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HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM, Inc.
Edgepoint-Oakleigh Beach
The early history of North Point Peninsula always begins with farm land, and in the case of the area now known as Edgepoint and Oakleigh Beach, the farm land was owned by John Zyglarski, a Polish immigrant who eventually Americanized his name to Glass. The area was both an embarkation point for food and timber going to Baltimore, and a drop-off point.
In the era before sewage treatment plants, scowls from the city would transport sewage to the area and pump it into pits on shore, where farmers would make use the fertilizer. Some theorize that because of the established history, when it came time to build a plant a few miles away in Eastpoint, officials already were inclined to locate the facility in the area.
Everything changed in 1916 with the advent of Bethlehem Steel. For a while, about 1,000 acres near the Bear Creek shore was a pig farm that kept the company stocked with food, but the enterprise soon gave way to the need for housing, built quickly to help accommodate growing numbers of workers. Those houses evolved into the neat and modern dwellings now throughout the area.
A community with inauspicious origins has become one of the choicest areas for homeowners who enjoy a quality community.