Transcript of Richard Sandidge Interview on Flat Tops
Entry/Object ID
2023.006.0009
Description
This is a transcript of an Interview by Andrew Philip Bove with Richard Sandidge about his life at Flat Tops. Like previous interviews Andrew opens with the question of where did Richard live in the Flat Tops. Mr. Sandidge told him that they originally moved in in 1944 and lived at that unit for around a year. By the time 1945 rolled around his family relocated to another unit and Richard lived there until he graduated high school in 1958. Mr. Sandidge talks about the various stores that once were near Flat Tops. He tells a story about the old naval barracks becoming the Lexington Park Hotel and how the owner installed slot machines. That was until the government made it illegal to have gambling on government land.
Mr. Bove eventually asks Richard about what kind of changes he may have seen in the neighborhood. Richard mentions at first that there was only one road coming into Waldorf from Lexington Park and how it was a gravel road. Great MIlls Road was also a gravel road. Like a few interviews before this he also mentions the A & P store and how it supplied most of the stuff you needed. Richard talks about how the addition of major clothing stores and restaurants really changed the landscape of Lexington Park. Toward the end of the interview Mr. Sandidge brings up how in the early years people just saw Flat Tops as just another housing project compared to how it was near the end and having been known as dangerous.
This object contains:
2023.006.0009.0001--Transcript of Richard Sandidge's oral history
Collection
Lexington Park/Lexington Manor ("Flat Tops") Oral History Collection