The Historical Society of Kent County applauds Lanetta Parks for her years of devotion and service to Chestertown and Kent County as a business woman and community leader. Certainly The Compleat Bookseller, at the corner of Cross and High for so many years, will be missed. After the generous donation of that building to the Society by the Bordley/Schottland family last year, we had looked forward to the honor of having Mrs. Parks as our tenant for years to come, but wish her all of the best in her retirement, so well deserved.
The Society had anticipated several years at least in which to plan and raise funds for the future Bordley History Center, but are now fast-forwarding our planning process so that we can have the Center up and running in 2013. The Bordley History Center will promote Kent County as a living classroom of Maryland history, and offer interpretive exhibits, special programming, children’s activities, a research library, and serve as a community resource focusing on education and economic enhancement through heritage tourism.
To create a history center worthy of Kent County’s rich heritage will be challenging; we ask that the community support our project, and bear with us in its implementation. In the interim, we will keep the building as active as possible with events and exhibits, and a gift shop presence beginning in October.
Our first programs will be African Americans in the War of 1812, Thursday, October 4, at 7:00 PM, and History Happy Hour on Friday, October 5, at 4:00 pm,
when Ralph Eshelman, War of 1812 Star-Spangled Banner Trail Historian, will join us for a book signing. Everyone is welcome to both events. Friday and Saturday, October 26 and 27, our Ghost Walks of Historic Chestertown will operate from the building.
The Historical Society will be placing history in the heart of the community, and we ask that you support us in this tremendous effort, made possible by the generous donation of the Bordley Building by the Schottland/Bordley family. If you wish to support or join our project, please
contact [email protected]
Diane Daniels
Director
Historical Society of Kent County
John Hudson says
Please forgive me, but I think the Historic Society plans are one of the worst things that could happen to downtown Chestertown. The use the town’s most significant retail location for an underfunded museum on kent county history is a complete tragedy. It is a terribly wasted opportunity and a profound lack of imagination on the part of the trustees.
Please go back to the drawing board.
Stephan Sonn says
I am watching this town
turn into a ghost town museum.
As far as I am concerned the Hysterical Society
is the agent of demise tending the graveyard
along with certain of the establishment
who like it that way.
But then I have only lived here
for 17 years and I am past 70
but what can the bright young people do
but leave or mind the family trust.
Carla Massoni says
As the Historic Society’s Board finds its way with the wonderful new resource they have been gifted, I hope we all keep an open mind. There might be opportunities for retail use within new format. RiverArts (their neighbor) will be the home of a great new outlet for hand-made craft items in their storefront – the kind of merchandise one can’t buy online or in a mall – and yet they will still function as a non-profit, gallery space and educational resource. The Historic Society might welcome input from the community – join the Society as a member and let your voice be heard!
Stephan Sonn says
The sticking point here Carla is ….. OPEN MIND.
Charlotte Hawes says
I can only add how sad this is as part of a disturbing trend. Just driving through Chestertown I counted 10 empty, or soon to be
empty, store fronts. We think we can draw tourists with this????? I don’t know what the rents are currently, but what could we sell out of those stores that would cover staff and overhead and make a profit??? Electronics? Very high-end women’s clothes? Really expensive restaurants? Maybe the brand name stores will take a look. Is small town business sustainable here????
(Hoorah to the new salon! I will surely stop by, just to make sure you survive as long as possible).
Kevin Shertz says
Rents (and assumed real estate values) in Chestertown are a real barrier to entry for many new businesses. The foot traffic numbers simply aren’t there to justify the cost of doing business at the current prices.
Also, I can only speak for myself as a (hopefully) future downtown business owner when I say I wouldn’t even consider renting in a building that was up for sale. I want to know who my landlord is going to be in the foreseeable future, and I want a lease that’s going to be multi-year, up-front.
Starting and owning a business is difficult enough without having the foundations move beneath you.
Lex Inglink says
I think it’s great to have a historical society. I think this space absolutely should be a vibrant retail space of some kind for the health of downtown. This plan does not seem to serve the health and needs of the downtown.
Kate Livie says
Let’s take it easy here with the dire predictions, folks. As one of the apparently invisible young professionals in Chestertown (believe it or not, there are quite a number of us), the movement of the Historical Society to a new location on Cross Street won’t spell the demise of the town, nor the imminent loss of every person under 65 (something many have been anticipating with gusto whenever pretty much anything happens that they disagree with). Somehow, our community has managed to survive since 1706. I don’t think a relocated historical organization is going to change that- Chestertown’s tougher than she looks.
Was Lannie’s successor, if it had been anything other than the Historical Society, really going to be the ticket to the downtown becoming “revitalized”? I would argue that the downtown functions fairly successfully as a seasonal tourist draw- and a centrally located Historical Society won’t hurt that. In my professional capacity, I work at a different Chesapeake historical organization that certainly functions successfully with the town surrounding it as a driver of the local economic and tourism engine- ideally, we could see that type of result here.
Sure, I have a long list of amenities I would love to have available downtown, but I’m not holding my breath for a thai restaurant to open anytime soon. As a young person committed to growing old here, that’s okay. It’s all part of living here- you have to be realistic about small town life, both its benefits and its drawbacks, and accept both with equanimity. I accept Chestertown for what she is- and if a Historical Society is in the center of all of that, then I’ll embrace it as part and parcel of the place I love; my hometown.
DLaMotte says
I enjoyed your letter, Kate. I saw my hometown, Alexandria, Virginia, go from a lovely place to live and work ( though not the same
quaintness as Chestertown) to a small city void of local retail, affordable housing for minority residents, parking…on and on. Yes, it
sold out in many ways and became an expensive theme park. Sure, lots of fab restaurants , night spots and urbane shops…but perhaps
with a huge cost. I really feel that Chestertown will weather this storm. Too many people care about our community.
Carla Massoni says
Thanks Kate – great comments.
kate o'donnell says
In the interest of full disclosure, let it be known that Kate Livie is on the staff of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels which I observed on a very recent visit has some empty storefronts and some fairly honky-tonk type of offerings in a number of its Talbot Street stores. Be that as it may, St. Michaels is still a big tourist draw as witnessed at the recent CBMM’s boat auction–absolutely jammed! Many who have commented here may misunderstand that the historical society is picking up its old kit bag from Church Alley and ‘relocating’ to High and Cross. I doubt that’s the case as the historic house museum aspect of HSKC,Md. resides in the Geddes-Piper House, ca. 1785. In my 7 plus years as executive director at HSKC, Md., my fondest wish was to secure a second building at a better location than Church Alley that would provide the society with a higher profile and handicap accessibility for those seeking the research offerings available through the society. Money was always tight; still is. The upkeep costs of a 225 year old building are an unceasing challenge. To be given a second building is a double edged sword as it will entail alterations, furnishings, deferred maintenance projects and costly utilities, to name just a few of the entailments that go hand in hand with entitlements. During my tenure with HSKC,Md., former board member Suzanne Fischer and I assembled a museum shop that provided a modest but not negligible stream of income, in part thanks to a volunteer effort by Craig O’Donnell who scanned the entire contents of the Lake, Griffing & Stevenson Atlas of Kent County, 1877, and printed colored images of these and numerous other regional maps. Perhaps such items will once again be available in the new location, along with books of local interest published by the Johns Hopkins U. Press, among others. Given a choice, I’m sure this sudden change to an expansion will be a tremendous opportunity for the society, calling for added volunteers to maintain regular hours. To one and all, I send my best wishes for fundraising success and overcoming the negativity stated in some of these comments.
eliott bruce says
as 30 year real estate commercial broker this is 1000% the worst use can put at most valuable corner in town. Can not believe zoning allows a non property tax use. Also think i may ask judge to look into the amount of tax credit the owners took as a donation because the current value is now down to zero ,so they should have to refund their tax credit. Remember when donate a car or boat your tax credite is based on end user sale price.they should take building sell it to a user take that money and then put up markers where every place G.Washington horse went.
Robbi Behr says
As another “young” “professional” in Chestertown, I’d just like to throw in my two cents in support of Kate’s opinion. I don’t imagine that any single business that could fill the spot of the Compleat Bookseller is going to turn anything around. Chestertown’s primary characteristics that position it as a unique place to visit or live are its colonial history and the river. By locating the Historical Society in a prominent spot and putting a real emphasis on the actual history of the town (not just giving folks a pamphlet you pick up for a walking tour) isn’t a bad thing. Granted, this doesn’t solve the problem of the too many empty storefronts (to which I’ll echo Kevin’s opinion), but I don’t think it needs to be a tragedy.
If this is the direction the building is headed, the Society just needs to make sure that they create a welcoming, unique and interesting space for visitors (and families, for goodness sake!) that really brings Chestertown’s story to life. Her story is the one thing Chestertown has that you can guarantee no one else does.
Kevin Shertz says
Robbi, at the risk of creating an endless feedback loop of “agrees” that destroys the universe… I agree with everything you said.
John Hudson says
For clarification of the very first post by John Hudson of this issue. There must be two John Hudson’s. In which case, I would like someone from The Chestertown Spy to contact me either at [email protected] or by mobile phone #443-480-0258 to make a clarification!
Thank you, John Hudson, A.K.A. Johnny Roe Hudson, 117 Water Street, Chestertown.
John Mann says
This isn’t related to the article, but the theme has come up in the Comments, so I’d just like to extend any invite to anyone who would like to attend a First Friday Happy Hour in the back room of the Imperial where you can observe Chestertown’s Young Professionals (many of whom are Come Heres!) in their native environment. Please don’t feed the animals.
As someone who has spent some time talking with Diane Daniels, I am excited to see how her vision for the Historical Society is bourne out in such a tremendous location.
Lannie, thanks for your service to the community, and for helping me find good bed time stories to read to young boys when I was working at Echo Hill Outdoor School. Freak The Mighty is a great book!
Bob Ingersoll says
As I was growing up here in the 5o’s and 60’s, every store and business closing seemed, in the eyes of many, a death knell for this small town. Vita Food closed, end of world…Campbell’s Soup closed, end of world… Fox’s closed, end of world, I could go on. Chestertown has always had it’s ups and downs, yet it is still here, and vibrant. Downtown struggles, surely, due in part to competition from two shopping centers north of town. We have changed the way we shop, and what we shop for. I ask those who bemoan the lack of “things” downtown to please- write down and post here- a list of all those things that need to be sold downtown to keep everyone happy, including locals, tourists, W.C. students, young professionals looking to come here. I think you will find that it is either already sold downtown, or there would never be enough traffic to sustain a store that would stock it. A hardware store? Small grocery store? Head shop? Western Auto? Book store? Liquor store? I maintain that if there is a supportable need, an entrepreneur has found it, or will fill it. Chestertown works; and though not to everyone’s liking, surely to the liking of the majority, or the town would not be growing. People still come here to live, to raise a family, to start a business, to play, to visit family, to visit history . The problem of constantly reinventing downtown will always be with us as we keep reinventing our society, but the basic fact is… it still works.