Historic Preservation

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    Maryland's Colonial History at West Ashcom the Archaeology Site (18ST871)
    (2024-12) Gill, Katherine; Pavão-Zuckerman, Barnet; Linebaugh, Donald; Gijanto, Liza; Shackel, Paul
    The archaeology site West Ashcom (18ST871) has been the focus of archaeological excavation in earnest from 2012 to the present day. This report focuses on the historical background of this site's history, primarily focusing on its 17th and 18th century histories and the results of the 2016 field season excavations. The excavations at site 18ST871 have recovered materials identifying this site as a late 17th century occupation by the Ashcom family on the early colonial Maryland landscape. Methods used at this archaeological site include shovel test surveys, unit excavation, magnetometer survey, materials characterization using x-ray fluorescence, and x-radiography of metal artifacts.
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    Developing a National Register Nomination for the Institute of Notre Dame, Baltimore, Maryland
    (2024) Bissett, Rachel E.; Kern, Susan; Sprinkle, John
    Founded in 1847 in Baltimore, Maryland, by the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), the Institute of Notre Dame (IND) was a pioneering all-girls Catholic high school that provided educational opportunities to women for 173 years. Built as a convent school in a 19th-century classical revival style starting in 1863, the building expanded six times, creating one building of roughly 200,000 square feet that reflects its growth and adaptation to educational and religious needs. Unlike many historic Catholic high schools that relocated during Baltimore’s demographic shifts, IND remained committed to its community in the Oldtown neighborhood. IND also served as the SSND’s first motherhouse outside of Germany, anchoring its North American mission and allowing it to become a worldwide organization. Despite its closing in 2020 due to declining enrollment and funding, IND’s history, integrity, and contributions to women’s education highlight its significance. Currently part of the Old East Baltimore Historic District, this paper argues IND merits individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and historical importance. Additionally, this study outlines the research methodology employed, forming the foundation for a future National Register nomination.
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    The World in an Oyster: The Architectural and Cultural Landscape of Canton's Canning Industry
    (2024-05-21) Hutter, Christopher; Kern, Susan; Sprinkle, John
    Canton, a neighborhood in southeast Baltimore listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the former center of the food-canning industry that once dominated the economy in the city and in the state of Maryland. Canning was developed in France in the early 19th century and spread to America shortly thereafter, but it did not achieve widespread commercial success until the decades after the Civil War, when technical advancements made canning on an industrial scale possible. Baltimore canneries combined several natural features, including the Chesapeake Bay’s large oyster population and rich surrounding farmlands, with an influx of new immigrants from central and eastern Europe to create an industrial district that was the leading producer of canned foods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much as the canneries were designed architecturally to optimize their natural and commercial settings, the entire neighborhood of Canton came to be oriented, physically and socially, around the canneries, as a working-class neighborhood bound by ethnicity, language, religion, and occupation. Canning’s physical impact extended even beyond Baltimore to the Eastern Shore communities impacted by the increased demand for oysters, as sudden profits led to profound changes in the oystering industry that had long been the domain of rural watermen. Advances in technology like refrigeration and trucking largely obviated the need for Canton’s canneries in their designed form, and all of the firms along Boston Street closed down in the mid-20th century. Following a period of economic stagnation, redevelopment starting in the 1980s transformed Canton into a trendy, gentrified residential neighborhood by the turn of the century. Historic preservation had some success in retaining the area’s architectural fabric, but all of the former canneries have been demolished and largely replaced with apartment complexes and condominiums. The ways in which preservation handled, or perhaps failed to handle, this transition to modernity raise profound questions about the limits of preservation, especially in a maritime industrial context where the structures in question no longer support the prevailing economic impetus. Ultimately, new residents are drawn to Canton for both waterfront access and its historic associations, but when the forces that shaped the neighborhood have changed so dramatically, it is unclear what, exactly, has been preserved.
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    First Baptist Church, Lakeland, Architectural and Historical Survey.
    (2024) Adesina, Janet Ti-Oluwaleyi; Kern, Susan; Magalong, Michelle
    Religion and education are key foundational elements in the establishment of the built environment of Lakeland, a historic African American community, located adjacent to the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland and in close proximity to the nation's capital, Washington DC. They make up paramount and essential elements to the history and culture of African American communities. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive architectural and historic survey report on the First Baptist Church of Lakeland, with the goal of preserving the remaining built environment’s cultural resources of the Lakeland community, facilitating efforts of restorative justice, and in developing a National Register of Historic Places nomination or a multiple property nomination, adding to the effort and great work already done by the Lakeland Community Heritage project. This study will use research and methodology from primary and secondary resources as well as 3D digital documentation to create a 3D model of the church. Digital documentation has proven vital in historically African American neighborhoods and the impact of urban renewal and segregation on the creation (and threat of demolition and neglect) of the built environment.
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    National Register Nomination for Captain William Henry Burtis House, Annapolis, Maryland
    (2024) Turner, II, Vincent P.; Kern, Susan; Magalong, Michelle
    The Burtis House, at 69 Prince George Street Annapolis, Maryland, is located within the Annapolis Historic District and is the last waterman’s house directly on the city waterfront. Burtis House was constructed circa 1882 and its period of significance spans from ca. 1882 to 1910, the years William Burtis, the house’s original owner, resided there. The property has a Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (MIHP) number, AA-1152, although the nomination form, which was written in 1983, contains only cursory information about the house. The form has no information about who William Burtis was, why Burtis or the house is significant, or even context about its location. Recent research illuminates the history of the Burtis family, Burtis House, and the working-class Annapolis neighborhood it was once a part of, known as Hell Point. This study examines the historical context of Burtis House to create a new understanding of the property, which will emphasize the importance of William Burtis in Annapolis’s history, tell the story of the Burtis family, reveal the largely forgotten history of Hell Point and nineteenth century Annapolis, and illustrate the significance of Burtis House’s survival to the present day.
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    Creating A Historic Context Study For The Old Ellicott City Jail
    (2023-12-18) Adesina, Janet Ti-Oluwaleyi; Bissett, Rachel E.; Hutter, Chris; Mohammadi, Justin Seyed; Tannir, Joseph A.; Magalong, Michelle G.
    HISP 650 (Historic Preservation Studio Workshop)students worked with Dr. Michelle Magalong (course instructor) and Preservation Maryland (studio client) on a historic context study on the old Ellicott City Jail. The students responded to Preservation Maryland’s Request for Proposals and spent the fall semester conducting archival research on the social and architectural history of the historic jail with topics on its association with the Underground Railroad and African American history and its lynching history. Lastly, students conducted research on the potential impacts of flooding and climate change.This Report is in response to Preservation Maryland’s Request For Proposals (RFP) to create a Historic Context Study for The Old Ellicott City Jail, also known as the Howard County Jail. It documents the history of the jail including important events and people involved with the various aspects of the jail. The project team developed a technical approach and timeline to create a context study that encompasses the history and role of the jail in Howard County, Maryland, and the people (slaves, inmates, wardens, and others) associated with the jail from its beginning in 1851 to its closing in the 1980s.
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    Connecting Students and Communities: A Case Study in Historic School Rehabilitation Vaux Big Picture High School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    (2023-10-12) Cargill, Christina Winnie; Linebaugh, Donald; Bierbaum, Ariel
    This project takes a multidisciplinary pronged approach to community development, schools, and historic preservation using a case study of Vaux Big Picture High School, a successfully rehabilitated historic Philadelphia school that was closed and later returned to use as a neighborhood school. Through partner involvement and the incentives of a HUD choice neighborhood grant, the new school has the funds and resources to create essential social, health, and employment support resources for the students and outside community. This case study demonstrates that the school building is an important neighborhood asset and has significance beyond its architectural style or design. In addition, a greater understanding of local history can be appreciated and understood through a broader inquiry into social and cultural community history. The goal of this paper is to encourage preservationists to consider designing spaces with possible community-serving purposes in institutional buildings such as neighborhood schools.
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    CULTURAL LANDSCAPE INVENTORY: GREAT FALLS PARK - NORTH, MCLEAN, VIRGINIA
    (2023) Farrish, Kelsey; Linebaugh, Donald; Sprinkle, John
    This project develops a preliminary Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) for the area around the National Park Service (NPS) Mission 66 visitor center at Great Falls Park in Virginia. The project area includes the visitor center and courtyard, entrance station and road, parking area, overlook trails, remnants of the Patowmack Canal, picnic area, comfort station, Mather plaque, and surrounding woodlands. This CLI provides NPS with baseline data about park resources in an easily accessible and comprehensive document that can be used to make decisions regarding management, maintenance, and preservation of those resources. This report documents and evaluates the historic significance and integrity of landscape features through site maps, National Register information, chronology and physical history background, analysis and evaluation of integrity, and a condition assessment.
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    Reconsidering the Roulette Barn
    (2023-05-20) Gold, Tabitha; Linebaugh, Don; Sprinkle, John
    The Roulette Farm’s iconic bank barn is currently underutilized and endangered. The National Park Service has assigned a narrow period of significance to the property and barn, tying its significance solely to the American Civil War and overlooking its broader history as a center of agricultural production. The structure had fallen into disrepair before being repaired with modern building materials, and is missing key features of its original construction. The barn’s untapped potential warrants structural repairs, a full restoration to its original condition, and a rethinking of its interpretive uses. This analysis develops a preservation plan to assess the history, significance, and condition of the Roulette Barn. The plan also considers the barn’s construction methods, addresses its historic integrity and how the barn’s narrow period of significance and interpretation methods have impacted historic integrity, suggests new interpretive possibilities, and recommends necessary repairs and maintenance requirements that would lead to the restoration of the structure. Expanding consideration of the barn’s significance to include its place in the agricultural history of the region provides an opportunity to realize a more complete interpretation and increase its value as a historic resource.
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    The Horse-Powered City: Washington, D.C.
    (2023-05-20) Medley, Lucy; Linebaugh, Donald; Sies, Mary
    This study focuses on the transition from horse-powered to automotive transit in Washington, DC and explores how the city’s cultural landscape was adapted to fit this new means of transportation. Three main sources are used to establish an inventory of horse- and automotive-related structures: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Baist’s Real Estate Atlas of Surveys, and Boyd’s City Directories of the District of Columbia. Inventoried structures are documented in their form and function between 1888 and 1935 to further understand the transitional period between transportation methods and changes to the city’s infrastructure and livelihood. Documented changes are analyzed further in the context of the increasing prominence of the automobile in the 20th century. Trends in car manufacturing, specifically the Ford company, are included to support trends found in the analysis. Additionally, an inventory of extant structures is conducted to better understand the fate of these structures and their contemporary uses, if any.