The Lurman Woodland Theater
In 1868 Gustav W. Lurman, a German immigrant from Bremen Germany in 1825, purchased a 600-acre homestead on a high hill in Catonsville, with a fine view of the City and Harbor, and overlooking the lovely countryside rolling down to Relay and the Patapsco River. It was said that from “Farmlands,” as he renamed it, on a clear day one could see the dome of the State House in Annapolis. Lurman beautified the grounds with gardens, specimen trees and shrubs--many of them exotic imports—as well as a greenhouse, and a grape arbor.
The main house, called “Bloomsbury,” (demolished in 1991 to make way for a new Rolling Road Country Club facility) became widely known as one of the more luxurious “country homes” that wealthy Baltimoreans kept in Catonsville to escape the city’s summer heat among the breezy elevated hills and many cool running streams.
But a local naturalist, Jerry D. Hardy, who’d long enjoyed hiking the property, enlisted the interest of the Catonsville Women’s Club in converting part of the area, a bowl-shaped portion of land forming a natural amphitheater, into an open-air music and performance venue. In 1961 and 1962 to raise money, several concerts were held, including by the 2nd Army Band and a local barbershop quartet society. The public response was enthusiastic, and the idea for the Lurman Woodland Theater was born, with private and public parties working together on fundraising, plans, and publicity.
[source: Baltimore Sun, 25 June 1961, pE1]
In 1949, Lurman’s only surviving daughter, Frances, sold the last 66-acre parcel of the land to Baltimore county as the site on which Catonsville High School would be built. She did so under the condition that her father’s arboretum be preserved for public enjoyment. By 1960, just as Nelson Knode was opening his music store on Bloomsbury Avenue, new housing developments had crowded out and often replaced many of the Catonsville’s historic properties, including Farmlands, which was demolished in 1952 (today only a small stone gardener’s cottage survives astride the high school).
“When we moved here [in 1964] there was a committee working on Lurman,” recalls Berchie, “and they had some concerts. I was told that when the Vietnam War broke out, the group that was involved with Lurman ceased to be involved.” But the Manley family had attended concerts at the venue and the beautiful and unique setting was unforgettable. “There’s no place like it in Baltimore County,” notes Berchie. When it failed to reopen after the war, she found herself missing the venue and the opportunities it afforded. “I thought, Isn’t this a wonderful setting? It’s a shame it’s not being used. The stage is there, everything’s there. When it became time to run for office, that was one of the reasons I ran. I wanted to reopen Lurman Woodland Theater.”
In 1990, Berchie became the first Republican woman elected to the Baltimore County Council. “[Lurman Woodland Theater] was so important to me, because I felt that it would be such a joy for so many of the older people. They can’t afford to pay for tickets to concerts. It was just such a community atmosphere…fun, happiness. It was a great setting.” When the new council member went to the head of the Baltimore County Department of Parks and Recreation saying she wanted to reopen the amphitheater, he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“What is Lurman Woodland Theater?” he asked her. Replied Manley, “It’s the best kept secret in Catonsville.” Baltimore County Parks and Recreation didn’t have any money for it, but they were able to raise money from local businesses.
A non-profit organization, “Friends of the Lurman Theater,” was founded, and the summer of 1992 saw the re-opening of the amphitheater. Emery Knode had approached Baltimore County Parks and Recreation about running a full season bluegrass festival, and it was a big hit. Some key residents, such as David Wasmund—the treasurer and the booker for years— and Jack Manley, who raised money from many sources, were important to the success of Lurman, but it was truly a community effort, with volunteers and businesses working together to staff the events. Fully-booked summer seasons with a wide variety of music acts, local, national, and international, have run every year since until the COVID epidemic. Programming resumed with social distancing in 2021. When praised for her commitment and contribution to the Catonsville community, Berchie Manley replies: “You don’t really need a personal thank you. You know in your heart when you’ve done something that you can be proud of.”
[Berchie Manley at home, 2021]
[source: The Jeffersonian, 14 April 2015, p7]
[source: Baltimore Sun 17 Feb 1907 p 7]
The amphitheater was up and running by the summer of 1965, reportedly to packed audiences. There, the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks programmed concerts, theater, and other arts events. In 1966, Baltimore County Public Schools won a Federal grant of up to $175,000 to develop the site into a cultural center. While that never came off (whether the money was distributed, and if so where it went, are unknown), Lurman became the site of a wide range of events and concerts over the immediately following years. In 1966, The Baltimore Sun ran a feature story about a Dixieland jazz band concert in terms typical of the times, but that does not sit very well today—“The mint juleps were missing, but the aura of the old South prevailed.” There can be little doubt that events at the Lurman were as segregated as the community was at the time. Residents of Catonsville’s African American Winters Lane Community were not early concertgoers at the Lurman, and for the most part, programming has continued to cater to the white community.
Sporadic programming at the amphitheater continued for the next several years, but events dried up with the onset of the Vietnam war, and by the mid-1970’s, Lurman had gone all but dark. The springs of 1982-84 saw Japanese Arts festivals at Lurman, partly under the influence of Nelson Knode, who, in addition to being a professional trumpet player and local music store proprietor, had travelled to Japan to study martial arts, which he in turn taught in the Catonsville area. By 1992, the glen had lain untended for years and had become overgrown and all but forgotten.
It might have remained so were it not for the combined enterprise of a county council member, Berchie Manley, and Nelson Knode’s son, Emery. Manley, a Baltimore native, had grown up in a music-loving household. Her father, a self-taught banjo player, often played along to the Grand Ol Opry radio show. Her husband Jack Manley (a legendary local athletic director and leader at Catonsville Community College), sang in church and had been a member of the chorus at Wake Forest University. The Manleys passed their love of music on to their children. Daughter Deana Holler recalls show tunes, big band, and country music playing perpetually in house on record player.
[source: Baltimore Sun, 25 July 1967, p.9]
In 1868 Gustav W. Lurman, a German immigrant from Bremen Germany in 1825, purchased a 600-acre homestead on a high hill in Catonsville, with a fine view of the City and Harbor, and overlooking the lovely countryside rolling down to Relay and the Patapsco River. It was said that from “Farmlands,” as he renamed it, on a clear day one could see the dome of the State House in Annapolis. Lurman beautified the grounds with gardens, specimen trees and shrubs--many of them exotic imports—as well as a greenhouse, and a grape arbor.
The main house, called “Bloomsbury,” (demolished in 1991 to make way for a new Rolling Road Country Club facility) became widely known as one of the more luxurious “country homes” that wealthy Baltimoreans kept in Catonsville to escape the city’s summer heat among the breezy elevated hills and many cool running streams.
[source: Baltimore Sun, 25 July 1967, p.9]
[source: Baltimore Sun, 25 July 1967, p.9]
Fully-booked summer seasons with a wide variety of music acts, local, national, and international, have run every year since until the COVID epidemic. Programming resumed with social distancing in 2021. When praised for her commitment and contribution to the Catonsville community, Berchie Manley replies: “You don’t really need a personal thank you. You know in your heart when you’ve done something that you can be proud of.”
[Berchie Manley at home, 2021]