Footsteps from North Brentwood Digital Exhibition
- The Ladies Auxiliary, organized in 1908, was an important voluntary association that raised money for the Volunteer Fire Department, the installation of electric lights, and other public improvements. The organization also hosted annual fairs and large barbecues or bull roasts.
- Enter The Churches of North Brentwood
The First Baptist Church of North Brentwood, completed in 1907, was destroyed by fire in 1911 and rebuilt in 1912. A year later, a group of Methodists began meeting under the pastorate of Rev. George Rice in the Firemen’s Hall. In 1920 the Brentwood African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church opened, and eight years later the Union Mission Church that had existed since 1905, merged with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Reverend James Jasper and 19 people held the organizational meeting that established the first Baptist Church in 1905, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Holmes. Initially, early church services were held outside on the lot where the church would be built and later in the homes of church members. The first church building, which was completed in 1907, was destroyed by fire four years later. The second church was built in 1912 and used until 1966 when it was replaced by a new edifice, completed and dedicated in 1970. Through the early World War II years, the First Baptist Church was a local community church with about 50 members. Nearly all of the congregation were North Brentwood residents. The ministers include: Rev. James Jasper (1905 to 1935), Rev. Barnett Brooks (1938 to 1942), Rev. James Pear (1942-1957), Rev. Perry Smith, III (1958 to present).

Since its inception, the North Brentwood Citizens Association (formerly Colored Brentwood Citizens Association) has met regularly to protect the life, health, property, and general welfare of the town’s citizens. It has kept the street in repair and well lit with oil lamps and then with electric lamps installed in1923. The Association presents views, resolutions, and petitions to the Municipal, Prince George’s County, and State of Maryland governments seeking better services for the community.
- North Brentwood Elementary School, a larger six-room school with auditorium and library, was completed in 1944, during World II, and remained open until June 1969. Desegregation orders mandated from Upper Marlboro resulted in the school’s closing, despite strong and organized community opposition. After its closing, children in the town were reassigned to neighboring elementary schools in Brentwood and Mount Rainier. Beginning in the early 1950s, Lakeland High School became a junior high school and North Brentwood students were assigned to the new Fairmont Heights High School. Following desegregation in the late 1960s, north Brentwood students attended and continue to attend elementary schools within Mt. Rainer and Brentwood, Mount Rainier Junior High School, and Northwestern High School in Hyattsville. Teachers in North Brentwood were unusually dedicated, resourceful, nurturing, and capable and many maintained high expectations of their students, which they insisted that students meet. Teachers were informally a part of the extended family in the community. The closeness, warmth wholeness, and character of the relationships between the teachers, parents, and students frequently resulted in teachers going beyond the call of duty to redefine the relationships of the school, family, and community. The school served breakfast and lunch to those students in need. Teachers were commonly visible in the town during weekends, summers, and special events. Sometimes, children even visited teachers homes for dinner or for weekend visits. Although most teachers lived outside the town, there were always some who resided in North Brentwood. Principles through the 1950s functioned as teacher-principals.


Sharing also extended to people outside the community. During the depression, Addison Hobbs remembers homeless people coming by the house to sit by the fire. There was always a pot of coffee, soup, or something. I know a very elderly lady and a very elderly man that used to always come by for meals and to talk.”
Each family contributed to whatever was being done. If you didn’t contribute money, you contribute labor, you contributed something in the form of food. We didn’t realize that we were poor.” The school reinforced this idea of civic participation. According to Addison Hobbs, “One of the things about the North Brentwood School I remember is the fact that everybody took part and they insisted that you communicate effectively. So there were always plays and declaration contests that in order to participate, you had to speak well… if you learned to speak well, you were far ahead in the game, but without it, you wouldn’t even get the opportunity to benefit.”


Jeremiah Hawkins demonstrated an interest in community politics early in his adult life. By 1887 Hawkins was serving as a juror on the local circuit court and that same year he began to attend the county conventions of the Republican Party as a delegate from Brandywine. A natural-born orator, Hawkins became president of the Brentwood Colored Citizens Association in 1911 and held the position until 1922. He devoted his last two years at the civic association to the incorporation of North Brentwood in 1924 and became the town’s first elected mayor.
The same year North Brentwood was incorporated, Jeremiah Hawkins was elected as a delegate from Prince George’s County to the National Republican Convention. In the same capacity eight years earlier, he was denied the right to attend the National Republican Convention in Chicago because of his race. However, Hawkins’ local supporters recognized him as one of the outstanding Republican leaders of Maryland and elected him to serve the 1928 and 1935 Republican National Convention as well.
Jeremiah Hawkins died on March 30, 1940.





Through the 1920s, state and federal laws and temperance associations within the town prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages. After the federal repeal of prohibition in 1933, beer gardens and taverns such as Sis’s, Holmes’, Stewart’s, and Dock’s opened and attracted many patrons from the District and other communities to the town. Among the beer gardens, Sis’s was best known. Bettye Queen remembers, “if you met anybody from D.C., if you said you were from North Brentwood, the first thing they would ask you is, “Oh, you live out there near Sis’s””. Goldie Tilghman recalls that “Pearl Bailey sang out at Sis’s when she first got started. Sis’s up there on 41st. Avenue. She had great entertainers out here.” William Palmer also recalls that, “People would come from D.C. and watch shows and dances, drinking and sometimes fighting.” Holmes’ beer garden tavern, also known as the “Bucket of Blood,” was more infamous due to the numerous fights that took place thereafter the baseball games.









