From Artifact To Attraction: A Strategic Plan Cultural Resources in Parks
From Artifact To Attraction: A Strategic Plan Cultural Resources in Parks
A STRATEGIC PLAN
FOR
CULTURAL RESOURCES IN PARKS
January 2006
FROM ARTIFACT TO ATTRACTION:
Prepared by
Staff
Joey Lampl, Planner/Coordinator, Historic Preservation Section
Michele Oaks, Senior Planner, Historic Preservation Section
Claudia Kousoulas, Senior Planner, Community-Based Planning
Rosemary Prola, Intern, Historic Preservation Section
Abigail Thompson, Senior Administrative Assistant, Historic Preservation Section
January 2006
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THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION
COMMISSIONERS
3
The Strategic Plan for Cultural Resources Process
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Table of Contents
VISION ........................................................................................................................................... 7
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 8
1.1 Strategic Plan Purpose and Concepts.............................................................................. 9
1.2 A New Era in Park Cultural Resource Management .................................................... 10
1.3 Capital Improvements................................................................................................... 11
1.4 Annual Maintenance ..................................................................................................... 12
1.5 Programming................................................................................................................. 12
1.6 Measuring Success........................................................................................................ 14
2 WHERE WE’VE BEEN: THE COMMISSION’S HISTORY OF CULTURAL
RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP..................................................................................................... 26
2.1 The Origins ................................................................................................................... 26
2.2 The Depression ............................................................................................................. 27
2.3 Population Boom .......................................................................................................... 27
2.4 Documenting Cultural Resources ................................................................................. 28
2.5 Relationship to Existing Plans and Other Significant County Initiatives ..................... 29
3 WHERE WE ARE: EXISTING CONDITIONS .................................................................. 33
3.1 Our Strengths ................................................................................................................ 33
3.1.1 Stewardship and Acquisition ................................................................................ 33
3.1.2 Capital Improvements........................................................................................... 33
3.1.3 Maintenance.......................................................................................................... 33
3.1.4 Programming and Public Outreach....................................................................... 34
3.1.5 Archaeology.......................................................................................................... 34
3.2 Our Limitations............................................................................................................. 35
3.2.1 Stewardship and Acquisition ................................................................................ 35
3.2.2 Capital Improvements........................................................................................... 35
3.2.3 Maintenance.......................................................................................................... 36
3.2.4 Programming and Public Outreach....................................................................... 36
3.2.5 Archaeology.......................................................................................................... 36
4 WHERE WE’RE HEADED: DEFINING A FUTURE, TOP 20 PROJECTS, CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENTS, ANNUAL MAINTENANCE, AND PROGRAMMING............................ 37
4.1 Defining a Future .......................................................................................................... 37
4.1.1 Long-Term Use Goal ............................................................................................ 37
4.1.2 Heritage Area Themes .......................................................................................... 38
4.1.3 International Building Code Future Use and Occupancy Classifications
(IBCFUO) ............................................................................................................................. 39
4.2 Top 20 Properties Information...................................................................................... 40
4.3 Capital Improvement Program...................................................................................... 62
4.3.1 Use “Responsible Party” Structure ....................................................................... 64
4.3.2 Conduct Top 20 Analysis...................................................................................... 64
4.3.3 Initiate On-Call Services Procurement ................................................................. 65
4.3.4 Streamline Preservation Specialist Contracting.................................................... 65
4.4 ANNUAL MAINTENANCE ....................................................................................... 66
4.4.1 Allocate Dollars for Annual Maintenance ............................................................ 66
4.4.2 Use the Responsible Party system for Annual Maintenance ................................ 66
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4.4.3 Use SmartParks as Maintenance Management System ........................................ 67
4.4.4 Continue training Responsible Party divisions on inspection/rehabilitation
methods 67
4.4.5 Consider hiring a contract inspector to do an initial general inspection of priority
historic sites. ......................................................................................................................... 67
4.4.6 Develop a streamlined procurement process and use on-call service contracts ... 68
4.4.7 Estimated Value and Annual Maintenance Formulas........................................... 68
4.4.8 Yale University ..................................................................................................... 68
4.5 PROGRAMMING ........................................................................................................ 73
4.5.1 Convey the idea of the cultural and economic values associated with park
resources. .............................................................................................................................. 73
4.5.2 Spearhead or coordinate activity/use programming for cultural resources. ......... 73
4.5.3 Increase interpretive programming staffing.......................................................... 73
4.5.4 Pre-qualify or add architectural and engineering experts ..................................... 73
4.5.5 Implement an expanded historic marker program throughout the parks. ............. 74
APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY....................................................................................................... 75
APPENDIX B: PARK CULTURAL RESOURCES SPREADSHEET KEY............................. 79
APPENDIX C: FORMULA FOR ESTIMATED VALUE ......................................................... 86
APPENDIX D: FORMULA FOR ANNUAL MAINTENANCE ............................................... 87
APPENDIX E: SAMPLE INSPECTION/ANNUAL MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST :........... 88
APPENDIX F: ANNUAL MAINTENANCE INFORMATION FROM OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS...................................................................................................................... 94
APPENDIX G: POTENTIAL FINANCIAL CATALYSTS OUTSIDE OF M-NCPPC ............ 96
APPENDIX H: SAMPLE COST ESTIMATE ON REHABILITATION FROM PRINCE
GEORGE’S COUNTY ................................................................................................................. 99
APPENDIX I: SAMPLE COMBINATION CONDITION REPORT....................................... 109
APPENDIX J: SAMPLE HOME INSPECTION REPORT...................................................... 122
APPENDIX K: SAMPLE INSURANCE ASSESSMENT ....................................................... 145
APPENDIX L: NATURAL AND HISTORICAL RESOURCES PERSONNEL CHART,
AUGUST 2003, MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING, PRINCE
GEORGE’S COUNTY ............................................................................................................... 162
APPENDIX M: CULTURAL RESOURCES IN PARKS INVENTORY/SPREADSHEETS . 164
List of Tables
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STRATEGIC PLAN
VISION
Imagine going back in time, learning how family, friends, and neighbors lived, experiencing the
textures, spaces, and objects that they and their ancestors knew. Discover that you haven’t
traveled far. You’re in your own backyard, in your local park system. This is the vision of the
historic preservation program at The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning
Commission in Montgomery County. We are dedicated to making our historical, archaeological,
and landscape properties useful to residents and visitors now and in the future, so that the
stories of our shared heritage can inspire, inform, and entertain us, bringing us closer together
as a community.
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1 INTRODUCTION
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has been in the business of
acquiring land and buildings since 1927, when it purchased its very first park properties. Over
time, Montgomery County has become the owner of 32,000 acres of parkland, 395 parks, and
663 buildings. 1 Many of these buildings are historic. In fact, 157 buildings, sites, and objects
have been classified as “cultural resources, ” and the list includes structures, landscapes, and
archaeological sites. This list is composed of resources as small as a well house and as
substantial as a dairy barn.
With one of the strongest historic preservation laws in the state, the Montgomery County
Department of Park and Planning (the Department) is uniquely poised to identify, protect, and
interpret this cultural resources inventory of properties located within its park system.
While some of these properties are listed on the Locational Atlas of Historic Sites or the Master
Plan for Historic Preservation, others are not. But they all have been deemed to contribute to
the unique telling of Montgomery County’s history. The Department’s cultural resources in
parks include:
The cultural resources in parks inventory is meant to be a living, changing repository, wherein
new acquisitions of a cultural or historical nature can be added to the inventory. These additions
will occur as new parkland is acquired and/or as buildings come of age. In addition, the Top 20
Priority projects also can be refined as the Department acquires important new buildings. A
1
According to the Park Development Division, this number of buildings includes both historic and non-historic
structures. Most, but not all, are structures that the Department owns and operates.
2
These terms are defined in the Glossary, many of them using National Park Service definitions—the universal
standard for all historic preservation work. The definitions for “rehabilitation” and “restoration” may vary,
therefore, from those employed in the Maryland Building Rehab Code.
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building’s reuse potential plus its condition/threat level should be used as guides for determining
priorities.
The Plan assumes that the majority of funding for improved cultural resource stewardship will
come in the following ways:
The purpose of the Strategic Plan for Cultural Resources in Parks is to create a blueprint for the
future use and priority of these County-owned resources. This Strategic Plan:
• Lays out a vision for improving the stewardship of park-based cultural resources and
establishes priorities.
• Recommends a new way of thinking about and prioritizing cultural resources in parks
based on their potential for: long-term reuse and heritage tourism, plus their current
condition.
• Presents a “Top 20” priority projects list containing sites to be opened to the public by M-
NCPPC or put into use by means of a public/private partnership.
• Provides a better method for assessing maintenance costs of cultural resources in parks
by developing new mathematical formulas.
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• Increases agency knowledge about park-owned cultural resources by creating a new GIS
park layer with extensive Excel spreadsheet and by sharing that data with SmartParks.
• Lays the groundwork for ongoing strategic plans that will protect cultural resources by
virtue of the fact that a new plan will be developed every ten years, modeled after this
Plan.
The new era envisioned by this Plan is suggested by its title: “From Artifact to Attraction.” It is
time to move beyond stabilization, which has been the necessary effort that has characterized the
Department’s cultural resource stewardship for the past 15 years. It is time to move into an era
of rehabilitation and use. Whereas an artifact is an object of study, a precious remnant of an
earlier time, an “attraction” is something full of exciting possibilities for the present. An
“attraction” can be a 19th-century farmhouse rehabilitated for a ‘caretaker’ family or a great
stone barn restored as a regional visitor’s center. Rehabilitating and interpreting historic
resources--using them to tell the County’s history-- turns an artifact into an attraction, generating
educational, cultural, social, and economic opportunities.
While all the cultural resource properties are worthy of protection, a number can be transformed
into attractions because of their potential for adaptive reuse and/or heritage tourism. Heritage
tourism has been demonstrated to be good business. Data collected by the Maryland Heritage
Area Program testifies to a direct correlation between heritage investment and economic gain.
For example, Baltimore City reports a return of $27.35 for every dollar it spends on tourism
development. Moreover, every $1 invested in Maryland’s Certified Heritage Areas leverages
$4.61 in annual, ongoing state and local tax revenues, according to Investing in Our
Communities: Maryland’s Heritage Area Program, Maryland Department of Housing and
Community Development (November 2003). m
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To give the heritage effort even more emphasis in the past few years, the Department has been:
• Working hand-in-hand with the Heritage Tourism Alliance of Montgomery County (also
known as Heritage Montgomery) to increase the County’s heritage tourism market.
• Conducting interpretive programming and opening more buildings to the public.
• Generating more Requests for Proposals for public/private partnerships.
• Assigning an Enterprise Division staff member specifically to market park properties.
The more buildings restored and activated, the more the Department can realize its public
mission and this Plan’s vision: one of families picking pumpkins at an historic farm in the fall;
bicyclists stopping for lunch at a turn-of-the-century general store; school groups visiting a
working farm to understand 19th-century life; merchants operating stores or restaurants in
historic buildings; in sum, a park system that attracts visitors from throughout the region to
experience its rich cultural resources. Experiencing cultural resources as attractions starts with
common sense planning and the data that supports it. Beyond acquisition, the three main
components of stewardship of park-owned historic resources are:
CIP money is critical to bringing historic structures back to life. The CIP dollars projected for
cultural resources from FY06 through FY12 equal $2,472,000. Some of these funds are
earmarked for what this Plan has identified as the Top 20 priority projects, resulting in a total of
$2,024,000. Other CIP funds pertain to strategic planning or to other properties like Needwood
Mansion. Note: This Plan does not seek additional CIP funding at present.
This Plan should result, however, in pinpointed CIP assessments for the future. If the
recommendations in the Plan are followed--namely, improving building inspections, and
undertaking cost analysis reports and/or Historic Structure Reports for the most important
buildings—future CIP fund requests may reflect an increased need based on that data. This
would be reflected in CIP requests for fiscal years 2008-2014, the next budget cycle.
In order to better manage capital improvement projects affecting cultural resources, this Plan has
assigned CIP and annual maintenance responsibility for cultural resources to a “Responsible
Party” as a means to creating stronger agency efficiency. The Plan assigns one or more divisions
to one and/or two related categories: as a “Responsible Party-Inspection” and/or as “Responsible
Party-Funding. In other words, it may be the Park Manager’s task to inspect a group of buildings
on any given day, but it may be Central Maintenance’s responsibility to spend the money to
rehabilitate the buildings. (Note: The Parks Department, even if not assigned as a Responsible
Party-Funding, does regularly invest in historic properties by maintaining the grounds
surrounding them.)
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These Responsible Parties are identified on the spreadsheets at the end of this document and on
the Top 20 Priority Projects inventory sheets in the middle of this Plan. These assignments have
been coordinated with the various divisions of the Department, in order to reach consensus. With
designated Responsible Parties, buildings will not “fall through the cracks” in terms of major
expenditures or routine maintenance.
Beyond capital improvements, annual maintenance is the key to preserving the county’s large
building stock. The Department’s annual maintenance budget for historic resources is presently
zero, save for emergency repair work. This situation is highly problematic and will not ensure
the buildings’ preservation or utilization as attractions. Note: This Plan seeks $400,000 in the
FY07 operating budget so that the Historic Preservation Section can manage a new
Cultural Resource in Parks Maintenance Program (CRPMP). This program should be
funded annually. This request is based on actual maintenance calculations. (See bullets
below.)
• Establishes a formula for estimating the annual maintenance of historic properties by first
assigning buildings an “Estimated Value.” See Table 4-4.
• Establishes a second formula, also explained in Table 4-4, which results in an “Annual
Maintenance” dollar figure for each resource.
• Calculates average annual maintenance for cultural resources in parks. See Tables 4-5
and 4-6. The total annual maintenance request for all Top 20 properties equals $375,250.
The total annual maintenance request for all other major cultural resources equals
$146,314. Taken together, these combined totals account for $521,572 per year in
estimated annual maintenance needs, thus resulting in a conservative $400,000 FY07
annual request (and ongoing annual requests of the same amount).
• Uses the Responsible Party-Funding category to assign a lead division to carry out annual
maintenance work at each of the properties. That party can then use the “charge back”
option to draw money from Historic Preservation’s proposed operating budget for the
Cultural Resources in Parks Maintenance Program.
1.5 Programming
The third component of stewardship relates to costs associated with programming, a two-step
process involving:
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Some of the programming ideas that can be used for historic buildings/sites or are already on the
rise in the County include:
The current programming process for cultural resources, both from an activity and architectural
and engineering standpoint, calls out for improvement. Activity programming is presently
managed by different departments within the Department (Enterprise, Park Managers, Historic
Preservation, etc.) sometimes resulting in a lack of coherence. Historical interpretive
programming is directed by one paid staff person (a 30-hour-per-week Education and Outreach
Planner). This task deserves a larger work force. The following list points out how other counties
compare:
• Prince George’s County has nine, full-time personnel (six museum managers and three
historic specialists) at six house museums, and an aviation museum with five staff
members. The County has an Exhibit Specialist who provides support, exhibits and
graphics to museums. It also has its own Historic Facilities Maintenance Section, with at
least six positions set aside for maintenance workers devoted to historic structures. (See
Appendix L: Information from Prince George’s County, “Natural and Historical
Resources Division, Career Staff Organizational Chart – August 2003.)
• Fairfax County operates a mixed-use park (a complex that has both historic and
recreational elements) called Frying Pan/Kidwell Farm with over 23 staff people;
Historic Sully with eight full-time staff and seven “seasonal” staff (11 months on and 1
month off); and Colvin Run Mill with seven full-time staff and three seasonal staff.
Fairfax also has nine adaptive-reuse historic structures that are used for private and
corporate events that are managed by a central property management office with seven
full-time staff and up to nine seasonal staff.
• Harford County has 20 paid staff spread throughout properties that are open to the public
in one way or another, including: Edgely Grove, the Scott House, Liriodendron, and the
Hays-Heighe House.
• Frederick County has one full time museum manager at Rose Hill Manor and 18 part-
time staff relating to interpretive programming.
• Carroll County has 10 full-time employees, two part-time employees, and six summer
contractual employees at its Carroll County Farm Museum alone.
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• Howard County has one full-time historic sites coordinator who organizes the Ellicott
City Consortium, two part-time people interpreting the most popular historic site, and two
more positions slated to be added next year.
• Calvert County pays one full-time person at Linden, a homestead property; this person
also acts as the executive director of the Calvert County Historical Society.
Architectural and engineering programming also could be greatly improved by taking steps
outlined in this Plan. Today, A/E programming often lags behind a first-stage stabilization or
more modest repair project that is necessary just to keep a building standing.
To address programming concerns strategically, this Plan recommends the following actions,
each of which is codified in the spreadsheets that reflect the new cultural resources in parks
database:
While the IBCFUO classification indicates a starting point for rehabilitation planning,
M-NCPPC should entertain opportunities for rehabilitation that may differ from what is proposed
in this Plan. Once a use and occupancy has been established for a historic building, it is essential
that the Maryland Building Rehabilitation Code (Smart Codes) be used in connection with the
International Building Code and/or International Residential Code to ensure that historic
character is not lost during rehabilitation.
This Plan stops short of assessing two programming items: 1) the full financial impact of
operating funds associated with programming activities and 2) architectural and engineering fees
associated with designing and laying out the building’s spaces and upgrading infrastructure to
code. This Plan cannot make these financial assumptions for two reasons: 1) such financial
estimates require detailed scopes of work prepared by an historical architect and 2) the
particulars of building usage, such as limited-part time use versus full-time use, are not yet
known for many building. This level of detail is appropriately determined in individual
feasibility studies, not in strategic plans.
Success in achieving the “Artifact-to-Attraction” vision laid out in this Strategic Plan should be
measured by the following milestones:
• The “Top 20” priority projects identified in this Plan are rehabilitated or on their way to
being rehabilitated/put to active use by 2016, the 10-year mark.
• More historic buildings are open to the public and staffed by paid professionals.
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• Annual maintenance of Department-owned historic buildings is done on a regular
schedule and is fully funded.
• More “caretakers” (those who maintain property in lieu of paying rent) and private
partners assume the role of maintaining historic properties in parks.
• More archaeological sites are listed in the state’s inventory, The Master Plan for Historic
Preservation, and the National Register of Historic Places.
• Data on historic buildings and archaeological sites is more readily available to all
Department divisions via GIS and SmartParks.
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Montgomery County, Maryland
Park Maintenance Regions
16
Cultural Resources in Parks
Black Hills Maintenance Region
17
Cultural Resources in Parks
Cabin John Maintenance Region
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Cultural Resources in Parks
Little Bennett Maintenance Region
Ridge Road
BROWNING (CHARLES) FARM
Dam
HYATTSTOWN BROWNING (PERRY) FARM asc
u sR
MILL oad
ZEIGLER’S MILL RUINS
' ZEIGLER FARM KING’S DISTILLERY SITE
'
MONTGOMERY CHAPEL CEMETERY
WILSONS MILL SITE
d
oa
KINGSLEY SCHOOL
eRg
YOUNG FAMILY
Rid
CEMETERY
Fr
ed
er
i ck WATKINS (OLIVER)
Ro WATKINS (NED) FARM
ad
DOWDEN’S ORDINARY
Woo
dfie
ld Ro
ad
WATERS HOUSE
(PLEASANT FIELDS)
d
Roa
town
n
ma
Ger
Parkland
19
Cultural Resources in Park
Meadowbrook Maintenance Region
20
Cultural Resources in Parks
Martin Luther King Jr. Maintenance Region
Fairland Ro
ad
ike
ia P
b
VALLEY MILL HOUSE
um
AND RUINS
C ol
LEE FAMILY '
CEMETERY
Ch
err
yH
ill
R oa
d
elt way
tal B
Capi
495
Bra nch
Piney
Road
Parkland
21
Cultural Resources in Parks
Olney Manor Maintenance Region
Oln ad
e yL Ro
ay h t on
ve
t on As
nue
sv
ille
Ro
a d
e
Avenu
ia
WOODLAWN
Georg
SPENCER FARM
HOLLAND STORE
(OURSLER FARM)
(RED DOOR STORE)
ad
NORBECK Ro Sp
SCHOOL ck en
rbe cer
No vill
e Ro
ad
ike
P
bia
lum
Co
Parkland
22
Cultural Resources in Parks
Rock Creek Maintenance Region
Da
ma
sc
us
Ro
ad
nue
ia Ave
Georg
GAITHER (W.B.) MILL SITE
CARSON FARM
BUSSARD FARM
POPE FARM /
COOKE’S RANGE NEWMANTOWN
POPE FARM NURSARY
POPE FARM /
BOWIE MILL SITE
COOKE’S CEMETERY
Mu
nc
a st
er
M il
lR
oa
d
PRATHER FAMILY
CEMETERY
HORNER’S
MILL RUINS
Parkland
23
Cultural Resources in Parks
Shady Grove Maintenance Region
24
Cultural Resources in Parks
Wheaton Maintenance Region
Layhill Road
nueve
pshire A
Ge
Con
or
gia
ne
Av
New Hem
ctic
en
ue
ut A
'
Parkland
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