Heffner Park and Community Center

Heffner Park and Community Center. The Place To Go. , Heffner Park and its community center exist because of decades of advocacy by Takoma Park's African American residents. The park building gave Black residents of Takoma Park a public place to gather and celebrate after years without a place of their own., Montgomery County's earliest public recreation facilities were segregated, and parks for Black communities were often sub-standard, if they existed at all., Beginning in 1941, Takoma Park's Black residents, led by Lee Jordan, President of Takoma Park's Colored Citizens Association (CCA), called for dedicated public facilities. Their requests were ignored while M-NCPPC built the Takoma Park Recreation Center for white residents. Even so, the Black Community persisted, and the City of Takoma Park purchased land on Oswego Avenue for a playground for Black residents. When the city failed to improve the lot, residents cleared the land themselves and installed playground equipment., Takoma Park dedicated the park in August 1952, naming it in honor of Councilmember Herman Heffner. The community gathered at Heffner Park to play and watch baseball, throw horseshoes, and listen to local musicians. Residents remember it as "the place to go," a long-awaited neighborhood venue. Despite the success of the park, the City of Takoma Park decided to relocate their public works facility from a white-owned neighborhood to Heffner Park. Although the CCA and Black community protested, the City implemented the move and announced a land swap to relocate the park. The Black community lost its baseball diamond and fields, but they gained a community building, which was opened to the public along with the park, in 1959. The building was small and simple, a reflection of the limited funding allocated for the Black community. However, it was embraced by the community, who finally had a public place of their own. This building hosted a short-lived but meaningful Teen Club that offered local Black youths their first opportunity to attend dances, play records, and socialize in public facilities., Herman C. Heffner , Heffner Park was named after Herman Claude Heffner, the first elected official to take formal action supporting Black residents' requests for recreation facilities in Takoma Park. A retired railway postal clerk, Heffner was a popular civic leader who served as a Takoma Park City Councilmember for 10 years. In the 1940s, Heffner advocated for improvements to the Takoma Park Rosenwald School before raising the matter of a recreation center for Black residents in 1947. Local leader Lee Jordan first proposed honoring Heffner, and the City named the park in honor of the Councilmember in August 1952, as a community leader admired by people "irrespective of race, creed or color.", Lee Jordan , Lee Jordan was a popular community activist in Takoma Park. After playing professional baseball for the Homestead Grays in the segregated Negro League, he returned to the Hill neighborhood, where he worked as a custodian at the all-white Montgomery Blair High School and Takoma Park Junior High. Jordan founded football, baseball, and basketball teams and served as a mentor and coach to the players. He worked to bridge racial divides and welcomed white and Latino players to join the teams he founded. His efforts to integrate youth athletics are considered central to the peaceful racial integration of Takoma Park's public schools. The City of Takoma Park recognized him as "one of the most influential citizens" in the history of the city., Baseball: A popular pastime , Montgomery County had several Black baseball teams that played locally and in nearby counties. Baseball fields provided Black residents with entertainment and a place to socialize when they had few other options under legalized segregation., [Caption:] , A real estate map from 1953 shows the newly built white-only Takoma Park Recreation area, south of the three lots first used for Heffner Park and later for the Public Works Facility (red outline) and the present-day location of Heffner Park (blue outline).