Some View Sites As Historic Places, Community Hubs
By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sure, the buildings aren't pretty or posh. But when Montgomery County officials started talking about tearing down or transferring to new management several aging neighborhood recreation centers, many of the residents who use them took it personally.
One in Clarksburg was built by Wilson Wims, now 92, a member of a pioneering African American family. Another has become the unofficial town hall of the Randolph Hills community.
And one in Garrett Park Estates, moved there from Fort Meade, has a song, written by resident George Payne in the 1950s:
Of construction material we had a great need
We were given two barracks that stood at Fort Meade
And from Garrett Park came a very large crew
To take them both down in a weekend or two
They worked in snow on a wintry day
But that's just part of the Garrett Park way.
At a center in Bethesda under consideration for historic preservation, scientists tried to improve breeding and nutrition for chickens, cows and pigs.
Residents of the affected neighborhoods say a dollar value can't be put on the structures. With all the talk about nameless, faceless suburbs that lack a sense of community, they say, these recreation centers stand in contrast, bringing people together.
"We may be a nuclear-free zone, but it was like a bomb went off," said Garrett Park Mayor Carolyn Shawaker, recalling community reaction when news began to spread that its center was on the list.
Consultants hired by the Montgomery Department of Parks to evaluate the condition of 31 recreation buildings across the county had concluded it would be cheaper to get rid of a few than repair them.
The five targeted for demolition or transfer to another county agency are Randoph Hills in North Bethesda, Hillandale in Silver Spring, Garrett Park Estates near Strathmore, Clarksburg and Camp Seneca in Boyds. A sixth, in Bethesda's Norwood Local Park, is being evaluated for possible historic preservation.
Mark Wallis, a senior planner with the Parks Department, said the buildings were targeted for several reasons. Some are near other centers that serve similar functions. It would cost more to repair the Randolph Hills, Hillandale and Garrett Park buildings than they're worth.
Also, many of the centers are losing money, he said. Last year, the agency lost $214,830 on the buildings, which are rented out. Use of the targeted buildings during the time they were available ranged from 7 percent at Randolph Hills to 23 percent at Clarksburg. The average for all recreation centers was about 26 percent.
But officials are listening to neighbors, he said. The Parks Department, which had planned to decide on the buildings' fates next month, has pushed the final call into spring to allow for more public input. Officials are meeting with civic associations and have scheduled a hearing Tuesday at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton for anyone worried about the issue.
Addressing the fierce reaction, Wallis said proposals are presented, "then you see what happens."
The Randolph Hills center, a pale yellow building beneath a trio of tall pines in Randolph Local Park, has mildew stains on its exterior and cracks in its brick siding. "Fixer-upper with loads of potential" would be putting it kindly.
But over the past half-century, the building has carved out an identity as the neighborhood's town hall.
"It's where we meet, where we have our community picnics," said Richard Zierdt, past president of the Randolph Civic Association, which used to meet at the center once a month.
Over the summer, when association representatives went to pay their fees and pick up the key for another season of meetings, parks officials told them that they'd have to find a new site. Randolph Hills' unofficial town hall had been shut down, and officials were recommending it be demolished, said civic association President Mike Saunders.
"The idea that the county's Parks Department would come along, take our town hall out and not replace it with anything is revolting to us. All they are looking at is money in and money out," Saunders said. The civic association now meets at the Viers Mill recreation center, but members say it's not the same.
Elsewhere, residents are preparing for a fight to save the building that houses their nursery school.
Park officials said the Garrett Park center has water, roof and facade damage. It loses about $3,400 a year even though the nursery school has been a regular tenant since the 1950s.
Wallis told the 60 or so residents at a recent community meeting that their beloved building -- which residents purchased from Fort Meade for a little more than $4,000, took apart and reassembled in Garrett Park -- was past its prime. The main building was designed for military use with a lifespan of about five years, he said. Even with regular maintenance, the structure, in its sixth decade, would need extensive work, he said.
But at the meeting, recreation center supporters waved miniature paper schoolhouses mounted on sticks. On each schoolhouse was the slogan: Save Our School.
"There are people in town here whose parents devoted their lives to this building," Shawaker said. "Once the men got the building up, women went in and sanded and polished it. Folks not only built that building with their own hands, they built a sense of community."
The nursery school was one of the things that drew Gerilee Bennett and her husband to the neighborhood almost 12 years ago. Her two daughters attend the school, and she hopes her infant son will be able to as well. But with Garrett Park Elementary, the nursery school's next-door neighbor, poised for an extensive renovation in 2010, the department is considering transferring the building to the school system. That has raised worries among residents, who fear the nursery school will close.
In Clarksburg, park officials suggest the recreation center between Rocky Hill Middle and Clarksburg High schools be transferred to the county recreation department and possibly be replaced by a larger building.
Longtime residents in the area are skeptical. The building is historic for many reasons, including who built it, said Joann Woodson, president of the Clarksburg Historical Society.
Until last year, Wilson Wims, who built the brick center in 1966, held a yearly birthday celebration at it. A group of senior citizens has weekly meetings at the building, and many families hold their reunions at the site, including Woodson's relatives.
"It's very close to my heart, and I would not want to see it disappear," Woodson said.
A researcher with the department's historic preservation staff is delving into the story behind the stately two-story building that serves as the recreation center in Bethesda's Norwood Local Park.
Joey Lampl said she knows the building was part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture research campus, where scientists examined ways to improve nutrition and breeding for livestock, but she's not certain when it was built. Temporary structures began appearing about 1907, she said.
In Randolph Hills, the only neighborhood where a center has been closed, residents feel the loss keenly.
This past week, the civic association held its annual community picnic. There were the traditional hamburgers and hot dogs as well as four kinds of cookies, but it still wasn't quite the same, Saunders said. The recreation building, usually the hub of the picnic, sat locked and deserted.
"Every community needs an anchor, whether it be a building or a room in one of the schools," he said. "And for us, it's just not there anymore."
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