longwood, rose on what used to be woodland where legions of Muirkirk youngsters accumulated memories.

"I think it's a good thing," former Muirkirk resident Carolyn David said as she looked across the graveyard to where the new development begins. "The property was just sitting there. But I think what's there is enough. You've got to have some open space."

For Elizabeth Day, the key to a simple life is helping people. She is content spending her time in the home where she was born holding tight to her family, her friends, her faith.

"Somebody tried to buy my land today," she sniffed. "I didn't even ask him for a price. I just said no way."