Savage - A Former Sundown Town

Many people living in the Guilford area remember the days when they were either not allowed in Savage or just knew better than to try. Savage is now a wonderful and walkable town with terrific residents and families. The area has an incredible history including the long gone White's Mill which was one of the first in Howard County in the early 1700s - before the Ellicott brothers arrived to name Ellicott's Mills, now Ellicott City.

Savage, Maryland is an unincorporated town in Howard County amidst the planned and community of Columbia, Maryland. It derives its name is from John Savage, the Philadelphia investor, who loaned money to the Williams brothers to invest in their mills that became known as the Savage Manufacturing Company in 1822 (Filby 1965). The town was bounded geographically by the Little Patuxent River on the west and south, Pickett’s Branch on much of the North, and Route 1 (the old Washington Turnpike) on the east (Filby 1965). Pickett’s Branch was an informal name used as it is originally named Stony Run according to deeds from the early 1700s to late 1800s and informally goes by other names today.

Savage was a Company Town

Savage was a fully segregated unincorporated town until perhaps until the civil rights movement in the 1960s, when black citizens were finally allowed a very limited daytime presence in Savage keeping with the image of a “sundown town” (Cornelison et al. 1985).

Savage was a company mill town for whites only. Available census records from 1850 to 1940 [research on the records is ongoing], indicated only 14 Black persons living in the Savage census area and in 1870, just two Black children, both 11 year old female domestic servants, lived in Savage during that 70 year time period. Harriet Watkins lived in the household of the Customs House Officer, Samuel Mainster (1870 census, Maryland, Howard County, 6th election district, page 45, line 18) and Augusta Boston, lived with Samuel Isaacs, a miller, and his family (1870 census, Maryland, Howard County, 6th election district, page 50, line 7).

Racial Restrictions in Deeds

During this same period, black families were living around the perimeter of Savage, especially in Asbury, Jessup and Guilford which were within walking distance. The degree of racism in Savage in the 1920s and 1930s were illustrated by 2 deeds that the Howard County School Board obtained from the Savage Manufacturing Company. First deed filed with the racial restrictions is mentioned below:

• On October 2, 1921, the Savage Manufacturing Company sold land to the Board of Education for a school in Savage. As the first restriction, the deed stated: “First, that the Grantee nor its assigns or successors in title will at any time sell, lease or convey the property hereby granted to persons to negro blood”. (Savage Manufacturing Company 1921).

Again, in 1937, the School Board was seeking land for which to build a school in Savage and the property owner of the town, Savage Manufacturing Company, insisted on a racial restriction. This time there was discussion within the Howard County School Board as to whether to accept this restriction. On July 27, 1937, the school board minutes included the “Discussion had on matter of restrictions which the Savage Manufacturing Company wished to have incorporated in a deed of this property, and it was voted that the Board would accept the following restriction: Mr. Ridgely and Mr. Taylor voting "Aye" and Mr. Grantham voting "Nay"--"That the grantee, nor its assigns or successors in title will at any time sell, lease or convey to persons of Negro blood.” This second racially restrictive deed contained the language below:

• On December 20th, 1937 the Savage Manufacturing Company sold the County land for another school with the same restriction: “SUBJECT HOWEVER, to the following named restrictions: 1. That the grantee herein, its successors and assigns in title, will not, at any time, sell, lease, or convey the property herein conveyed, to any person or persons of Negro blood or extraction”. (Savage Manufacturing Company 1937).

Support for Public School Segregation

It is fair to say that the County itself was complicit with encouraging racism in Savage. Public schools were slow to integrate and only one school in the county that was a former “colored school” was fully integrated although it too around 11 years to do so after the Supreme Court rule that public school segregation was illegal. Even that one “colored” school that was fully integrated faced many objections for its original construction as a segregated school in Guilford. On May 5th 1953, the School Board minutes showed the following opposition to the school site on Guilford Road:

“A delegation of twenty-five citizens of the Sixth District of Howard County appeared before the Board. Mr. Charles Hogg, attorney representing the delegation, lead the discussion. Mr. Hogg stated that the delegation objected to the use of the Collins property as a site for the new Guilford Colored School for the following reasons:

1. the colored school would lower property values in the Guilford area

2. it would increase the colored population in the colored area

3. the delegation was not opposing a colored school but the location of the school

4. the Mission Road site was more desirable for a school than the Collins site

Mr. Henry Sieling stated that the location of a school on the Collins property would create a traffic hazard and lower the property values of people in the vicinity of the school. Mr. E.A. Connell stated that the school would lower the value of his property and open the area to further colored housing developments. Colonel Atwell stated that the Board would give the matter very careful consideration.”

Another delegation approached the School Board on May 18, 1953 lead by Dr. Frank Shipley, a State Senator of Savage:

“Dr. Shipley stated that several members of the delegation had called on the Superintendent on Friday, May 15, to voice their objection to the use of the Collins property as a site for the new Guilford Colored School. Dr. Shipley further stated that the Superintendent of Schools had requested the delegation to voice their objections to the Board at its next meeting. Dr. Shipley stated that the delegation wished to go on record as opposing the Guilford site for the following reasons:

1. the Crone site on the Mission Road would be more desirable because of its location near the colored population

2. citizens in the community object to the colored school being built on the Collins site

3. some of the large taxpayers of the sixth district feel that the school site is too close to their property and, therefore, would lower property values

4. the proposed site is very close to the new Episcopal Church Rectory and Hall

Colonel Atwell thanked the delegation for coming and further stated that the Board of Education would give the opposition of the delegation very careful consideration.”

State Senator Shipley, who lived in Savage a few miles from the proposed site for the segregated school still tried to block it based on racist claims. The restrictions on blacks in Savage was something learned early in life by Howard County black families. It did not need to be posted or advertised – it was just known from birth.

History of Blacks in Savage by Cornelison et al. (1986)

Below are some excerpts from the 1986 book “History of Blacks in Howard County” by Cornelison et al. that describe the experiences of the black community to the pure racism of Savage:

• "The saw mill along Cattail River in Daisy hired black men, but the sawmill in Savage apparently did not. Rev. Samuel Moore's father had helped build tile sawmill in Savage but could not work there. The cotton mill in Savage was also closed to black men.” Page 16

• “Unlike the dentists, white doctors in the area took care of black families either in the home or in the office. Besides Dr. Sissle there were Doctors Shipley in Savage, Gazaway in Ellicott City, and Brumbaugh in Elkridge. Some offices were segregated and some were not.” Page 29

• “Undaunted by such opposition and with concern for all black people to have what was rightfully and morally theirs, Rev. Holland and other NAACP representatives went to Annapolis to meet with Senator Shipley (who also was a physician in Savage with several black patients). Rev. Holland accounted that "Dr. Shipley had the same old story, telling me that I would be welcomed in his home or a restaurant because I knew how to act and was a nice decent person. He was not going to take rights away from white people and give to blacks, and that if he voted for the state accommodation bill, white people could be forced to serve black people who didn't know how to act." Page 59

• “In any given unabridged dictionary, a savage, noun, is most likely to be defined as "a person of extreme, unfeeling, brutal cruelty." Take this person and clone the extreme, unfeeling, brutal cruelty into every brain, nerve, heart, skin, intestine, and bone cell - indeed, into every cell in the body - of each white man, woman and child living in Savage, and one will have the description of the place and its inhabitants as repeated by blacks in every community of the county. Savage residents hated black people and they made certain that every black person who dared cross the unincorporated boundaries of Savage knew about it.” Page 61

• “No black person interviewed ever heard of blacks living in Savage. The few blacks on Vollmerhausen Road are actually in the unincorporated area of Savage but are closer in proximity to Guilford.” Page 61

• “Vera Filby (in Savage) wrote a history of Savage (1965). Mrs. Filby stated to the writer (by telephone) that she had never heard of blacks living in Savage except for those on Vollmerhausen Road who are closer to Guilford than to Savage. “Page 61

• "Savage was no place for the black man to seek employment. Rev. Samuel Moore in Guilford said that his father helped build a mill there, but could not work in the mill. Permanent jobs for black men were nonexistent. On the other hand, domestic jobs were always available for women." Page 61

• "New comers who do not share such attitudes have not been in numbers large enough to make a difference in the town's reputation. Black families that have moved into Savage proper in the past five or so years have reported varying degrees of racial confrontations, although some blacks have had no difficulty." Page 62

Savage in the 1970s

As Filby stated, who was a historian of Savage, Maryland, as of the 1960s and perhaps later, no blacks were known to have lived in Savage. That was about to change but not without some awful experiences. River Island Apartments opened in 1974 (Baltimore Sun 1974) in Savage along the Little Patuxent River. In 1978, a “luxury garden community” of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments called Storch Woods opened on the edge of town next to a large roadway, Route 1 (Baltimore Sun 1978). Over the years, these relatively affordable apartments likely attracted a diverse set of tenants which didn’t make everyone happy. Even today, the vast majority of Savage homeowners are white and people of color are mostly found in the apartment villages (http://www.justicemap.org/).

KKK and the 1980s

In 1983, the Ku Klux Klan distributed literature in Savage and a volunteer fire-fighter brought some of the literature to the fire stations creating an outcry from the public and asking the county to condemn the actions. Later in 1983, as the Howard Hills townhome apartments with some low-income provisions, opened closer to the school and main cemetery area (Baltimore Sun March 22, 1983). The fallout from the Klan literature continued throughout the year with assaults and other violence. A black couple at the River Island apartments that faced racist acts against them moved out of the area (Baltimore Sun, Oct. 5, 1983). Even a black mother and son had to move out of Howard Hills in 1985 due to racial harassment and vandalism (Baltimore Sun, Dec. 12, 1985). Even the only grocery store in Savage was accused of racial bias the next year (Baltimore Sun, June 27, 1986). But fortunately, the situation eventually calmed down as the community became more and more diverse. Today, it is the rare exception to hear of anything negative occurring in Savage.

A New Start for Savage

There can be no doubt that Savage, Maryland, belongs amongst the list of Sundown Towns. Fortunately, the racism of Savage had muted into the background of subtle, and not so subtle, racism we see every day in society.  Savage is a fairly integrated town with many young families and affordable housing but, like much of HoCo, the racial segregation still exists through housing. Gladly, its reputation as a Sundown Town is now only history.  It seems fitting that our Between the Bridges effort is seeking a historic park between Guilford and Savage along the Little Patuxent River - two communities that had been segregated from one another for 150 years. Please visit Savage, the Mill, the beautiful Savage Park and the many trails leading to unmatched history in HoCo. See how the town outgrew its past and started anew.

References:

Cornelison, Alice; Craft, Silas E. Sr., and Lillie Price. 1986 “History of Blacks in Howard County – Oral History, Schooling, and Contemporary Issues” Under the Auspices of the Howard County Branch of Maryland – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Columbia, Maryland.

Filby, Vera Ruth.1965. Savage, Maryland. Published by P.W. and V.R. Filby for the Savage Civic Association. Romm Press, Baltimore. 39 pp.

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America) · 11 Jun 1851, Wed · Page 3 Advertisement by George Williams - “Country Store, Grist Mill, etc. for Rent”.

The Baltimore Sun. 22 Sept 1974. The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). Complex to Open in Savage. · 22 Sep 1974, Sun · Page 99. Downloaded on Mar 4, 2020

The Baltimore Sun. 3 Dec 1978. Grand Opening of Storch Woods. The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) · 3 Dec 1978, Sun · Page 198. Downloaded on Mar 2, 2020

The Baltimore Sun.22 March 1983. Klan leaflets in Howard fire station prompt call for inquiry. Campbell, Gail A. The Sun (1837-1991); Mar 22, 1983; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun pg. D12

The Baltimore Sun. 5 Oct 1983. Blacks charge renewed racism in Savage. Low, Stuart. The Sun (1837-1991); Oct 5, 1983; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun pg. HS1

The Baltimore Sun – 22 Dec 1985. Racist Induvial Forcing Black Family to Move. The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) · 12 Dec 1985, Thu · Page 41 Downloaded on Mar 2, 2020

The Baltimore Sun – 27 June 1986. Racial bias alleged at Savage store. Michael J Clark Howard County Bureau of The Sun, The Sun (1837-1991); Jun 27, 1986; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun pg. 1D

US Census - Year: 1870; Census Place: District 6, Howard, Maryland; Roll: M593_589; Page: 478A; Family History Library Film: 552088 – Census for Harriet Watkins

US Census - Year: 1870; Census Place: District 6, Howard, Maryland; Roll: M593_589; Page: 480B; Family History Library Film: 552088 Census for Augusta Boston

Savage Manufacturing Company of Howard County Deed to Board of Educations of Howard County. 1921, October 2nd. HOWARD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records) HBN 114, p. 0298, MSA_CE53_105. Date available 11/06/2003. Printed 09/28/2019.

Savage Manufacturing Company of Howard County Deed to Board of Educations of Howard County. 1937, December 20th. HOWARD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records) BM, Jr. 159, p. 0130, MSA_CE53_150. Date available 11/06/2003. Printed 09/28/2019.