Here at Calverton-Galway Local Park, history whispers through the trees. This park spans 61.2 acres offering baseball, cricket, and softball fields. It also offers pickleball and tennis courts. But there’s more to this park than recreation.
Calverton-Galway Local Park holds a poignant secret. It is the Sarah Lee Family Cemetery. The Parks Department marked the cemetery with a stone when the park opened in 1980. It simply reads “Lee Family Cemetery”.
Imagine this land long before the ballfields and playgrounds. The Lee family held this land for nearly 100 years. It is estimated that 29 to 50 burials rest here. Among them are Sarah Lee and her husband Peter. Individual tombstones once marked these graves.
Sarah Lee’s story is one of resilience. She endured over 50 years of slavery. She mostly spent it on Evan Shaw’s Turkey Flight plantation. It was located in Prince George’s County. In 1857, Shaw’s will freed Sarah and her children. The will also granted them a sizable piece of property in Montgomery County.
Consider this. Lee was one of only ten African American property owners. This was in all of Montgomery County at the end of the Civil War. Records suggest that the Lee family built a home by 1872. They used lumber from the trees on their land.
The family was forced to sell some land to settle tax debt. They managed to keep nearly 30 acres until 1957. Then they leased out the gravel mining rights. By 1962, all the Lee property was out of family hands. It then became gravel mining land, a county landfill, and later this park.
Descendants Raymond Lee and Bernadette King helped install a protective fence in 2011. This fence protects the Sarah Lee Family Cemetery. It preserves this important piece of history.
As you enjoy the park’s amenities remember its past. Think of Sarah Lee’s journey from slavery to landowner. This land has transformed over time. It reflects the stories of those who came before us. So Calverton-Galway Local Park is not just a place for recreation. It is a place of remembrance. It honors the legacy of the Lee family. It acknowledges their enduring connection to this land. It offers picnic shelters. These are available to rent from April 1 to October 31.