Endangered Maryland List Gives New Life to Lost Spaces

Preservation Group Seeks Nominations

The Space-Age glass and aluminum Comsat Laboratories building still stands on a site near Clarksburg, a fact that preservationists attribute in part to the support of the Endangered Maryland List, a statewide inventory of threatened historic properties.

In its three-year existence, the list, produced by the Baltimore-based nonprofit group Preservation Maryland, has catalogued the state's forgotten farmhouses, lost hunting shanties, centuries-old graveyards, neglected cottages and other would-be landmarks. It is modeled after the National Trust for Historic Preservation's yearly inventory of the most endangered U.S. historic sites.

Preservation Maryland is seeking nominations for next year's list through Sept. 25. A panel of preservation experts will narrow the candidates next month to about 10. Selections are kept secret until they appear in the March-April issue of Maryland Life magazine.

The Endangered Maryland List has helped lift historic sites from obscurity, helping save the Cesar Pelli-designed office building near Clarksburg and a Depression-era apartment complex in downtown Silver Spring.

"The end goal is to recognize diversity and the unique aspects of Maryland history that can be preserved," said Dan Parcel, co-publisher of Maryland Life. "We are trying to preserve a slice of history."

Preservation Maryland officials said the endangered designations and Maryland Life's glossy photo spreads bring necessary attention to imperiled historic sites.

"Hopefully, once they get the attention, the funding for the preservation efforts" follows, said Marilyn Benaderet, preservation services director for the nonprofit group.

Inclusion on this year's list is credited with helping to save two-thirds of Silver Spring's Falkland Chase apartment complex, which preservationists have described as a vital part of New Deal history. The original plan by developers would have replaced the complex with an upscale apartment tower.

Falkland Chase was one of the first apartment projects backed by the Federal Housing Administration, and Eleanor Roosevelt cut the ribbon at its opening in 1937. In April, the Montgomery County Council approved a plan to preserve two of the three parcels within the complex, rescuing 260 apartments.

In 2007, the first year of the endangered list, preservationists battled a plan to flatten the 40-year-old Comsat Laboratories building. Developers had envisioned housing, retail and commercial spaces for the site. At the height of the controversy, architect Pelli himself traveled to a conference at Montgomery College to weigh in, denouncing as "criminal" any plan to tear down the structure.

"The details were known to . . . scholars," said Judith Christensen, executive director of Montgomery Preservation. The list "was immeasurably helpful to getting the word out that the building was a landmark."

Some in the Maryland preservation community said they want to see "cultural spaces" better represented on the list, taking it beyond physical structures, agricultural land and waterfront areas.

Cliff Murphy, co-director of the Maryland Traditions program and a folklorist at the Maryland State Arts Council, said Preservation Maryland has been open to such candidates, but cultural groups need to nominate such sites for consideration.

One example Murphy cited is Blob's Park in Anne Arundel County, a beer garden and dance hall that dates to the 1930s.

Murphy said Blob's Park serves as a "kind of engine" for passing on Eastern European traditions, such as traditional food and polka dancing.

"The historical structure of Blob's Park is really secondary to what actually takes place," he said.