Recreation & Parks

RECREATION, PARKS AND OPEN SPACE COMMITTEE, PART OF THE OVERLEA-FULLERTON COMMUNITY PLAN 

Opportunity to connect parks with pedestrian and bike trails. Provide improved access to existing parks, create a nature trail at the Overlea Middle School site in partnership with the science programs at neighborhood schools, and provide greenway through the communities to connect the various parks.

DOUBLE ROCK PARK

Double Rock Park provides many leisure opportunities and experiences for the residents of Parkville and Overlea. It is a 103 acre park that lies south of the Beltway between Harford and Belair Roads. There is no official entrance to Double Rock Park from Belair Road side, but you can go through the Belair Road Beltway Plaza Shopping Center.

                Stemmer’s Run ripples through miles of woodland Forestry and wildlife thrive, oblivious to the beltway’s closeness. Hiking trails, picnic areas and pavilions allows visitors to harmonize with nature. Double Rock Park also has four baseball/softball diamonds or the football field both of which are lighted to provide opportunity for night play. There are also two new playgrounds for the younger children. In addition to the many sports programs held at the park nearly 200 permits are issued yearly to individuals, families and groups for picnicking. There are also 100 garden plots that are available to area residents during the spring and summer.

                Double Rock Park owes its existence to the Lions Club of Parkville, who bought 42 acres in 1947 and spent more than $50,000 in its development. The Lions Club donated the park to the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks and additional land purchases have more than doubled the park’s size.

                 Linover Improvement Association has been working on connecting the parks in our area since the 60s and now has been included in the Baltimore County Master Plan 2010 and our own Overlea-Fullerton Community Plan.

LINOVER PARK

Read the history of Linover Park.

HISTORY OF LILLIAN HOLT AND THE CENTER FOR THE ARTS AT HOLT PARK

When Lillian McCormick Holt died in 1976, she left her land to Baltimore County with the wish that it remain “tranquil in nature”. From the time that the McCormick family moved there, it was shared with the community in passive activity. Tom McCormick, Lillian’s father, led Bible studies in the woods, built a worship amphitheater for children and the farm was often filled with neighbors skating on the pond or a temporary gypsy camp. Lillian was so inspired by spiritual living throughout her childhood she earned a degree in religious education and in 1925 a preacher’s license (a very unusual move for a woman of the time).

In the 30s the country was in the grips of the Great Depression and Lillian, then in her 40’s, was unmarried. Her father worried for her future and from this concern grew a plan. He and others built six rustic cabins on his and adjacent property, three to be rented for income and one for Lillian, which she later call the “Marcharlotte House”. She often painted from her porch and it is in memory of her love of the arts, including storytelling, that art programs have been developed. She married the Methodist minister John E. Holt in 1945. They enjoyed nineteen years together until John died in 1964 and as Lillian grew older, she kept more to herself, but envisioned her home as one day being a place of contemplation for all.

There is plenty of room for peace in the woods (four short walking trails) and lawns of the park, but the legacy of community continues as well in the many activities and programs focused on nature and the arts hosted at the park. Points of interest in Holt Park include the Arts Center at 102 McCormick Avenue (a 1900 Colonial Revival Farmhouse), Gazebo and amphitheater dedicated to John Holt, Lillian Holt’s grave site, Lilly pond, fire circle and benches and the Garden Cabin, Nature Cabin and remnants of Lillian Holt’s cabin. For the newer families in Linover, Holt Park is across Kenwood Avenue and can be reached by walking from Councilman Avenue (opposite Lyndale Avenue) or McCormick Avenue (across from Grand Pops). Holt Park Parking Area is at the end of Elmont Avenue off Kenwood Avenue (Elmont is west of Fullerton Avenue.

PICTURES OF CABINS, FARMHOUSE AND AMPHITHEATER & POND