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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.

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

The scorching summer heat has made outdoor activities nearly
unbearable for a few days now, and people are coping with the tropical conditions in a variety of ways.  Late this Saturday afternoon, families’ crowded tables at Betterton Beach, enjoying outdoor picnics while hopefully catching a cooling breeze from the Chesapeake Bay.  Elsewhere people outside quickly scattered for whatever shade they could find and restaurants were crowded.

Over forty years ago, Cecil Whig Photographer Jim Cheeseman caught
this picture of a young-man attempting to escape a 1969 summer heat-wave by resting briefly in a self-serve ice-box at a business in the county seat.  Elkton had a National Weather Service Observation Station from 1927 to 1976, by-the-way.  H. Wirt Bouchell, the local weatherman, recorded the highs and lows every day for nearly 50 years and the highest reading  he recorded in Elkton was 106-degrees on July 10, 1936.

Dr. James R. Koterski, the author of Potters and Firebrick Makers of Cecil County Maryland & Nearby, 1750 – 1950, will be at the Palette and Page, 120 E. Main Street, Elkton, from 5 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2011, to sign books.  Click here for additional information on the Aug. 5th activities.

Here is some additional information on this informative new title.

Clay deposits played a major role in the economy of by-gone Cecil County. Some were mined and shipped out-of-state while others provided the key raw material to potters and firebrick makers. Wheel-thrown redware and stoneware were fired in kilns at Rising Sun, Brick Meeting House, NorthEast and Rock Springs. Meanwhile some Delaware and Pennsylvania potters relied on the county’s clays to turn their pots. The names of some potters like William Carter and Eli Haines were virtually unknown until this book traced the role this craft played in their lives. An exquisite harvest jug fashioned by Carter in 1847 survives today. Other names – Remmey, Grier, Hare, Magee, Brown and Schofield – are much more recognizable to today’s collectors and historians, yet in many cases, connections to Cecil County were unknown or incomplete.

Commercial firebrick operations were attracted by the abundance of kaolin-based clays. Some were short-lived while others carried on for decades. Most companies like Cecil, North East, Wakefield, Green Hill and United molded and fired these refractory bricks around the town of North East.

Potters and Firebrick Makers of Cecil County, Maryland, and Nearby is illustrated with over 100 images, nearly half in color. Spanning 140 pages and 8.5” X 11” in size, this book was built from numerous newspaper accounts, land records, family histories and pottery collections. It provides a valuable window to the past and deserves the widespread interest from fans of local history and pottery enthusiasts and collectors alike.

Bird’s Eye View maps, popular from the 1860s until about 1920,
depict places as if they were viewed from above at an angle.  Using direct observation and some imagination, artists working for a number of companies specializing in these panoramic products visited towns to sketch out the place.
The sketches, which were sold to local residents, were not drawn to scale,
but showed streets, patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape
features in perspective.  They are very useful for researching the history of a community or an old house.  In 1907, the cartographic artists representing
Fowler and Kelly of Morrisville, Pa were busy at the head of the Chesapeake Bay.  As they made a sweep of the area the illustrators produced Bird’s Eye Views of Elkton, Havre de Grace and Rising Sun.

Here’s the Rising Sun Map from 1907.

July 16, 2011 — The Cecil County Public Library will have a booth at the Fair, located in the building next to the midway and carnival rides, open every weekday evening from 5-8pm, and 1-8pm on Saturdays and Sunday the 24th. All booth visitors will be able to take a free book and play a guessing game for the chance to win a $50 Walmart gift card. A game and craft will be available for children.

The library will also participate in “Daycare Day” on Monday, July 25th at 10:30am at the small stage area past the barns. Children and their caregivers will take a “musical tour around the globe” with song, dance and play in accordance with the Library’s summer reading theme: “One World, Many Stories.”

Sixty-four years after Eastern Airlines Flight 605 crashed outside Port Deposit, taking 53 lives on Memorial Day 1947, a monument has been erected at the place where the plane hit a Cecil County hillside. Jeanette Nesbit Hillyer, 89, whose father was one of the first to respond to the terrible accident, arranged to have the memorial placed near the intersection of Jackson Park and Principio Roads, the Cecil Whig reported.

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Lt. Don Hash (Retired) of the Maryland State Police, the first emergency responder to arrive at the plane crash site east of Elkton on December 8, 1963, recently talked to the Singerly Fire Company Museum about his recollections of that dark night in a Maryland cornfield where 81-people perished.

On that stormy December Sunday evening in 1963, Trooper Hash, a 23-old rookie one year out of the academy, was cruising northbound on Route 213 near Brantwood Golf Course. With an unusual late fall thunderstorm rolling across Cecil County, heavy rain pelted the patrol car when a powerful bolt of lightning in the shape of a wishbone suddenly came out of low-hanging clouds, illuminating the area. One or two seconds after that, a large airplane enshrouded in an orange glow flew out of the cloud. The doomed craft flew for 10 to 15 seconds before a wing fell off, and the plane nosed straight down into the ground. Trooper Hash radioed the barrack as he raced toward the crash, somewhere east of Elkton near the state line.

Don, who retired from the State Police as a lieutenant, talked to us on June 9, 2011, about his experience on that troubling, unforgettable experience. The first emergency responder to arrive, he remarked: “I could see flames on Delancy Road as I neared the crash site. It wasn’t a large fire. It was several smaller fires. A fuselage with about 8 or 10 window frames was the only large, recognizable piece I could see when I pulled up. It was just a debris field. It didn’t resemble an airplane. The engines were buried in the ground 10 to 15 feet from the force of the impact.”

By this time, everyone was mobilizing. The state police rushed troopers from other barracks to help the three roadmen patrolling the county that night. In a few minutes, the fire company arrived, and during the next hour, officers from across the state arrived to help. Trooper Don Hash stayed on location throughout that long night until he was relieved the next morning.

Related articles on Plane Crash

Remember Cecil County’s Fallen Firefighters

On Memorial Day 1947, Eastern Airlines Flight 605 Crashed Near Port Deposit