20-50-100 Years Ago -- May 15

Susan Guynn, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
·4 min read

May 15—SATURDAY

100 Years Ago

May 15, 1921

This date was a Sunday. The Frederick News-Post did not publish a Sunday edition at this time.

50 Years Ago

May 15, 1971

Owners of 27 of the city's 43 condemned housing units have indicated they will tear down their buildings, according to City Building Inspector Charles W. Mock. Notices giving owners 45 days to wreck or repair their buildings were sent out earlier this month.

Frederick Housing Authority's newest project, a 100-unit development on Sagner Avenue was due to be completed this weekend. Well over 100 families have been on the waiting list for the project for some time. Duplexes, townhouses and two-bedroom apartments will house low-income residents when the work is completed, probably toward the end of summer.

20 Years Ago

May 15, 2001

Two weeks after approving three housing developments, the Mount Airy Town Council in a special meeting Monday voted to ban washing cars and watering lawns with new homebuilders exempt from the rule as they plant yards in their subdivisions.

Millard "Mick" Mastrino, a retired sergeant with the Maryland State Police and president emeritus of United Steam-Fire Engine Co., died Sunday night at his home in Clover Hill. He was 60. The fire station on South Market Street where Mr. Mastrino served as president was draped with black cloth, and a fallen firefighter memorial flag few from atop the building.

Letters found Friday that threatened to blow up Frederick High School were forwarded to the Maryland State Police crime lab, and a ninth-grade boy has been identified as the person who wrote the notes, Frederick Police Lt. Tom Chase said Monday. Handwriting analysis led police to the suspect who will be charged after police have conferred with the Frederick County State's Attorney's Office. The letters were found in a vending machine at the school, police said.

SUNDAY

100 Years Ago

May 16, 1921

George Raines, of West Falls, James Washington, of Union Bridge, and William Jones, of Carroll County, were arrested by Deputy Sheriffs Klipp and Mercer on a charge of larceny of 20 hens and two roosters belonging to Mrs. Arthur Peddicord, Woodville district.

Although straw hats have been on the streets of Frederick already, yesterday, May 15, formally ushered in the straw hat season for men. Women have been wearing straws for several months now, having no special time set for casting away their winter head gear.

News from Libertytown: The steeple of St. Peter's R.C. Church, of which Rev. Samuel J. Kavanaugh is pastor, is being painted by Glenn R. Nikirk, of Frederick, and his assistant Edgar H. Crum. After the second coating of the high steeple, Mr. Nikirk will be photographed while in a position near the cross.

Emmitsburg was held in the grip of an electrical storm for about 20 minutes during which time the rain fell in torrents. The factory of the Emmitsburg Broom Company was struck by a bolt of lightning and caught fire. William Hayes, age 18, was at the depot waiting for newspapers and saw the fire start. He broke out the window next to the depot, climbed in and smothered the flames with his rain coat before they made any progress.

50 Years Ago

May 16, 1971

This date was a Sunday. The Frederick News-Post did not publish a Sunday edition at this time.

20 Years Ago

May 16, 2001

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore is establishing a new parish in north Frederick with a church and school building on a 26-acre campus off Opossumtown Pike. St. Katharine Drexel Parish will be served by a 1,200-seat church and will be the new home of an expanded St. John's Regional Catholic School.

Gov. Parris Glendening on Tuesday signed into law a bill that creates the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing sought by the deaf community as a means to improve services to the deaf community. Sen. Timothy Ferguson, R-Frederick/Carroll, was a proponent of the legislation, in part because he is deaf in one ear and had deaf relatives, but it wasn't his bill that was selected.

Immediately before Tom Catania sang the national anthem last May for the Baltimore Orioles, his heart beat so loudly he could almost hear it. "It came to that point when you're either going to pass out or sing very well," he said, recalling his first appearance at Camden Yards. But when the 35-year-old Middletown resident actually did open his mouth and serenade the crowd, everything was fine.