This cache was placed to celebrate Black History Month 2023.
Park is open dawn to Dusk, NO Night Caching. Bring a Pen there is no room for one in Cache.
Welcome to Ken-Gar! Henry N. Cobb, a prominent landowner, established the neighborhood in 1892. Its name is a combination of Kensington and Garrett Park, the two municipalities which it borders. According to Karen Jackson, a longtime resident of Ken-Gar and the daughter of Leonard Jackson, a prominent community activist in the neighborhood “The African Americans who came and purchased homes in Ken-Gar were actually people who had moved from Charles County and Newport Mills and worked in the Kensington area as domestics,” Jackson said. “They are the ones who really established Ken-Gar and made it what it is.”In 1957, when Montgomery County updated its master plan, somehow the tiny community of Ken-Gar was erased, even though the 97 parcels making up the neighborhood were among the first in the county to be platted and recorded, in 1893. Leonard "Henry" Jackson, president of the civic association of Ken-Gar marched up to the county courthouse in Rockville and made sure they corrected their map mistake. His efforts over many years to improve quality of life for Ken-Gar residents earned him the affectionate title "mayor" of Ken-Gar.
Ken-Gar is only one of the Montgomery County's early black settlements, however the others were greatly changed or even erased by suburban sprawl. Thanks in part to its being hemmed in by the railroad tracks to the south, Rock Creek Park to the west and a commercial strip along Connecticut Avenue, Ken-Gar has survived with more of its original structures, dignity and history preserved than other communities, according to county historians and written accounts. Several of the houses along Hampden and Shaftsbury streets date from the early decades of the 20th century. Many have porches, and some retain modest flourishes of the Victorian gingerbread seen to a much greater extent in nearby neighborhoods.
The 2 pillars of the community are Lee Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Baptist Church. The First Baptist Church was built in 1920. The land for Lee Memorial was purchased in 1903 and the church was erected in 1904. The church was named as a memorial to Bishop Benjamin F. Lee, the twentieth bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. About 1915, the Montgomery County School Board built a two room school next to Lee Memorial. This was a Rosenwald school, one of many schools for African American children in the Southern United States financed by the partnership of Sears Roebuck executive Julius Rosenwald and the educator Booker T. Washington. Members of Lee AME Church, were instrumental in convincing Montgomery County Public Schools to support the project, as children in Ken-Gar had to ride the bus for nearly an hour-and-a half to reach George Washington Carver High School in Maryland, which African American students attended prior to desegregation in Montgomery County.The school was expanded to three rooms in 1937. In 1955 Montgomery County began to integrate its schools, and the school was converted into apartments. In the late 1970’s the building was converted to a community center which stands today next to Lee Memorial.
The cache is located in Edith Throckmorton Park, there is a nice memorial to her near the playground. Edith came to Montgomery County in 1939 and taught in segregated schools and was promoted to the position of principal at Emory Grove Consolidated Colored (Longview) Elementary School in 1950. There she managed the first Black County school to offer kindergarten and special education courses and joined both the county and state levels of the Parent Teacher Association. Edith was the first African American official elected to serve on the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations. In 1962, she began her 16-year tenure as president of the Montgomery County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her energies were directed to issues of fair housing, equal employment opportunities, and voter rights. For such outstanding commitment to public service and civil rights, Edith won numerous honors, including the 1981 Unsung Heroine Service Award from the National Women’s Conference, NAACP. After her death in 1982, the Ken-Gar Civic Association dedicated this park in her honor, the park was renovated in 2022 and has a playground, ping-pong table, labyrinth and rain garden. This may be a challenge for beginning cachers but easier for those with experience. This is a high muggle area so please use stealth when retrieving and replacing the cache. Please replace the container back in its camo and return as found.
CONGRATS to JulieBob for FTF!!