Title: Lexington Manor: oral history project MHT/OHC 028 (SM-LXM)

Author(s): Bove, Andrew P. (author) King, Julia A. (author), DellaGatta, Cynthia A. (author)

Publisher/ place/ date: Leonardtown, MD: St. Mary’s County Board of Commissioners, 2007.

Format:  Book

Description: 4 volumes: illustrations, maps, sound; + 6 videos

Access:  Go to this book’s record on Southern Maryland Regional Library Association’s catalog.

Keywords:  The Flat Tops, Colliflower, Richard, Cyrus, Raymond, Himmelheber, Peter, Maus, Estie, Medley, Douglas, Norris, Verna, Robinson, Kerry, Sandidge, Richard, Schaffer, Teresa, Somerville, Dana, Spalding, Catherine, 1793-1858, Architecture, Oral history, St. Mary’s County, Lexington Park, housing, Patuxent River Naval Base, Lexington Park Manor,

Time Period:

1940 – 1952 WW II and Early Cold War to 21st Century

Themes:

Rural Life in Southern Maryland

African American People and Culture

County:

St. Mary’s County

Summary:

This is a collection of oral histories from the residents of an area in Lexington Park call “the Flat Tops.”  Before Lexington Park was a bustling town of almost 13,000 residents, it was a neighborhood of 350 houses known to many as “the Flat Tops”. This neighborhood, called Lexington Park, was built during WWII (1942-1944) by the Navy to house the unprecedented number of people who moved to the County to work at the newly minted Naval Air Station Patuxent River.  These homes formed the first planned community in St. Mary’s County, and for over 50 years provided affordable housing for County residents.  Explore the collections, and hear the stories of those who lived at the birthplace of Lexington Park.

Additional Resources:

Sole survivor of the Flattops has a new use, Dick Myer, Baynet, December 11, 2014

Lexington Manor: Oral Histories of the “Flat Tops”, St. Mary’s County Historical Society.