With Mary Rowse's enthusiastic support I'm posting this here for those interested in preserving historic DC. Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 03:35:24 EDT From: [email protected] Subject: Help Urgently Needed to Save Jesse Baltimore House Please help us save the historic, federally-owned Jesse Baltimore House at 5136 Sherier Place in the Palisades neighborhood. (See steps 1 - 3 below) Despite enormous Palisades community and city-wide support for saving the house and returning it to the private sector for ownership and restoration, the Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) is pushing a plan, advocated by a handful of people, to demolish this 80-year old, structurally sound Sears "Fullerton" and replace it with grass. The city's 2006 tax assessment on this property is $785,000. The average house sale in the Palisades neighborhood is $900,000. Homes on Sherier Place routinely sell for well over one million dollars. And yet both the Department of Parks & Recreation and Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Chairman of the Committee on Education, Libraries & Recreation, want to tear down the Jesse Baltimore House rather than sell it to any one of the many people who wish to buy and restore it in place. DPR has given no good reason for wanting to tear down this valuable house or for refusing to accept the proceeds from its sale to help fund improvements at Palisades Park or at any other DPR site around the city. It's hard to believe there isn't a Recreation project somewhere in Washington that needs some extra money to become a reality. If you know of one, would you please tell Councilmember Patterson where it is? It is the height of fiscal irresponsibility for a city agency that doesn't have all the money it needs for projects, reject a sensible opportunity for obtaining additional funds. DPR has also refused to participate in good faith in the Section 106 process required by federal preservation law that says an agency seeking demolition of a historic property must first consider various options for saving it. (The Jesse Baltimore House has been deemed eligible for the National Register since it's a contributing structure to a potential Palisades Historic District.) Amazingly enough, Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson is supporting the Department's wasteful, irresponsible decision to destroy this building worth $785,000, and is herself ignoring over 750 of her Palisades constituents who have asking her to save the house and return it to private ownership. An additional 200 letters of support have been written by others throughout her ward, in the city and across the nation, asking that this 1925 Sears house built by plumber Jesse Baltimore be sold and restored to the historic streetscape of Sherier Place. It is very troubling to see Councilmember Patterson, who oversees our schools, libraries and recreation department, advocate for the destruction of a building worth $785,000, and whose sale proceeds could be redirected to the city's struggling libraries and schools. You can help us save the house by: 1) Attending a meeting tonight, Thursday, May 5th, at 7 p.m. at the Palisades Library, 4901 V Street, N.W. and voicing your support for returning the house to private ownership and redirecting the sale proceeds to worthy city library or recreation projects; 2) Calling Councilmember Kathy Patterson at (202) 724-8062 and Mayor Anthony Williams at (202) 727-6263 and telling them you don't want your tax dollars wasted on demolishing a historic house that could be returned to the city's tax rolls and whose sale proceeds could benefit a worthy, unfunded education, library or recreation project around the city. 3) Emailing Councilmember Patterson and Mayor Williams at: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) , [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) to let them know that Palisades residents have witnessed the loss of so much of their community's architectural heritage over the years and that you want the city to stop the unnecessary demolition of the Jesse Baltimore House because there is simply no good reason to tear down a structurally sound property assessed at $785,000, whose sale proceeds could be redirected back into a library, education or recreation project in another community. If you would like to help us fight this battle, please contact me at: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) Many thanks, Mary Rowse Historic Washington Architecture, Inc. (202) 362-9279