Pasadena History: Hometown Doctors Make House Calls

Here is your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham:

When you are sick and tired, sometimes the last thing you feel like doing is getting out of bed and traveling to the doctor. If you were sick in Pasadena in 1904, you wouldn’t have had to travel. And it would have cost you less than a gallon of milk.

“James S. Billingslea became the community’s family doctor in 1904 when he was 22 years old,” wrote Cunningham. “He rode horseback to visit his patients before he had an automobile. Daily house calls cost $2 or less. His home, where MD Route 100 now merges into Mountain Road, was a two-story, L-shaped, frame farmhouse.

“After Dr. Billingslea moved to Glen Burnie in 1919, he continued to care for many families on the peninsula for decades. He also served Anne Arundel County for seventeen years as a member and as president of the Board of Education and twelve years as a member of the Board of Police Examiners.”

Be sure to check back next Wednesday for more Pasadena history.