Grandson of the fifth Lord Baltimore 1858 - Landowner Charles Benedict Calvert issues stock certificates to help launch Maryland Agricultural College, the forerunner of the University of Maryland. President of the Board of Trustees, and well-known philanthropist, planter and congressman, served as acting president in 1860 following Hallowell's resignation. He also hired a prominent Washington scientist, Townsend Glover, as professor of botany and entomology.
The Mansion was built from 1801 to 1803 by Henri Joseph Stier of Belgium and is a National Historic Landmark. It became the home of his daughter, Rosalie Eugenia, who married George Calvert. Under the stewardship of their son, Charles Benedict Calvert, the 2,000 acre estate was an agricultural showplace and a portion of the property became the campus of the Maryland Agricultural College through Calvert's efforts as the principle founder. Today this is the University of Maryland at College Park. For over a quarter century in Riverdale, patrons have enjoyed Calvert hospitality which was the tradition at "Riversdale".
The B&O and the Washington-Laurel trolley were separated by the width of the building seen here, at which trolley tickets were sold.
Image: trainweb.org
Riverdale's MARC station has recently been rebuilt on the site of the B&O's original station. RR Picture Archives.net Credit: David Larrabee
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http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/was6.htm Riverdale's MARC station has recently been rebuilt on the site of the B&O's original station. Inside are volunteer maintained small displays of railroad history. The short row of shops seen behind give the area a quaint, small town feel. On the right, the overpass is that of East-West Highway, Route 410. Reader David Hiles shared some history: "According to town legend, the Calvert family allowed the railroad to run through their plantation in Riverdale under the condition that the railroad will always offer passenger service somewhere on the original grounds. If passenger service was discontinued to Riverdale, then the railroad would forfeit the right of way back to the Calverts. Maybe that is why we still have the closest MARC station to DC." At Riverdale, the B&O and the Washington-Laurel trolley were separated by the width of the building seen here, at which trolley tickets were sold. The railroad is on the left, while the trolley line survives only in the form of the series of utility poles stretching into the distance on the right. The trolley operated until the 1950s.
First secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, from 1846 until 1878.
Emilio Segre Visual Archives
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October 6, 1859 - Opening day and formal dedication of the Maryland Agricultural College; Joseph Henry, head of the Smithsonian Institution is speaker; 34 students enrolled; among them are the four sons of Charles Benedict Calvert: George, Charles, William and Eugene. In 1831, American Joseph Henry demonstrated to his classes at the Albany Academy in New York an electromagnetic means of communication. Known for developing incredibly strong electromagnets, Henry used a battery linked to an electromagnet by a mile of copper wire to ring a bell. In 1832, after accepting a professorship at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), he relayed messages from his laboratory to his home via this early form of the telegraph.
Magnet Lab: www.magnet.fsu.edu Samuel F. B. Morse Courtesy of the Library of Congress www.notablebiographies.com
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Samuel Morse, a professor at New York University, however, commercialized the telegraph and helped introduce it to America. Morse developed a form of the telegraph in the 1830s that used an electric current to move an electromagnet attached to a marker that left a written code on a piece of paper. The recipient could then decipher the code. In 1836, Morse improved the device so that the code was embossed on the paper, rather than written.
A 1965 aerial photo showed the Erco factory & 2 paved runways, with the northern end of the north/south runway having been bisected by a road. There were no aircraft visible on the field.
Emile Berliner (1851-1929) Photo pulled from Wikipedia.
1922: Officials of the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics watch Henry Berliner make the first controlled horizontal helicopter flight in the United States. Hovering takes a big step up … and forward.
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Henry Berliner, developed the Berliner Helicopter at the nearby College Park Airport, and founded the Engineering & Research Corporation (ERCO) in Washington, DC in 1930. Qwiki website: “Berliner was the son of Emile Berliner, a German immigrant of Jewish decent, who had patented numerous inventions relating to sound and acoustics. He is best known for developing the disc record gramophone. �
One of ERCO's most significant achievements was the development of the Ercoupe aircraft. The Ercoupe contained many innovative design features that produced an aircraft that was safe, easy to fly, and certified by the Civil Aeronautics Administration as "characteristically incapable of spinning." The first experimental model of the Ercoupe was test flown at College Park Airport in 1937. It had a single tail (unlike the eventual production Ercoupes, with their characteristic twin tails), and was known as the "Jeep". Construction of the Ercoupe production prototype was completed in 1939 and certification by the CAA was completed in 1940. The very first Ercoupe was purchased by George Brinckerhoff (the operator of the College Park Airport), and now belongs to the National Air & Space Museum. A total of 112 Ercoupes were produced in Riverdale before the war forced the company to suspend production. During World War II, the ERCO factory made several products under contract with the U.S. government, including gun turrets.
February 1942 photo by Dottie Waggy of Ted Waggy in a Ercoupe, presumably taken at ERCO Field (courtesy of Carol Waggy Lenza).
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February 1942 photo by Dottie Waggy of Ted Waggy in a Ercoupe, presumably taken at ERCO Field (courtesy of Carol Waggy Lenza). According to Carol, the picture “was taken about the time the war started & aluminum was unavailable. It was called the plastic Ercoupe & was made of plywood according to Mom. She says it flew great but proved to be too heavy for production. She was a secretary at the ERCO plant, before I was born.” ERCO established an airfield adjacent to its factory at some point between 1942-43 (according to the book "Maryland Aloft").
A circa 1946-47 view of the interior of the Erco factory, showing Ercoupes coming down the assembly line. A sad day for the disappearing Maryland aircraft industry came in 1952, when the last Ercoupe rolled off the production line in Riverdale. In all, ERCO & Sanders Aviation produced 5,140 Ercoupes in Maryland.
A circa 1946-47 view of the interior of the Erco factory, showing Ercoupes coming down the assembly line. A sad day for the disappearing Maryland aircraft industry came in 1952, when the last Ercoupe rolled off the production line in Riverdale. In all, ERCO & Sanders Aviation produced 5,140 Ercoupes in Maryland.
Flat iron building – 175 5th Avenue, NY East 57th Street, New York, NY (1943 – 1956)
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Considered the oldest remaining skyscraper in New York, the Flatiron Building is 285 feet (87 meters) tall. Details. Address. at 23rd Street, Broadway, & 5th Ave. AIP office in the Chemical Foundation, 1931 –654 Madison Ave, NY. East 57th Street, New York, NY – AIP purchased this building during WWII. (1943 – 1956)
1957 – 1993: 335 East 45th Street, New York, NY 1979: AIP opens publishing center in Woodbury, NY 1986: AIP opened an office in the AGU building in Washington, DC
1993: HQ moved to College Park 1999: Publishing Center moved to current offices in Melville, NY 2010: AIP opened its first office outside of the US, in Beijing, China.