Well, if you live in Sykesville, you know that a bunch of kids have created their own skateboard park near the entrance to town at South Branch Park in what is actually Howard County. Town government has decided to do something about it. Or at least talk it over. I’ve heard there are some liability concerns.
Is this the end for the skateboard park or the beginning?
The Mayor and Town Council have decided to form a committee to discuss it, and they’re looking for skateboarders or anyone else interested in joining. The mayor is personally involved and wants you to contact him at 410-795-8959 or mmiller@sykesville.net if you are interested.
It’s nice that these kids have taken an abandoned bit of concrete and turned into a good way to have fun, and I’m hoping the town will support them and actually help improve it. I’ve emailed the mayor on the issue and I’ll let you know what he says.
It’s actually historic Sykesville ground
While I’ve got your attention, let me point out that where the kids are skateboarding is actually important ground in Sykesville history. You can get the details in our big story on James Sykes. But if you’ve ever wondered about that old building, which the town recently renovated a bit, it used to be a house.
James Sykes ran the Howard Cotton Factory here, and he built 12 houses for his workers. Everything on the site that originally belonged to Sykes was either burned or washed away in flood, but this lone worker house, one of the original 12, still survives as a monument to the town’s founder.
Howard County’s architectural historian, Ken Short, recently evaluated the building in great detail and wrote: “The surviving stone building is clearly domestic, and must have been workers’ housing for the Howard Cotton Factory.” He continues that it “is set up to have cooking facilities and cellar storage in the basement, with living and sleeping space on the first story.”
Short says an 1858 ad for the sale of the whole site mentions 12 houses for factory workers, and he’s convinced this is one of them. Some people thought this might have been Sykes’s office, or even his house, but he had a much nicer house and it burned in 1870. Sykes had a lot of bad luck and is actually a tragic figure.
So it’s an old house on old ground. Who knows? Maybe two hundred years from now, some local residents will be talking about the old historic Sykesville Skateboard park built back in 2012 by a bunch of teenagers looking for fun.
