Wakefield

The community of Wakefield derives its name from a farm that existed on the site until the late 1950's. Originally, part of a land grant called Parkers Palace, patented in 1695, Wakefield has since passed through a succession of owners. The area appears to have been farmed from as early as the first decades of the 19th century, and in 1955 was described as the largest farm still in cultivation within the city limits.

The "Wakefield" farmhouse and outbuildings were located at the eastern end of today’s Wakefield community -- from a driveway at 4820 Windsor Mill Road. Another early building in this part of Wakefield was the Methodist Ridge Chapel. In place as early as 1834, the Ridge Chapel served as the principal Methodist meeting place in the area until 1849, when activities were moved to Ashland Chapel in Dickeyville. Today (1959) the old Ridge Chapel is a private residence, at 4821 Windsor Mill Road. At the western end of today's Wakefield, near the crossroad intersection of Windsor Mill Road and North Forest Park Avenue was the manor house of spice importer Thomas Canby's "Radnor Park" estate. Located at 5100 Windsor Mill Road, the house and its surrounding grounds was the easternmost extension of Radnor Park. Most of the estate lay west of North Forest Park Avenue, and in 1911 was transferred to the Kernan Hospital.

Wakefield had been a dairy farm until 1929; after that year it was cultivated less intensively, primarily for fodder, as the farm's last owner, Mr. Malcolm Tebbs, kept stables and boarded riding horses. Mr. Tebbs opened his farm to amateur theatricals and equestrian pageants, and provided a modern cottage clubhouse for the Maryland League of Horsemen. After Mr. Tebbs' death in, the Real Estate Development Company, Lee and Kornreich bought the 90 acre Wakefield farm from his estate and proceeded to plan the Wakefield Garden Apartments, a 1000 unit project, described at the time as "the largest undertaking in Baltimore apartment construction history." The first 80 units were finished by late 1959, and by 1970 almost 600 units were in.