Elkton Town Meeting, August 27, 2011 – Weeks ago the commissioners were told by some members of the historical and architectural review committee (HARC) that the special district protecting old structures in a few neighborhoods in Elkton should be eliminated or its area should be reduced. The regulations are far too restrictive and the county seat doesn’t have a historic corridor, the HARC representatives informed officials.
The discussion of that subject continued at this regular meeting as the elected officials decided they would like to hear from professionals at the Maryland Historical Trust, the state agency charged with protecting the State’s past. Commissioner Jablonski and Mayor Fisona noted that Cory Kegerise, a preservation planner, will attend a meeting with the elected leaders so officials can get a better understanding of obligations and requirements as Elkton struggles to stabilize and protect its old neighborhoods. Both the Mayor and Commissioner Jablonski, who also serves as the town’s Main Street Manager and the Executive Director of the Elkton Alliance/Chamber, said they want to get professional input before making a decision as they’d had contact from citizens pointing out the value of the municipality’s historic corridors. “We really need to discuss this as a whole and get some input. I was quite confused. I’m glad to hear Cory is coming to a meeting,” Commissioner Jablonski noted.
Forty-eight historic district commissions have been created in Maryland as communities work to protect the “look and feel of their towns,” according to Karen Theimer Brown, a representative of the Maryland Association of Historic District Commissions. The best way to protect a community’s historic character from inappropriate change is through a local ordinance and district, she noted.
Occasionally historic districts are abolished, but “that action is usually taken as a result of pressure from residents, developers, and landlords,” according to Cory of the Maryland Historical Trust. “To my knowledge there hasn’t’ been a situation where the members of a commission charged with administering and upholding a preservation ordinance have been the ones to advocate for removal of those policies.”
Local historian Audrey Edwards will talk about colonial Charlestown’s historic buildings, artifacts and the stories behind its historical markers. Step back in time to the days of the American Revolution!
North East Branch Library, 106 W. Cecil Ave., North East, MD. 21901
The Gilpin Falls Covered Bridge, that relic from another era, is no stranger to hurricanes and it just endured another one. Tropical storm conditions battered Cecil County over the weekend as Irene passed just off the Maryland Coast. That blast dumped over 7-inches of rain on an already soaked county as wind gusts up to 62 miles per hour whipped the area. But by Late Sunday afternoon, the sun emerged, the wind died down, and Cecil started dusting itself off. As people came out to clean up from Irene, the Northeast Creek, the usually quiet stream the aging survivor spans, overflowed its banks so curious crowds stopped to look things over. Small groups huddled near the 1860s bridge observing the swollen, rushing waters and looking over the soaked scene.
A strong, old hand at weathering these types of storms, the Burr arch wooden bridge came through it in fine shape just as it has for centuries. It was there in October 1954 when Hazel brought hurricane-force winds to the state and it survived the likes of Floyd, and Agnes, when those two storms flooded the Eastern Shore. Then there was the Great Labor Day Hurricane deluge of 1935, which swamped northeastern Maryland. There were plenty of others in the 19th century too.
Gilpin Falls Covered Bridge the day after Hurricane Irene swept across Cecil County.
Gilpin Falls Covered Bridge has survived the test of time and is a local preservation success story as it also endured a storm of another kind. This one involved the county commissioners and editorial writers at the Cecil Whig, arguing against its preservation. Yes, Cecil’s bridge to the past is a definite survivor.
The Elkton Historic District Committee met with the mayor and commissioners to discuss the review board’s recommendation ”that the town’s two-decades-old historical district should be eliminated,” the Cecil Whig reported Aug. 15. The standards the committee should operate under “are contained in a 200-page document that is incredibly detailed and restrictive in scope, down to the very minutiae of using period replica hardware,” the Whig quoted Josh Brown as saying. Another member, Mark Clark, was reported to have said “that the historic district is hard to enforce, because Elkton has been ‘swiss-cheesed’ through the years. There’s a bunch of holes where people tore buildings down for parking lots . . .” Brown said to the elected leaders, “Do you want to actually preserve history or do you want to commestically preserve it” he asked as he suggested that perhaps the town should consider adopting less detailed regulations that encourage citizens to be sympathetic to historical standards, through other avenues such as the municipal building and zoning code.
Last week the Mayor and Commissioners of Elkton heard that the burden associated with the town’s historic district outweigh its benefits. Members of the appointed group overseeing the special zoning area, the Historic and Architectural Review (HARC) Committee, aired those concerns, saying the “restrictive requirements” are “like Monticello” and put HARC in charge of “maintaining to the very minutiae” in a town that doesn’t have a “historic corridor.” Usually these types of boards are known for their zeal in preserving the past, so for another perspective Someone Noticed asked a Maryland Historical Trust Planner, Cory R. Kegerise, about matters raised at the meeting.
With over 400 years of history, it would seem that the county seat’s built environment has a sufficient inventory that deserves protection, as the 2010 Elkton Comprehensive Plan notes. Beyond that the Maryland Historical Trust found in the early 1980s that Elkton was an architecturally significant town that possessed a large number of well-preserved structures, “with an especially fine concentration of houses, churches and commercial buildings dating from the latter half of the 19th century.”
Neighborhoods are still full of centuries old charm
So has the loss of valuable structures from another era accelerated to the point the neighborhood atmosphere has been lost since the thirty-year old study found five distinct concentrations of buildings eligible for listing in the National Register? While loss driven by was described as “Swiss Cheese” affect has reduced the inventory, several sections of the town retain distinctiveness worthy of stabilization and preservation. For example, the survey concluded that the E. Main Street neighborhood retained a high degree of integrity with few modern intrusions. A drive down that attractive street today, shows that it is still full of centuries old-character and charm and is worthy of protection, especially in a municipality that struggles with policies related to halting the deterioration of its neighborhoods.
When asked if the Secretary of the Interior’s regulations are too detailed and contain restrictive regulations requiring HARC to deal with minutia, here is how Cory answered that. The Secretary of Interior Standards consist of 10 statements describing “how changes and alterations to historic building should be approached.” “They are not strict, prescriptive rules that dictate every minute detail.” To support the standards the Park Service developed 60 pages of guidelines. “Guidelines are guidelines and not regulations . . . . The entire process is based upon the application of general guidelines to individual circumstances, within which there is often significant variation.”
HARC talked about whether Elkton should develop design guidelines, which become even stricter, according to some on the board. Generally community-specific design guidelines are developed to aid the review process and help owners know how to approach work on a structure. The guidelines don’t tell an owner or developer which features of their own historic building are important in defining the historic character and should be preserved or which features can be alerted. “That’s where local design guidelines come in. Design guidelines developed for a local historic district can get into finer levels of detail . . . and give treatment recommendations and explanations that apply to actual buildings and building types. District specific design guidelines give commissioners the opportunity to be much more explicit and clear about materials, spaces and features. “I challenge anyone to actually read the standards and guidelines and find a passage that requires the building to be returned to a particular point in time. All that being said, guidelines need to be applied evenly and consistently once they are adopted,” the state preservation official advised.
The regulations recognize that there will be what the professional preservationist called “non-conforming” structures in a district. Within any district there are buildings that are clearly related to the significance of the neighborhood while there are also buildings that bear no relation to the significance of the district and they are considered to be “non-contributing.” The standards say that a non-contributing building should not be held to a high standard in the way a contributing building is.
Towns and counties are under no obligation to enact historic area zoning ordinances or require any kind of design review beyond what is required or life safety, health, environmental or other land use concerns. But “many communities have determined that preserving historic buildings and streetscapes from demolition, deterioration and alterations that radically alter the historic charter and environment is important to them. It gives those communities a sense of place, a unique identity a distinction and an economic advantage over other place,” Cory concluded.
On this rain-swept Sunday afternoon, about 30 people gathered to formally dedicate a memorial to the 53 people who died in 1947 when Eastern Airlines Flight 605 plummeted into a Cecil County woods. The crowd assembled on a Principio Road hillside near Jackson Park Road, including a passenger’s son, a sailor who rushed to the debris field, three Havre de Grace Police officers, and Port Deposit Mayor Wayne Tome.
Eastern Airlines memorial dedicated in memory of the passengers and crew that perished on May 30, 1947.
Barry Rosengarten of Perth Amboy, NJ, whose father was on the aircraft, made a few remarks. “I so much appreciate your passionate, sensitive, and caring expression that will allow generations to follow the history and magnitude of that horrific and fateful night of Memorial Day 1974.” Describing his first visit to the isolated plane crash spot, which took place a few years ago after he visited the historical society, he said: “The evening air was crisp and starlight. The night air was filled with a mellow earth and forest perfume. I stood next to my car breathing deeply and feeling the moment almost as if I had been there.” Barry thanked those who arranged for the memorial and helped to bring him to “this moment and to closure.”
William Dennie of Frederick was a young Navy recruit at Bainbridge Naval Training Center on Memorial Day 1947. Presenting a proclamation from Governor Martin O’Malley, William recalled being bused to the site so the hundreds of sailors could carefully comb through the woods and thick brush. Erika Quesenbery provided the historical background and read the victims’ names while Father Abrahams offered a prayer.
As fire companies from throughout Western Cecil rushed toward the horrific plane crash in 1947, Chief Walker and two other officers of the Havre de Grace Police Department were the first to emergency personnel to reach the tangled, blazing wreckage. On this Sunday afternoon, over 60 years later, Chief Walter and two other uniformed command officers attended the memorial service to help remember the victims.
Mrs. Jeanette Nesbit Hillyer and the Stewart Company arranged for the monument’s dedication near where the Eastern Airlines crashed. Thank you, Mrs. Hillyer and Stewart Company, for assuring that Cecil County will not forget this event’s fading memory.
Nate Schwartz begins the work of reorganizing over 300 Cecil County yearbooks.
For years the Society has worked to build a large collection of yearbooks as these volumes, which call up memories from decades ago, make valuable research resources for individuals working on a family or local history project. Cover-to-cover there are portraits of each student, plenty of anecdotes, brief essays, highlighting specific memories, advertising, photos of activities, and school antics while many contain hand written notes to teachers and friends.
Since a large run of these titles has been assembled at the society and they span a considerable part of the 20th century, they are yet another valuable resource researchers can turn to. We are fortunate to have such a large records group, which now consists of 308 Cecil County volumes. Tome School issued the oldest title we hold in 1906, while many of the public high schools started publishing the annuals in the 1940s.
Nate Schwartz volunteered this summer to reorganize the collection, update our inventory, and create a finding aid. The Tome School sophomore has carefully repositioned the volumes, updated the holdings records, and is now beginning to enter the titles in PastPerfect, software for managing museum collections. The Society appreciates Nate’s work and researchers will find it valuable as they are now easily able to determine the current status of our holdings. Click here to see the finding aid, Nate created and determine if we have something that will help you with your investigation.
The core of the collection came about when retired Cecil County educator, A. Rebecca Smith, having taught in the school system from 1935 to 1976, donated 33-years of Elkton High yearbooks to the society, in order to assure they would have a permanent home. After that another volunteer, Kyle Dixon, worked to expand the A. Rebecca Smith Collection and obtain volumes from all the schools in the county, with a goal of creating a complete runs of the titles. It’s a project we’re still working on and Nate has moved it to the next level, as we continue to seek volumes to fill the gaps. Thanks Nate.
A substantial old commercial building on North Street prepares to wrecking ball as room is made for another parking lot in Elkton
Concerns about enforcement of Elkton’s historic district ordinance were put on the table for the Mayor and Commissioners at the monthly workshop. The matter came up as the last item of business on an unusually long three-hour session jammed with developers bringing up other extremely technical regulatory issues related to a Planned Unit Development (PUD) with 2,500 units and another builder seeking to straighten out municipal obligations as he has arranged to purchase water from United Water Company. There was also an unscheduled visit from Artesian Water and feedback that the town’s sprinkler ordinance was going to hurt buyers and the municipality
Members of the town’s Historic and Architectural Review Committee (HARC) brought up the last concern, not developers, upset landlords, or complaining citizens. Four of the five HARC members appeared to ask the elected leaders for directions, they remarked initially. However as the discussion continued for a little over an hour, most of the HARC panelist advised the elected leaders that the current requirements are far too strict for Elkton so they suggested eliminating the ordinance. “Because we don’t have guidelines for the town, we operate under the Secretary of the Interior Standards. So far I don’t think anything we’ve ruled on has met those standards. We’re not sure this board understands what those standards are or that it would even want those standards because they are very restrictive” Paula Newton, the chair began.
Just by forming the committee, the town is obligated to operate under the Secretary of Interior Standards, Mark Clark added. “It’s very restrictive. The state regulations say you must be in compliance with the 200-pages of the National Park Service standards. . . It would not allow vinyl siding or vinyl windows. . . I don’t know of any property in Elkton that has met the Park Service standards. . . . It’s not that I’m against them, but in this economy no one is going to want to do that. People are not interested.”
Clark continued by noting that he didn’t “think the commissioners want to empower “ HARC to enforce those regulations. It’s hard to start telling “people you don’t do this, you can’t do that. You must use wood shingle, you must restore your windows or if you replace them they must be custom made. These standards are like Monticello. . . . Are we going to get some kind of policing power to give us some kind of power to say sir you’ve got to take those windows out. I can’t see Elkton doing that. That’s what the standards say that you’ve told us to operate under.”
There’s not really a historic corridor in the town, Josh Brown added. Other towns have opted to not have a historic overlay district, but have decided to have locally developed design guidelines. “But what you’ve created here is an overlay where we are in charge of maintaining to the very minutiae. . . . We want to know from you before we make the 200-page document clearer, because we’re not allowed to dilute it.”
When elected officials pressed for ideas on what the committee members recommended, Josh suggested the town “get out from under Title 8 (state requirements) by passing a local law to reduce the district. If you really want architectural controls, don’t enforce it with historic preservation. That’s the wrong method.”
“How would something that like that help prevent the destruction of historic buildings, Paula inquired of Josh. As that discussion evolved, Commissioner Jablonski remarked, “What you’re saying is we have to do away with the historic district?” “You could make it smaller if you want to, but when it comes to that district we have to go with those guidelines” Josh responded. Or Mark Clark suggested that the town prepare a municipal ordinance that would enable the town to draft its own design guidelines, standards that wouldn’t be a restrictive at those required by the Maryland Historic Trust. Still driving home the point about the problems with the current ordinance, Clark added, “There are some houses on Main Street built in the 70s, but we still have to say to that guy you can’t use vinyl siding. . . . What the people of Elkton want, I think, is the general impression or look. I think we could be somewhat flexible. It wouldn’t be Title 8 of Annotated Code of Maryland, it would be based on town of Elkton code.”
“Do you get any support from the state?” Commissioner Hicks asked. “The state preservation planner [Maryland Historical Trust] quotes chapter and verse from the Bible of the National Park Service. It’s his job to preach that purist view” Mark answered.
As the bulk of the discussion had shifted to center on doing away with the Historic District regulation, Paula returned to the original point concerning the committee checking in to see what the town leadership wanted. “What are the consequences of not having a historic district? We just wanted to make everybody aware. I think it requires a little more thought.”
Elkton’s Main Street Manager, Commissioner Jablonski volunteered to send an email out to Maryland Main Street Coordinators. We have quarterly meetings on this subject. If anyone has redone anything, I’ll see if any other town has their own set of guidelines.
With the clock ticking past 7 p.m.. and the once packed meeting room having emptied out except for two lone observers, Mark Clark had the last word on this subject for the evening on the historic fabric of the county-seat. “Elkton unfortunately is Swiss Cheese. There’s a bunch of holes where people tore buildings down for parking lots. There’s a bunch of holes in it downtown. There are a few things to save, but what develops the characters of this town are some of the side streets,” Mark concluded. With that the mayor brought the long session to a close.
What HARC Member Mark Clark called the “Swiss Cheese” affect, the tearing down of old buildings to make room for parking lots in Elkton is shown in this mid-Wednesday afternoon in the heart of downtown Elkton. The old street was lined with lined with early 20th century to late 19th century structures not too long ago.
The expansion of Singerly Fire Company’s main fire station on Newark Avenue in Elkton is moving right along. At the station that has has served the community for forty years, demands on the facility have grown since 1971 so the enlarged structure will have eight fire appartus bays facing Newark Avenue. Singerly responds to fire and EMS calls out of three stations now, but when the company incorporated in 1892 it answered alarms from its headquarters on North Street in downtown Elktokn. The mayor and commissioners had built that structure a short time earlier to serve as a town hall and firehouse.
Constuction is underway Elkton Station that's served community for 40-years
Singerly's first firehouse in the heart of downtown Elkton on North Street
Two Historical Society of Cecil County volunteers, Billie Todd and Evelyn Wekke, are pouring over aging business ledgers from the Grant
Funeral Home of Cherry Hill. Scanning the old, yellowing pages they meticulously extract information on deaths from the undertaker’s account books, cataloging information about the people whom W. J. Grant and son buried, including names, family ties and key biographical data.
Evelyn reads the fading handwriting penned in these volumes by the mortician from the late 1880s until the 1920s, as the Society’s resident genealogist, Billie, inputs the data into a spreadsheet. Once they finish this task, one that requires painstaking care, and attention to detail, they will digitize the images of these century old pages that document the services Grant provided for the burials and their work will be made available on the Society’s website. This efficient team has done other demonstration projects of this nature, linking web-based data with the high quality images. Their effort makes valuable family history research materials accessible to patrons of the Historical Society.
Cherry Hill had two funeral homes. William J Grant, the founder of the one business, worked as a cabinet maker and undertaker, engaging in that business for over 40-years. After the elder Mr. Grant died in April 1887, his son, Clark S., continued the business until the 1930s. When he passed away in November 1938, the Cecil Democrat said he had retired from the business in 1936, having worked in the profession for nearly 60 years. Alfred T. Abernathy, the other undertaker, died in 1934. His wife continued the business, according to newspaper accounts.
Evelyn Wekke and Billie Todd work on another volume of the Grant Funeral Home Books
