Dora (Minor) Jenkins and James Jenkins (1916-1985) purchased this property and lived here beginning in 1944, where they raised their nephews, Robert Haywood “Bobby” Parker, and Samuel I. Jordan (1935-2015) in their home. Bobby was born in July 1944 to Hopper and Dorothy (Evans) Parker (1901-1976). The exact “built date” is unknown, although the property used to include the building at the end of the lot, now known as 630 Freedom Lane, which was built in 1920.

As an early teen, Bobby Parker remembers being at the campaign stop of John F. Kennedy in Havre de Grace in May 1960 when the Senator appeared in front of the Democratic Committee headquarters at 112 North Washington Street. That was six years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation—but Bobby and his friends remember that they still had to sit in the “blacks only” balcony of the State Theatre on St. John Street and had go around to the back of Vancherie’s Restaurant on North Union Avenue to get service.

After graduating from the Havre de Grace Consolidated High School in 1962, (where he did not miss a single day of class during his 12 years of schooling) Bobby Parker earned a degree in commercial photography from the New York Institute of Photography. He later served in Vietnam for the US Army and was was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he sustained during his service. In 1981, Bobby Parker married Beverly Johnson of Havre de Grace and they had four children.

Bobby worked for the J.M. Huber Company of Havre de Grace for 22 years before retiring in 2002. During that time, his work as a photographer regularly appeared in The Aegis and The Record. During his many years of taking photos inside and outside of Havre de Grace he worked to document black history in Harford County and Maryland and the lives of former Negro League baseball players. In 2013, Bobby Parker was inducted into the Havre de Grace High School Hall of Fame. Bobby Parker is also a Board Member of the Havre de Grace Colored School Foundation and can still be seen around town attached to his camera.

After Bobby Parker’s Aunt Dora Jenkins died in 1968, James Jenkins married Margaret Pearl Jenkins and they continued to live here for a short time before selling it to Samuel and Evelyn Jordan in 1982 (Samuel having grown up here). The house was completely remodeled by RKW FED, LLC in 2011 as a Cape Cod single family home and sold to Katherine M. Kage in 2011.

This home is now owned by Jacqueline and Steven Furst. Jacqueline is the daughter of locals, Bruce and Stephanie Lyon, of Havre de Grace’s historical Lyon family. Bruce Lyon is a member of the Havre de Grace Marina Commission.

County Records
Built 1951. 1518 sq ft, 1.5 stories, basement, 2 baths, 3802 sq ft lot.