As You Were: Tidbits of Cheverly History
This series of articles on the histories of Cheverly's streams appeared in the Cheverly Newsletter.
Yes, Cheverly, there is -- or was -- a lake at the end of Lake Avenue.
In fact, if you have played kickball with the Cheverly Police, your game took place on that lake.
Joseph W. Corridon (1876-1940), a Tuxedo resident, dammed Tributary 2 at what is now Arbor Street, creating water lily ponds. As described in The Florists’ Review of July 8, 1915, “The series of ponds are well laid out, for each is slightly lower in turn than the previous pond, the water emptying from one to another and finally flowing into a branch.” Corridon’s water lily business supplied stores in Washington and Baltimore, and shipped lilies from Washington, DC.
The property became part of Cheverly at the town’s incorporation in 1931. The ponds appear on US Geological Service topographical maps from 1917 through 1945. The lily pond land was sold to the Board of Education in 1941, becoming the playing field of the Cheverly-Tuxedo Elementary School, now the Judith Hoyer Early Childhood Center.
Hold on there! What is Tributary 2? Answers in the next installment of “As You Were.”
Lily pond.jpgCorridon with lilies.jpgCorridon water lily ad.jpgPhotos from The Florists’ Review, July 8, 1915, p. 15; ad from The Florists' Review, April 26, 1917.