Excerpt from the Frederick News-Post: An early draft of a plan to help owners of historic properties in Frederick reap benefits from the proposed downtown hotel and conference center is floating around as part of an effort to offset the loss of the state’s last standing tannery building. And although city officials are leery, members [...]
Excerpt from Capital Gazette: The top historic preservation official in Annapolis resigned Monday, a week after the election of a new mayor who challenged the city's policy on protecting its historic buildings. Lisa Craig, chief of historic preservation since 2010, submitted her resignation to planning and zoning director Pete Gutwald. “I am very unclear as [...]
Excerpt from the Baltimore Sun: The Maryland Historical Trust has concluded that Baltimore officials didn’t have the legal authority to remove three monuments to the Confederacy and, while acknowledging it doesn’t plan to, the state agency reserved the right to order the city to put them back. Elizabeth Hughes, director of the Maryland Historical Trust, shared those [...]
Excerpt from the Capital Gazette: The City Council on Monday night...passed: A change to a part of the code that governs exterior changes to building in the Historic District. The code previously gave the Historic Preservation Commission authority over "any other factors, including aesthetic factors, which the Commission deems to be pertinent." It will now [...]
Excerpt from the Capital Gazette: As part of a lengthy public hearing schedule, the City Council will hear remarks on...an ordinance that would clarify the Historic Preservation Commission’s role in approving exterior changes to buildings.
Excerpt from the Capital Gazette: The controversy over the mural splashed across Tsunami restaurant has come to a swift close. The Historic Preservation Commission on Tuesday night voted to approve the painting on the restaurant, owned in part by Democratic mayoral candidate Gavin Buckley. The commission voted quickly and unanimously. The choice to retroactively accept [...]
Excerpt from Capital Gazette: A piece of paper signals the beginning of the end of a long fight between a businessman and Annapolis officials after a mural was commissioned on one of his buildings downtown. Gavin Buckley, a Democratic mayoral candidate, and his business partners have filed a Certificate of Approval with the city of [...]
Excerpt from the Calvert Recorder: The Board of County Commissioners ruled to remove the historic district designation from the Locust Inn on South Solomons Island Road. The inn, built in the early 1900s, received the designation in 1988 via a resolution made by a former board of commissioners. The 4-0-1 decision came after a joint [...]
Excerpt from the Capital Gazette: District Court judge ruled Wednesday that mayoral candidate Gavin Buckley and his business partners should have sought a certificate of approval before commissioning a giant mural on the side of their Annapolis restaurant. Judge John P. McKenna Jr.'s decision means Buckley must seek an after-the-fact certificate of approval if he [...]
Excerpt from Capital Gazette: The Maryland Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that the owner of a historic building in Annapolis should have sought city approval before replacing wood windows with vinyl ones. The March 27 opinion is the latest decision in a dispute between the City of Annapolis and Spaw LLC, [...]
Excerpt from the Washington Post: Yards from the sleek entrance of the icy-blue MGM National Harbor casino, an eerie sight greets those lining up for table games and Cher concerts: a cluster of lonely graves atop a hill. The graves, surrounded by a parking lot and two lines of chain-link fence, don’t look much like [...]
Excerpt from the Frederick News-Post: Members of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission officially signed off Thursday on plans to rehabilitate the dilapidated downtown Frederick townhouse at 20 W. Fourth St. Susan Murphy, a representative of prospective property owner Murphy Properties, presented plans to rehab the building for the second time at Thursday’s public hearing. She [...]
Excerpt from the Capital Gazette: Back in the early 2000s, Henry and Ann Seta had started a battle over the historic nature of a waterfront community in Annapolis when they'd proposed to demolish an old one-story, ranch-style home and replace it with a 32-foot tall, 3-bedroom home. About a decade after the Montgomery County couple [...]
Excerpt from Bethesda Magazine: Two Town of Chevy Chase residents and a Bethesda businessman are trying to stop the county from allowing the relocation of a historic former hardware store building from its Wisconsin Avenue site—an effort that could impact a major Bethesda redevelopment project and construction of the Purple Line. John Fitzgerald and Deborah [...]
Excerpt from the Capital Gazette: An attorney representing the owners of Tsunami filed a motion to dismiss the case surrounding a mural painted on the restaurant's facade as the clash between him and city officials made its way to District Court this week. Attorney Joseph Gormley filed a motion Monday that essentially makes the same [...]
Excerpt from a City of Baltimore press release: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced the release of a report on the findings of Baltimore City-owned public Confederate Monuments that lays the groundwork to address the recommendations for their future in the City. The report can be found on the Mayor's website, here. Visit the Commission’s website to [...]
Excerpt from WTOP: FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — A Maryland city’s plan to rid its City Hall courtyard of a statue of the man who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision affirming slavery won’t be second-guessed by the state. Maryland Historical Trust Director Elizabeth Hughes wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to officials in Frederick that [...]
Excerpt from the New York Times: FREDERICK, Md. — In 1801, Roger Brooke Taney, the politically minded son of a Maryland tobacco planter, settled here to practice law. He married the sister of Francis Scott Key, won election to the State Senate and worked his way to Washington, where he landed a dream job: Chief [...]
Excerpt from the Baltimore Sun: A state panel is postponing its review of a plan to remove from the grounds of Frederick City Hall a statue of the Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision affirming slavery. Spokesman John Coleman says the Maryland Historical Trust's Easement Committee has postponed until Monday [...]
Excerpt from the Frederick News-Post: Further requirements won’t be added to protect the agricultural history that the Frederick Fairgrounds represents. The Frederick Board of Aldermen on Thursday voted to deny a proposal to place a historic preservation overlay on a portion of the fairgrounds property. The 4-0 vote was met with a standing ovation from [...]