20-50-100 years ago — April 9 | News

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This date was a Sunday. The Frederick News-Post does not currently publish a Sunday edition.

This date was a Sunday. The Frederick News-Post does not currently publish a Sunday edition.

A wall collapsed in an abandoned West Fourth Street townhouse over the weekend as the building cited as Frederick’s worst case of urban blight continued to deteriorate. The east walls of an overhanging second story broke away from the building on Sunday and fell to the ground. The wooden structure crashed into a narrow walkway between the dilapidated townhouse at 20 W. Fourth St. and the neighboring building.

The tenants had left by the time of the eviction on Monday, but the East Patrick Street duplex was not entirely empty. A dog, two cats and an iguana had been left at home to fend for themselves, so Animal Control was called in to rescue them. Encountering stray animals is nothing new to Deputy Greg Goetz of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office. Goetz is the county’s only civil procedure assistant for evictions in the past three years, with nine years of experience. “Snakes, iguanas, fish in an aquarium. You never know what you’ll find until you’re inside,” Deputy Goetz said.

Badly decomposed but still recognizable, the body of Harvey Gartrell, who in a jealous rage shot and instantly killed Arta Iris Jenkins at the home of her grandparents, Mr and Mrs George Hess, Buckeystown, on Sunday March 5, was found in the Monocacy River near Frederick Junction around 12:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Partly submerged, it had lodged against part of the old wall of the pot, having floated there or been carried away by the high waters. In his pocket were a car registration document bearing his name, a woman’s wristwatch, another small watch, two water-soaked letters bearing the signature “Arta” and cigarettes. The small watches indicated 1:40. A coincidence is that the body was discovered almost exactly at the same time the tragedy unfolded – 12:30 p.m. It is now apparent that Gartrell jumped into the creek pursued by officers, drowned and his body was carried downstream by high water. The funeral will take place this afternoon.

A large circus arrives in Frederick on April 25. Forward Agent and Publicity Manager Charles Bernard, representing Walter L. Main’s Great Circus and Three Ring Menagerie, arrived in this town yesterday and made preliminary plans for an afternoon performance and the night on April 25. A large street parade will take place at noon. A feature this year will be the hippodrome elephants, five in number, trained to perform many interesting acts. A lion performing on horseback in a steel cage, present last year with the former Barnum Circus, is also a new addition to the list of attractions.

“Without divulging any state secrets, I can say that the Volstead Act was violated every day throughout the session by approximately 75% of the members of the Legislative Assembly and by a very large percentage of those who came to Annapolis for or against these measures,” said Senator Biggs. Prior to that rather startling statement, which was essentially the same thing Rep. United Social Club of Baltimore, Senator Biggs has declared that the most remarkable phenomenon of modern times is the effort of a great nation to regulate by legislation the manners and manners of its people.

The hidden trapdoors, secret chambers and subterranean passages of old novels rival the ingenious novelties in furnishings being produced this year. Because nowadays twin beds swing out in the clothes closet, an ironing board folds out at the touch of a button, and the rear door can be fitted with cupboards in the lower panel for grocery delivery, with a set of clever locks to prevent the door from being reopened and with automatic signs to indicate when the cupboards are full.

Thirty loaded cars derailed at 1:18 a.m. today in Shendandoah Junction, W.Va., stalling traffic to and from Baltimore. The freight train, the Baltimorean, was en route from Cumberland to Baltimore with 83 loaded and seven empty cars.

County commissioners this morning unanimously approved the rezoning of the former Brown Farm south of Walkersville from agricultural to industrial use. The 208-acre property will, according to developer Norman Todd, be the location of a compressor factory for Fedders Corporation, a national company specializing in the manufacture of air conditioners. Construction should begin shortly.

Officials say Frederick County’s tourism industry is thriving and big plans are underway to attract more out-of-towners, but some residents are worried about noise, traffic and other issues so that visitors flock to the area. A new study estimates that travel-related business in Frederick County in 2000 – the most recent year fully surveyed – was $149 million, a 10.2% jump from 1999.

The National Institutes of Health plans to build a $1.5 million high-security biocontainment laboratory at Fort Detrick to develop vaccines for the fight against bioterrorism, government officials said Tuesday. The NIH lab will complement a similar “level four” military lab already at Detrick, said Dr. Jack Killen, deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The Army lab processed the letter containing anthrax sent to Senator Tom Daschle last October in an effort to identify the origin of this particular strain.

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