Endangered Sites Press Conference Remarks

July 2, 2003
Wayne Goldstein President, Montgomery Preservation, Inc.

Welcome to the release of Montgomery Preservation's Eleven Most Endangered Sites in Montgomery County. Silver Spring, Rockville, and Germantown are each represented with three entries, and Sandy Spring and Beallsville each have one. Five are threatened with demolition; five are threatened with demolition-by-neglect; and one is threatened with major alterations.

We were torn about where to hold the press conference. The property that is at greatest risk for imminent demolition is the Silver Spring Little Tavern. However, MPI and the Silver Spring Historical Society have recently nominated it to the county Locational Atlas. We are quite optimistic that we will be successful because the Bethesda Little Tavern is already on the county's Master Plan for Historic Preservation.

This is why we chose Park Street Elementary School as the site of this year's press conference. Park Street School is to be demolished in two years. By increasing people's awarenesss of the stature of the architect and the place of this building in his body of work, we hope to persuade the community, the City, and Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to rally around the reuse of the original building as a part of the new Richard Montgomery High School. There is enough time to redo plans to allow for the creative reuse of this architecturally important structure.

Montgomery Preservation has been contacted by an individual who loves log buildings and who wants to restore and reuse the Black Rock Log House, and we have been trying to work with the owner of this site, Clear Channel Communications, to persuade them to work with Montgomery Preservation and this individual.

Progress continues to be made on another property, the Spates Bungalow.

A year ago, Montgomery Preservation outlined the twin threats to Jessup Blair Park caused by the historically and environmentally destructive plans for the Park by Montgomery College and the Montgomery Parks Department. Since then, most of the threat caused by the college has been eliminated, although Montgomery Preservation remains concerned with how the College builds its bridge and connecting walkway in the park even as we await the results of the court appeal related to this issue. We are very concerned with the plans of the Parks Department, which promises to move parking and remove pavement to improve the historic and natural setting, even as it proposes new parking and paving to further threaten the same historic and natural setting. We will encourage the Historic Preservation Commission to be skeptical of grandiose plans that do more to replicate past mistakes than to solve them.

While we don't have the same detailed level of knowledge about all eleven sites, we can refer you to those who can tell you more about the other sites. Montgomery Preservation aspires to one day be able to actively pursue advocacy for each of the eleven sites chosen for its list.