Happy 200th Birthday Oella!

Just around the corner, on the side of the Patapsco River, tiny Oella is celebrating a big birthday. This year, Oella celebrates her bi-centennial. Here is a brief history of the little town.

The water power of the Patapsco River brought the Union Manufacturing Company to the area in 1808. This was the first textile company chartered by the State of Maryland. They quickly, however brief, become the largest cotton mill in America. In 1887, William J. Dickey bought the mill and town, where he begin the production of woolens. Fire burned the mill in 1918. Once rebuilt, it became America’s foremost producer of fancy menswear woolens. Hundreds of workers poured in and out of the mill during this time. The smell of dyes, chemicals and wools filled the air. The sound of looms echoed off the granite hills. The 1 3/4 mile mill race was the largest in America to power just one mill.

As you drive along Oella Ave, imagine the generations of families that lived in the mill homes lining the road side. They were the people who turned out millions of yards of cotton, tweed, saxonies and shetlands. These homes are as varied as the people. Just before the War of 1812, the first homes here were constructed of local stone mixed with log cabins. Just before the Civil War brick homes were added. At the turn of the century, Victorian homes arrived and around World War I, a few cottage style kit-homes were delivered to the hills.

In 1972 the mill closed. The popularity of synthetic and double knits (remember leisure suits?) devastated many in the community where generations of families had worked in the mill. In June of the same year, the floods of Hurricane Agnes filled the low lying areas of the Valley destroying the mill, the mill race and homes along the river. At the time, many of the homes in the community still used outhouses, and the few homes with indoor plumbing, poured sewage into the old mill race and Patapsco River. The flooding only added to the local sewage problems.

Soon after, Charles Wagandt, a great grandson of William J. Dickey, bought Oella, excluding the mill, and began work with Baltimore County and the newly formed Oella Community Association, to restore the area homes. In 1984, public water and sewer arrived in Oella.

The current residents of Oella are a mix of people who have lived here their entire lives and new folks who appreciate the rock, hills and history. The unofficial mayor, Jay Patel, proprietor of the Country Store, himself an immigrant to America, is the care taker of much of the history of Oella. Stop into the Country Store to see Jay or purchase the 200th anniversary commemorative book. Jay has an ice cream freezer (yes an actual ice cream freezer) full of photos and first hand accounts of life in the area. Included in these artifacts are the photos of classes at the Westchester Annex (including my sister), now the Westchester Community Center. Late in the afternoon, some of the old timers gather in the store and are quick to tell tales of life near the mill.

Two hundred years of history and pride are just around the corner!

You can visit some of the homes and gardens on May 18, as Oella represents Baltimore County in the 2008 Maryland Home & Garden Tour. Tickets are on sale now.