LRV past, present, future

I’m hoping that you all saw the flyer in your door about the County Council meeting this coming Monday. It really IS important that as many as can attend. The County needs to see that we continue to fight for our neighborhood. There have been so many times we have all banded together to get things done that benefit all of us. We got the Loch Raven Elementary building and all surrounding land on the landmark list, we got speed bumps on the East side of Glen Keith and Edgewood Roads, we stopped the plan to reactivate Loch Raven Elementary. Now we've got the attention of the USPS, and hope to reunite the neighborhood under one zip code.

All of this really warms my heart because I can remember the time when there was such a big divide between East & West of LRV. There were times when folks showed fiction based animosity, became complacent and rumors were rampant. The one that makes me chuckle is that the east side houses are smaller. Well, they’re not. Maybe people think that the homes in Loch Raven Heights between LRV and IHM are part of LRV.

LRV was built in three stages as land was acquired. The first was the LRES, the apartments and surrounding houses. If you’ve ever wondered why Glen Keith ends and Edgewood begins at the sharp curve by the playground, it is because right there is where the first phase of LRV ended and the second phase began. Another interesting tidbit is as you continue past the second sharp curve on Edgewood, you will see a little alleyway on your right. Look carefully at the end of groups on either side of the alley and you will see the house numbers jump. This is because the little alley is not actually an alley, it is a street named "School House Lane". LRV was supposed to wrap up one side of School House Lane and down the other. School House Lane was supposed to join Hillendale Road and be the shortcut to LRES. But by settlement time on the land, the original owners had passed away and the children decided that they did not want to sell. So that was that.

If you want to discover which homes were built in which phase, just look. The first phase homes have wood shingle on the gables on the ends of group and small bathroom windows. The second phase homes have wood shingle on the gable ends but standard sized bathroom windows and the third phase homes have brick on the end of group gables and standard sized bathroom windows. Easy Peezy.

So even if we have different homes depending on where we live in LRV, we all live in Loch Raven Village. It seems sometimes that the County keeps tossing challenges our way but the fact that we continue to band together to protect our little slice of heaven shows exactly what kind of community we have here. LRV has always been a strong community and will continue to be one because we have a great group of residents. As they say down South...
"Well Done All Ya’ll!"

By the way... don't you think Loch Raven VIllage should be listed as an Historic Community? After all it was the first post WWII planned community in Baltimore County and we've been around since 1946.

And isn’t LRV beautiful now. The trees are blooming, there’s those bright green buds on trees and bushes that say "AHHH Spring..." Flowers are peeping up and soon we will have a riot of Azaleas and Dogwood and Lily of the Valley and Tulips. The Bradford Pear trees are lovely too except for the smell. PU! Guess the insects like it though. Here’s some more of what's to see in LRV...

- Bitten Norman