Once again a second visit with a cookbook reveals a new dimension to it: this time its the 1973 “Rosemary Hills International Community Cookbook,” compiled by Gwendolyn Coffield and Juanita Hamby. The book is an early celebration of the DC suburbs’ growing diversity.
In 2002, the Washington Post ran an article about the Lyttonsville neighborhood surrounding the Rosemary Hills School. The article called the Silver Spring neighborhood an “ethnic enclave” with “hidden appeal.”
Gwendolyn’s sister Charlotte is quoted in that article, reflecting on the ways Lyttonsville had changed over the years. The historically Black neighborhood, built on land that had been acquired in the 1850s by a free Black man named Samuel Lytton, has been home to several generations of the Coffield family.
Lyttonville in the 1917 U.S. Geological Survey, Library of Congress
The history of the neighborhood got some more attention in 2018 when it was announced that the bridge into Lyttonsville would be demolished and reconfigured. Residents remembered how the Talbot Avenue bridge was the only way in and out of the neighborhood, which was segregated from the surrounding white communities by train tracks and by racism.
The bridge had connected Lyttonsville residents to a world of white homes where they were treated as second-class citizens, excluded from home-ownership, and expected to work in faithful domestic servitude to their white neighbors across the tracks.
Charlotte recalled attending a two-room schoolhouse with an outdoor toilet. Lyttonsville didn’t get paved roads or universal indoor plumbing until the 1960s. The Coffield sisters and other Lyttonsville families petitioned the county to target the neighborhood for improvements, then known as “urban renewal.” Gwendolyn Coffield was eager to help her neighborhood to paved roads and running water in every home. Some homes were to be demolished and rebuilt for the residents.
Ultimately, the experience was dispiritng for Gwendolyn Coffield. In 1979, she was quoted in the Post saying she “would never recommend urban renewal for any community.” Many residents were unable to move back to the new homes in Lyttonsville as the replacement homes were made unaffordable. Some of the families who had spearheaded the urban renewal felt deceived.
Still, that experience didn’t stop Gwendolyn from continuing to dedicate her life to community service in Lyttonsville and Montgomery County.
As coordinator of the Rosemary Hills Community School, Coffield instituted programs that led the state of Maryland to declare the school a “Model Community School” in the 1970s. Under Coffield’s leadership, the school instituted a “Foreign Students Center Program,” and hosted adult education programs, political forums, and informational meetings on issues from crime prevention to health education.
In the 1980s, Montgomery County nearly closed the Rosemary Hills school – sparking community outcry. In the end, it was converted to a magnet school. School Superintendent Harry Pitt declared in 1988 that Rosemary Hills “showed that integrated schools could work. It is a success story that is unparalleled in the school system.” Still, many white families in Rosemary Hills’ district opted to send their children to private schools instead.
Gwendolyn Coffield died in 1996 at the age of 65. In 2000, a community center was named in her honor.
Talbot Avenue Bridge, photo by Dan Reed , wikipedia
Gwendolyn Coffield’s love of food is apparent in her contributions to the cookbook: two gelatin-based salads (a sweet one and a savory one); a pineapple-based barbecue sauce for barbecue chicken; goulash; gefilte fish; frog legs; crab cakes; fried oysters; squash fritters; coffee cake, chitterling fritters; and her mother’s spoon-bread and sweet-potato pudding.
In 2012, Montgomery County inducted Gwen’s sister Charlotte Coffield to the Human Rights Hall of Fame. The synopsis of Charlotte’s service mentions that she was “instrumental in saving Rosemary Hills Elementary School from closure.”
Charlotte has also helped to make sure that the history of Lyttonsville – and the racism its residents endured – are not forgotten. In 2017 she reacted to a historically inaccurate mural that portrayed black and white citizens standing together to catch a train in the 1940s. “In 1941 that would not have happened,” she told Montgomery Community Media. “We could not go to dress shops and try on clothes… we couldn’t try on hats. If you handled it, you had to buy it.” Charlotte recalled the surrounding neighborhoods referring to Lyttonsville by the racist nickname “Monkey Hollow“, and how neighbors attempted to further isolate Lyttonsville by restricting access to the Talbot Avenue bridge that connected the black enclave to nearby amenities.
Charlotte has worked with historians and community groups to make sure that Montgomery’s historical record notes the bad with the good. The school stands as a testament to the Coffield’s place in their community. The Rosemary Hills International Cookbook offers a snapshot of members of that community, and the recipes they shared with a prescient vision of school diversity in mind.
Recipe:
- 2 Cups white cornmeal
- 2.5 Cups boiling water
- 1.5 Teaspoons melted butter
- 1.5 Teaspoons salt
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1.5 Cups buttermilk
- 1 Teaspoons baking soda
Add corn meal gradually to boiling water and let stand until cool. Add butter, salt, egg yolks [slightly beaten] and butter milk mixed with soda. Beat 2 minutes and add egg whites beaten until stiff. Turn into buttered pudding dish. Bake 40 minutes in hot oven 425°.
Recipe from “Rosemary Hills International Community Cookbook”
