Loss of Identity Feared if Rec Centers Close

Some View Sites As Historic Places, Community Hubs

Margaret F. Williams, left, Celestine Armstead, Edna M. Prather, Joann Woodson and Doris Hackey meet at the Clarksburg Recreation Center. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

Sure, the buildings aren't pretty or posh. But when Montgomery County officials started talking about tearing down or transferring to new management several aging neighborhood recreation centers, many of the residents who use them took it personally.

One in Clarksburg was built by Wilson Wims, now 92, a member of a pioneering African American family. Another has become the unofficial town hall of the Randolph Hills community.

And one in Garrett Park Estates, moved there from Fort Meade, has a song, written by resident George Payne in the 1950s:

Of construction material we had a great need

We were given two barracks that stood at Fort Meade

And from Garrett Park came a very large crew

To take them both down in a weekend or two

They worked in snow on a wintry day

But that's just part of the Garrett Park way.

At a center in Bethesda under consideration for historic preservation, scientists tried to improve breeding and nutrition for chickens, cows and pigs.

Residents of the affected neighborhoods say a dollar value can't be put on the structures. With all the talk about nameless, faceless suburbs that lack a sense of community, they say, these recreation centers stand in contrast, bringing people together.

"We may be a nuclear-free zone, but it was like a bomb went off," said Garrett Park Mayor Carolyn Shawaker, recalling community reaction when news began to spread that its center was on the list.