Bethesda Neighbors Eye Historic Designation

Greenwich Forest Dates to the 1930s

Greenwich Forest, a Bethesda development that dates to the late 1930s and has several architecturally significant houses, is applying to Montgomery County for historic designation.

If the residents succeed, they will become the 22nd Montgomery community to gain the designation that provides cachet and some protections to neighborhoods worried about mansionization. In practical terms, it means that homeowners seeking to alter their house would need to have their plans approved by the county's Historic Preservation Commission.

The application for historic designation, which residents approved last week in a 36 to 18 vote, will be reviewed Aug. 12 by the commission and then sent to the Montgomery Planning Board for further examination.

If the Planning Board agrees to the historic designation, the proposal will go to the county executive and County Council. Until the county completes its review, no houses in the community can be demolished, but alterations and additions can be approved by the Historic Preservation Commission. If the neighborhood is labeled historic, it will become virtually impossible to demolish houses, and changes will need approval by the commission.

The process of obtaining the historic designation could take about a year, said Clare Kelly, who manages historic preservation planning at the county Planning Department. Other Montgomery communities with the historic designation include about 900 homes in Takoma Park and parts of Chevy Chase.

Obtaining the historic label "means if the property owner is to make major changes," the plans must be reviewed, Kelly said. "It's an extra hoop" and adds about three weeks to the homeowner's timetable, she said.

The commission approves about 98 percent of applications for alterations, and homeowners can get a tax break from the county and the state if they do work on their homes that helps to preserve historic qualities.

The Greenwich Forest community, nestled among tall trees not far from downtown Bethesda, was designed by builder Morris Cafritz and architect Alvin Aubinoe, who used historic houses as the model for the suburb. Houses resemble English country homes, New England saltbox cottages and, occasionally, small castles with turrets. Many have detailed stonework, fine wood floors, special plantings and other features.

The neighborhood was one of the few built in the 1930s in the Washington area that eschewed protective covenants, unlike nearby Edgemoor, Chevy Chase and other communities, which used the covenants to prevent sales to blacks and Jews, among others.

A goal of Greenwich Forest's founders was to have a community of people of mixed incomes, said Christine Parker, co-president of the local civic association who has helped lead the effort to win historic status. Although a range of house sizes remains, few in the neighborhood are of modest means. The community is home to architects, journalists, lawyers and other Washington area professionals.

In last week's vote, 90 households were eligible to cast ballots, but voters had to be paid-up members of the civic association. Houses across Huntington Parkway that were built by Cafritz but are smaller and aren't part of the Greenwich Forest civic group were not included in the balloting.

Despite what Parker said has been a nearly three-year effort, the vote did not come soon enough to allow the community to preserve one of the neighborhood's most significant properties, a house at 8001 Overhill Road that sat atop one of the highest points in the county and was surrounded by a special woodland garden dating to the 1930s.

The original owner, Frederick O. Coe, worked with close friends to establish and hybridize special plants, including azaleas, that are connected to azaleas in Bethesda's McCrillis Gardens, the Perkins memorial garden at Landon School and an Edgemoor house formerly occupied by Coe's son.

Parker said she thought she had won a promise from the county's permitting office to delay demolition of the house until July 6, the date of the community's vote. But Reginald Jetter of the Department of Permitting Services told her that the delay had been appealed, and the permit was issued to allow demolition by July 3. The house came down that day to make way for up to three houses to be built by Sandy Spring Builders.

Before the vote, an anonymous letter was circulated in the community to discourage residents from approving historic status. It said their property values could suffer.

"Our neighborhood is not filled with 'precious' homes that many people are seeking to buy," the letter said. "Most of our sales are to young families who are seeking to grow into their homes. No young family is willing to take on the risk of not being able to add that room for the new baby, or even worse, of not being able to resell the home when they want to or have to move."

Mimi Kress, a co-owner of Sandy Spring Builders, said she was interested in helping disseminate plantings if they can't be preserved on the site. She said that Landon School had expressed interest in obtaining azaleas and that some plants could be donated to McCrillis Gardens.