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Corridor History: Preserving the Past
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| Corridor Inc. Staff Writer Originally published July 2007
Robert Vickers of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse is overseeing the transformation of the National Park Seminary into a residential community. Photo by John Keith.
Glimpses of its enchanted past are visible through the scaffolding and construction materials that now dominate the landscape. But deemed historic, after years of sitting in oblivion, the seminary is being restored to some semblance of its former glory. While historic preservation evokes images of saving old homes once occupied by presidents and generals, it’s actually about more than that, according to proponents. Preservation and restoration projects generate jobs, reduce sprawl and bring money and new life into existing communities.
“For society in general, rehabilitation of existing communities and buildings, historic or not, economically and socially makes more sense than new construction,” said J. Rodney Little, director of the Maryland Historical Trust. “I’m not saying we don’t need new construction but we should use what we have.” According to the trust, an arm of the Maryland Department of Planning, there are more than 7,500 historic buildings in Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties on the national and state registers. National Park Seminary is one of them. The total does not include a small fraction of properties designated historic by local governments, noted Little.
The unique features of the National Park Seminary, including statues and a pagoda, are being incorporated into the new residential community being built in Silver Spring. Photos by John Keith.
Public and private entities in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor have invested time and money bringing some of these historic markers back to life. Savage Mill in Howard County, a 15-building complex that dates back to the 19th century, is home today to shops, artist studios and a restaurant. The Montgomery Arms Apartment building in Silver Spring, an early 1940s building, was recently transformed into 130 apartment units for low to moderate income households. Most of the area in downtown Annapolis, the quintessential historic district, has been preserved and thrives today with shops and businesses. But strict rehabilitation guidelines mandate no vinyl windows, doors or sidings. And in Prince George’s County, homes from the late 1700s, like Montpelier Mansion and Darnall’s Chance have been restored and are now museums and rental spaces for a variety of modern occasions. There are a number of direct and indirect benefits to revamping these properties, including helping to build communities, provide affordable housing, optimize public transportation and increase property values, according to Donovan D. Rypkema, principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm. Rypkema said rehabbing historic properties requires 60 percent labor and 40 percent materials, versus new construction which is about 50-50. He has studied the effects of the industry and estimates nationally, for every $1 million spent, an average of 35.6 jobs are created by historic preservation. Only 30.6 jobs are created by new construction projects. Wages are also considerably higher he said, with local household income for reconstruction workers averaging $762,000 for every $1 million spent, compared to $653,000 for laborers working on new construction. The Corridor will reap the rewards of that positive economic impact thanks to the Alexander Co., the Wisconsin developer that is banking $110 million on the preservation and rehabilitation of National Park Seminary. The company hired Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc., which has a long history of preservation projects, to execute its vision and handle the redevelopment of the seminary. Struever is in charge of turning the dilapidated but unique property into a residential community. Phase one of the project will feature over 250 historic homes. “This project is more preservation because we’re saving as much of the old as we can by fixing or rebuilding,” said Robert Vickers, Struever’s project manager at the seminary. Vickers operates out of a makeshift office on the second floor of what was once a ballroom on the campus. Plastic construction bulbs illuminate a shell of a structure, lined with found treasures like a battered Washington Post from December 1917 and remnants of classic old moulding and plaster. Baseboards and woodwork will be stripped down and refinished and portions of the slate roof will be repaired and maintained, said Vickers, who’s done countless historic jobs in his 20 years of experience. Windows are particularly sacred, he added. Because of cost, only about 200 of the 1,700 windows on the property will be restored. The rest will be new — recreations of the originals, he explained. Little noted that registered historic buildings do not necessarily have to be rehabilitated or restored to their original state, it depends on local planning and zoning requirements. While the unique homes at the seminary range from $375,000 to $900,000, Alexander’s interest in the project was about more than just the bottom line. “National Park Seminary represents a unique opportunity to reactivate an underutilized and rundown but nationally recognized asset,” said Dan Peterson, a company spokesman. <
The Corridor will reap the rewards of that positive economic impact thanks to the Alexander Co., the Wisconsin developer that is banking $110 million on the preservation and rehabilitation of National Park Seminary. The company hired Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc., which has a long history of preservation projects, to execute its vision and handle the redevelopment of the seminary. 
Baseboards and woodwork will be stripped down and refinished and portions of the slate roof will be repaired and maintained, said Vickers, who’s done countless historic jobs in his 20 years of experience. 