Riverdale Park (Images of America)

From the day in 1800 when George Calvert, father of University of Maryland founder Charles Benedict Calvert, saw the land that would become the heart of Riverdale Park along the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area, this territory has drawn a fascinating array of people and industries that continues to inspire visitors and residents alike. A small town of beautiful historical houses and thriving businesses grew up around the trolley car and railroad lines. Prominent politicians, war heroes, a Nobel Prize–winning poet, and a pioneer of the bluegrass banjo have all called Riverdale home. The memory of an innovative airplane manufacturing company that helped the United States win World War II still hovers like a ghost over the original factory at the north end of town. All of this is documented in the photographs and recollections gathered in Images of America: Riverdale Park.