Happy Birthday Cape!
June 30th, 1949. Russians were in the news that day. As it turned out, they had been seizing trucks outside of Berlin. Also that day, the papers announced that Truman’s housing and slum-clearance bill was passed by the House the previous night. It effectively started up the government subsidies for rental housing.
We could’ve picked up a pair of rubber beach sandals for only $2.50 or a diamond ring for $100… or both, they were running a pretty good discount at S and Katz in downtown Baltimore. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to swing by The Hub’s downtown store to grab a $14.88 Seersucker Suit. 
We could’ve gotten our shopping done on the way to the very first Cape. St. Claire board meeting, held in the 1208 Munsey Building, now an apartment complex, in downtown Baltimore. It began promptly at 11am. There were 3 people present. James G. Rouse, James C. Morton, and George W. Baker. Was the room hot and stuffy? Were they sitting around and sipping from a bottle of $2.84 Kentucky Whiskey? Probably not, it was only 11am. Perhaps they were just sipping from their .15 cent Canada Drys. After driving their Studebaker’s? to the meeting, maybe they were thinking about Harry Truman’s message about expanding the program of highway safety. “Last year, 32,000 people were killed in traffic accidents and more than 1,000,000 people injured.” Maybe not. They couldn’t have been thinking about the Orioles as we know it today, they didn’t get here until 1953. The Yankees though, led by Dimaggio had topped the Red Sox 9-7 the night before.
That night maybe they watched Stop the Music by Bert Parks, a name that tune type of game show… it was on at 8pm on WJZ. What we do know was that the Cape St. Claire Club was incorporated on the 29th of June, 1949. They had to pay a bonus tax of $20 and a recording fee of $10. At the first meeting on the 30th, the bylaws were then adopted. They each elected themselves to the board. Due to the correspondences they were expecting, the secretary needed to hire an assistance to help out. $10 a week. After designating the Annapolis Banking and Trust company as a depository for the funds, they adjourned. Maybe they sat around and talked about what they had just done. Maybe they quickly dispersed into one of the scattered showers scheduled for that day.
Either way, I thank them.
The rest is history.
To read the meeting minutes from that historic meeting and the rest of 1949, see below:
[pdf-light-viewer id=”3899″]
Happy Birthday, Cape! The 14th marks the 68th anniversary of Cape St. Claire, seems like only yesterday. One only assumes, we’ll have a grand celebration for its 70th. In the meantime, summer is here and with that the Beaches and Parks crew have some friendly reminders for the upcoming season. It’s in Beau’s Presidential message so don’t miss it. He hopes that the Strawberry Festival was a successful one; for those that were there, we know it was.
At this time of year, the Cape is a busy place to live. So much to do and so much upcoming. Beau’s message this month talks about the busy schedules and also asks people to reach out to us to help. There are so many great things to volunteer for. Take a look at his message for opportunities and how to contact us. The Strawberry Festival is almost here and we’re all very excited. We are expecting record crowds again and we’ve expanded the Berry Bus Stops a little to account for it. See this issue for full information and sign up forms and a detailed map of the Berry Bus Stops.
It was a wild finish to March but now that April has arrived and the temperatures have started to rise, we can all declare that spring is officially here. It’s about time. Sometimes, with Spring can come change. For this month, we’ve decided to test a new method of viewing the Caper online. I hope you like it. Whatever your opinion of it is, don’t hesitate to 