Window on Cecil County's Past

A day before a nonprofit affordable housing group is scheduled to appear before the Elkton Historical and Architectural Review Committee (HARC) to present plans for the old jail at 214 North Street, the developer met with the Mayor and Commissioners.  Frank Hodgetts, representing Home Partnership, outlined plans to build a 50-unit age restricted multi-family housing apartments on the 1.12 acre parcel.

To allow the project to go forward, he asked the town to modify its historic district zoning regulation, which stipulates that a project can’t increase the size of an old structure by more than 25%.  Suggested language for the code revision was submitted, which apparently eliminates the size restriction but says that the work must be in keeping with the architectural nature of the project.  “You’ve pulled out the stinger so to speak, but you are still giving them some claws,” Lewis George, the town administrator remarked.

Home Partnership also noted that they are going to ask for financial considerations.  Specifically, they will seek relief from about half of the property taxes for ten years.  It was estimated that the property would generated $18,250 in revenue for local government.  And they will ask that various permit and inspection fees be waived.

The concept plan calls for keeping the front façade and building the 50 unit modern structure in the the rear of that.  When an official asked about the history of the building, Hodgetts replied “We don’t know exactly what’s historic yet.”

The 1871 structure has two sections.  In front, the two story pressed brick wing facing North Street contained the sheriff’s house, office and the dining room.  In back, the portion with thick, solid granite walls was where the prisoners were securely detailed.  Somehow the post-Civil War lockup managed to outlive its usefulness to the county in a mere 128 years so in 1984 inmates moved to the new detention center on Landing Lane.

Town Administrator George wrapped things up by noting the process required to change a zoning ordinance.  HARC, the board charged with protecting Elkton’s architectural and cultural resources, will get their first chance to formally hear the proposal at a meeting Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. at the town hall.

 

The Chautauqua 2012 that is bringing three famous figures from the past to Explore the War of 1812 continued this Saturday afternoon in Elkton.  For the second show, Rosalie Stier Calvert, a member of a wealthy Maryland family talked about life on a plantation near Bladensburg as the British marched on Washington, D.C., scattering ill-prepared defensive forces.

As this voice from the past echoed through the sanctuary, Rosalie playfully called on members of the audience to perform supporting roles, so she could sketch out the broader campaign on the Chesapeake.  Before it was over a hastily recruited President Madison, Admiral Cockurn, and Dolly Madison joined the 19^th century lady on stage to the delight of the attentive audience.  Laughter frequently interrupted those scenes as the drafted, amateur thespians jumped into their roles to present various parts, usually with guidance from Rosalie.  But sometimes they ad-libbed to the delight of the crowd.

The performer today was the award-winning actress, Mary Ann Jung.  And while there was a lot of laughter filling that old Elkton Church on this hot Saturday afternoon, there was a great deal of learning going on too.  Listening to conversations as delighted patrons departed, it was obvious that they’d gained a deeper appreciation and understanding of this unique Maryland story in a most compelling way.

Prior to the show members of the Cecil County Heritage Troupe staged a fine presentation also sharing stories about the time when war came to our shores.

The final event is Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Elkton United Methodist Church as Jill Peters performs as Mary Pickersgill.  This free event is brought to Elkton by the Maryland Humanities Council and the Cecil County Tourism Office.

As the mercury approached 100 degrees Saturday afternoon a comfortable crowd settled in at the Elkton United Methodist Church to open the 2012 Chautauqua.  The sponsor for the annual event, the Maryland Humanities Council, is bringing three famous figures from the past to the area to explore the War of 1812.The local kick-off, sponsored by the Cecil County Tourism Office, found about 250 people intently listening as Alan Gephardt brought Francis Scott Key to life.  The American lawyer and amateur poet penned the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner, which became our National Anthem.

For nearly an hour this Marylander, a participant in some of the nation’s most stirring events, dramatically told the first-hand story of our second war with Britain and the Battle of Baltimore.  After the 19^th century gentleman finished his formal remarks, the audience enthusiastically peppered him with questions.  The evening also included a talk on Cecil County during the conflict.

If you missed this engaging show you missed a superb portrayal, but two more historical characters are still on the schedule.  This afternoon at 4 p.m., there’s a visit from Rosalie Stier Calvert, a member of a wealth Maryland family whose extensive correspondence illuminated life on the Calvert plantation leading up to and during the War of 1812.  Sunday afternoon, it’s Mary Pickersgill, the Baltimore flag-maker who stitched the Star Spangled Banner Flag that flew over Fort McHenry will visit Elkton.

Chautauqua is brought to the state every summer by the Maryland Humanities Council.  It is something many people look forward to each year.

The Town of Elkton has released the agenda for the July 12, 2012, Historical and Architectural Review Committee meeting.  The primary business is a request from Frank Hodgetts, representing Home Partnership, to develop the old jail property at 214 North Street in Elkton into 50 units of age-restrict multi-family housing apartments.  The agenda for July is reproduced below this post. An earlier meeting in June was canceled. 

—————————————————–

Town of Elkton Historic and Architectural Review Committee

July 12, 2012, 6:00 PM —  Agenda

• Approval of the minutes of the February 29, 2012 meeting 2.
• Request by Frank Hodgetts representing Home Partnership to redevelop 214 North Street, Elkton, MD into 50 units of age-restricted multi-family housing apartments.
• Old Business
• New Business

From Cecil Whig

By Jane Bellmyer                               |

Forty years ago today, many Cecil County residents were mired in mud and debris thanks to Hurricane Agnes.  It was a storm that set records for rainfall, storm surge and flooding, with the Susquehanna River cresting at almost 37 feet. The Rev. George Hipkins said bricks marking the high water levels on what is now the Port Deposit Post Office in Center Square have been removed, but he recalls that both sides of Main Street were inundated when the storm came

By Ryan Marshall

During a dark, stormy night in December 1963, a plane crashed in Elkton, changing the history of the town forever.  The plane was circling the area because of a storm in Philadelphia when it was struck by lightning, said Mike Dixon, of the Historical Society of Cecil County.

Now, 49 years later, Arnold Scolnik, the brother of one of the crash’s victims, has finally received a little closure, he said.  Scolnik, 76, and his fiancée, Allah, 47, married at the monument in Elkton that marks where the plane crashed. They wedded on June 7, his brother’s birthday. Elkton Mayor Joseph Fisona preformed the ceremony.  “The only way I could put him into my memory was to get married on his birthday,” Scolnik, of Wallingford, Pa., said.

Pan American Flight 214 exploded in the air over Elkton because of a lightning strike that combined with air and fuel, according to the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) report. It came to rest in a field off of East Pulaski Highway near current-day Delancy Road.

article continues on the Cecil Whig

For a significant part of the 20^th century, legislators in Annapolis struggled to get laws on the books to help curb Elkton’s efficient “marriage mill.”  Striking legal blows in many directions, right in the middle of the Great Depression, the lawmakers managed to keep well paid attorneys and lobbyist working overtime for special interests.

Senator Harold E. Coburn knew about these troubles first hand for in trying to fulfill a 1935 campaign promise to “wipe out the marrying parsons” he found that he was up against powerful interests as so much money and influence was thrown into the fight.  His bills often lost out or were overturned by the courts.

But a nearly perennial measure, aiming to put competition into cupid’s profitable Elkton wedding business by legalizing civil marriages, really caused trouble.  As early as the 1920s, measures to deal the “marring parsons a death blow economically by taking away the need for their service” were getting drafted and defeated.

The General Assembly finally passed one after decades of legal wrangling so couples tying the knot could be married at the courthouse beginning on January 1, 1964.  The first deputy clerk to step into the hasty matrimonial business was E. Day Moore, who was hired by Andy Seth to perform the ceremonies.  It was busy from the start and three weeks after his first day on the job, Moore married actress Joan Fontaine and Alfred Wright, Jr.  They were couple number 440 and author John O’Hara was a witness, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The court was “horning in on the town’s wedding chapels,” the newspaper said in 1966.  But business was so good that a major renovation of the courthouse included plans for the “county’s own wood-paneled wedding chapel.”  Of course, the private weddings mills, including the Little Wedding Chapel and the Wee White Chapel where Rev. R. J. Sturgill officiated, “were less than overjoyed about it.”

The first court official to fill that role retired eighteen years later.  On his final days on the job as “Cecil County’s Marrying Sam,” he’d united 63,729 couples, according to the newspaper.  While the marriage mill was grinding much slower, Cecil County still ranked second in the state for the number of licenses issued, ahead of all other jurisdictions except Baltimore City in 1964.

As Elkton continues it decades long effort to revitalize what the Cecil Whig characterizes as a once bustling “’bygone’ Main Street,” that “seems deserted most days,” an editorial in the paper notes that what is most needed is “town leadership willing to make unpopular choices — men and women willing to take a risk towards making real, immediate change.”    This column came about following a discussion at a town workshop about the need to do something about “the vacant or blighted buildings dotting the town.”  The decline is multifaceted but in particular the impact of county government moving out-of-town and the economic collapse of the past five years are sources of the problem, the Whig wrote.

Commissioner Charles Hicks, taking note of conditions around the municipality, urged his colleagues to not worry about a “popularity contest” and make decisions that protect the community.  “Something needs to be done. I think it’s about time.”  The Whig agreed, saying that the paper hopes his passion is a sign of things to come.

The status of Elkton’s attempt to reinvigorate Main Street and improve the central business district has been the subject of in-depth reporting and editorials periodically for a long time now.  Seven years ago, the editor said something similar in an opinion piece titled “County Seat Due a Major Overhaul.”  Here’s part of what they said in that old column.  “Elkton continues to have a problem with abandoned building sites . . . that hamper efforts to revitalize the town.  . . County government officials are working on a plan for relocating some county offices.  It’s a shame some of the abandoned building properties in Elkton cannot be utilized for future county government office sites.