Your "green asset" tax dollars at work

Demolition of a house in the Palisades neighborhood
Originally uploaded by rllayman

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Update: Click here for a WJLA-TV video story on the demolition.

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Statement by Mary Rowse, Historic Washington Architecture:

On Black Friday, November 23, 2007, the city illegally demolished the historic, federally-owned Jesse Baltimore House at 5136 Sherier Place NW, in the heart of the Palisades neighborhood of Washington DC. Acting without a required demolition license from the property's owner the National Park Service, the city defiantly destroyed this historic 1925 Sears "Fullerton" mail order house, quickly turning it into a useless pile of rubble that will now take up space in a landfill.

Jesse Baltimore and his brother spent three months in 1925 carefully assembling over 10,000 parts from Sears, Roebuck & Company to create this foursquare mail order home. It took the city a fraction of that time to destroy his hard work and disrespect the integrity of the house and it's place in Washington's architectural history. No other Sears Fullerton in the Palisades or in the city, and no other Sears foursquare house in the Palisades, was as intact as the Jesse Baltimore House.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh should be widely condemned and held accountable for this appalling, wasteful and illegal act.
House before demolition. Photo: Peter Sefton.

The National Park Service had specifically told the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) in a letter presented to them late Tuesday afternoon November 20, that the agency would not be issuing a "demolition license" for 15 days in order to give the Advisory Council time to determine whether the Park Service had met its legal responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The National Park Service and the city consistently failed to honor federal requirements during their Section 106 review of the Jesse Baltimore House.

The Advisory Council was in the process of investigating whether it wished to object to the Memorandum of Agreement between the NPS and the District and/or require additional efforts to preserve the Jesse Baltimore House. The city's calculated and illegal demolition shows extreme disrespect for the Advisory Council's right under federal law to review the National Park Service's actions with regard to the house.

For nearly four years, Palisades residents and others around the city have flocked to support the home's preservation and return to the private sector. Over 1,450 people signed letters to the city asking for the house to be saved from demolition and put back into the hands of a new owner who would restore it in place and put it back on the tax rolls from which it had been absent for 50 years.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D voted overwhelmingly in 2006 to adopt a three-page resolution calling for the property's return to private ownership and restoration in place. The Jesse Baltimore House became a symbol for Palisades' residents who wished to preserve their community's rapidly disappearing early 20th century homes and their community's historic origins as a working class streetcar suburb of Washington DC.

Although Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a letter during his mayoral campaign saying he believed the house and land, assessed at over $800,000, should be returned to private ownership and to the city's tax rolls, he refused to intervene to prevent Friday's demolition of the Jesse Baltimore House. The home's destruction was also heavily pushed by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Neil Albert, who ignored over 1,450 individual signed letters from city and metro area residents seeking to get a family back into the house and the house back on the tax rolls after a 50-year absence.

Mayor Fenty, Neil Albert and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh ignored the pleas of individual residents who contacted them wanting the chance to fix up the house and raise a family there. Mary Cheh ignored over 1,000 letters from her constituents and a three-page Resolution adopted by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D--elected neighborhood representatives- -asking for the home to be returned to private ownership, restored in place and returned to the city's tax rolls.

In a statement issued Saturday, Mary Rowse, President of Historic Washington Architecture, the organization that led the effort to get a family back into the house and the house restored on site, said: "It is unconscionable that the city illegally destroyed the Jesse Baltimore House when they did not have permission from the National Park Service to do so and when there were many people willing to restore and live in this historic home."

The Department of Parks & Recreation repeatedly failed to tell the truth when it said there were no bids received to move the house. Several people submitted bids including Marshall Soltz, a Palisades resident, who wrote to the Mayor, the City Council and the Department of Parks & Recreation asking permission to dismantle the house and move it to his Sherier Place lot a few blocks away. He received no response from anyone.

Others like Rockville resident Catherine Eig tried repeatedly to get the city to return phone calls and answer questions so she could move the house to her vacant lot in Rockville. The city was uncooperative with everyone who tried to either move or deconstruct the house. Paul Hughes of Deconstruction Services offered to take apart the house in order to salvage and re-use its dense, highly-sought- after, slow-growth wood and other recyclable materials. No return calls were made to him either.

Many others wanted to chance restore the house on site and bring it back to life--people like architect Michael Patric who pleaded with the Mayor and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh to let him restore the house. He wrote:

"There are people like me who desperately want an opportunity to own a home in the city that is in a safe neighborhood. We are urbanites at heart and love the unique character of historic houses. I have been working as an architect in the DC area for 10 years. Our 600- square-foot, one-bedroom condo is not feasible for raising a family. The thought of tearing down a house that cannot be replaced and could be utilized by someone like myself is disturbing, not to mention a terrible waste of money and energy. How green is filling up a landfill with a house that could be saved? How green is reducing urban density - even if by just one house? How green is losing an opportunity for affordable housing in the city and pushing a deserving family (not just mine) into the suburbs to clog the highway with one more car and more pollution?"

Aaron Condon of Kensington, MD also wrote to city officials and received no response: "My wife and I have been searching for affordable housing around the northern side of the beltway for years. We are effectively priced out of every neighborhood in which we feel would nurture the growth of our young family. The high rent costs mixed with childcare costs make it virtually impossible for a pair of early 30 somethings in this area to buy a house without assistance. Iwas a carpenter before I started my professional career, so I know what restoring a house like the Baltimore House entails. I want to fix it up for my family. It has always been our dream to live near the Canal, and this could be the opportunity of a lifetime. It makes no sense to demolish a house or move it off site when it could be loved and cared for by a family like mine."

If you wish to join others in condemning Mayor Fenty, Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, among others, for the city's illegal and irresponsible demolition of the Jesse Baltimore House, please write to the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the City Council and their chiefs of staff at the email addresses below. In a town with few, true opportunities for affordable housing, destroying a usable and highly desirable home is criminal.

Adrian.Fenty@ dc.gov, Neil.Albert@ dc.gov, vgray@dccouncil. us,
DSlonneger@dccounci l.us, pmendelson@dccounci l.us, MBattle@dccouncil. us, cschwartz@dccouncil .us, jabbot@dccouncil. us, kbrown@dccouncil. us, dcatania@dccouncil. us, byoung@dccouncil. us,
jgraham@dccouncil. us, tloza@dccouncil. us, jackevans@dccouncil .us,
sgrant@dccouncil. us, mcheh@dccouncil. us, jwillingham@ dccouncil. us, mbowser@dccouncil. us, jholland@dccouncil. us, hthomas@dccouncil. us, glewis@dccouncil. us, twells@dccouncil. us, callen@dccouncil. us, yalexander@dccounci l.us, jrmeyers@dccouncil. us, mbarry@dccouncil. us, kperry@dccouncil. us, merowse@aol. com

Here's some history on the house, on Jesse Baltimore and his family, and on the Palisades neighborhood.

Here is a "Close to Home" opinion piece on the Jesse Baltimore House from the Sunday, November 4, 2007 Washington Post.

(Photos of the demolished house by Marshall Soltz. Click here for more photos of the demolition.)