One of Chestertown’s nastier architectural scabs is being picked at again.
No, I do not refer to the House of Tarps, which emerged from is blue cocoon as an Andalusian privy, nor do I reference that perpetually boarded up section of the five-star dining district known as Plywood on High.
I speak now of the decaying ruin out on the Quaker Neck Road known to ancients simply as The Armory, which more recent generations take to be Chestertown’s version of Frightland. The Armory is in the public eye again, and a sty in the eye it truly is, caught up in a vertiginous display of public distress, legal fist clenching and finger pointing.
In short, Washington College, the current owner, has, by what some allege to be sneaky means, secured the town’s blessing to have the old dump demolished. In its stead would rise a privately financed hotel and conference center, enabled by land lease from the college.
Well now, say some. “That’s progress.” The town sheds an eyesore and gains a tax-paying attraction and employer. “Who cares if the forbidding old building’s architect was Edgar Allen Poe and the Addams Family once lived there?”
Not so fast, say others. “That’s a piece of history.” These preservationists claim to have gone to The Armory to vote for Warren Harding, or once danced in the great hall to the tunes of Artie Shaw or were distant kin to the brick mason who created the menacing minarets that glower down from the building’s brow. (And these are probably some of the same people who complained when the college tore down their former high school on Washington Ave. only to be shouted down by “progress.”)
It’s true, though. In all its ugliness The Armory stood as a worthy civic center. The Sho’men and random kids kids played hoops there; the hospital staged its popular Christmas Shop fundraiser there; The Armory hosted an annual antiques show. Do we blithely turn our backs on those times? And wait, did not generations of citizen soldiers drill and muster there? Some of them to help save the world on D Day, which, I believe was an actual event not just another Hollywood concoction.
The preservationists claim there was a promise that surely some the old pile could be saved; that the dismal hulk could be restored and repurposed. Never mind waiting for Elon Musk. Call in those “Like it never happened” guys, hang a few pictures and Shazam! Whadda ya got?
Another gym? A jail? Eighteen indoor Pickleball courts? Another empty school? The potential is unlimited. Just don’t ask me to heat the place.
Meanwhile, the forces of progress seem to have the upper hand. And yet there are questions. There’s a certain fishiness to how this went down.
The Armory has stood vacant for nearly two decades, its grounds hosting an odd assortment of old boats on rusting trailers and an ever advancing wave of phragmites. Inside: the celebrated Washington College mold incubator. It could have been mistaken for a Nobel-worthy experiment in “Fermentation and Fungi as They Interact With Concrete” except that in reality it was just demolition by neglect.
And now it’s beyond saving, they say. The owner wants a vacant riverfront lot, not some ghastly Leggo domain, no matter how many fancy historic registers it is listed upon.
So the town caved. And what might we truly expect? Another traffic light to help college punks cross the road? More buildings like those Albert Speer-inspired dorms? A new and improved Food Lab?
Don’t be conned again Chestertown.
Surely you can cut a better deal. How about insisting that the demolition permit include a provision that the college-owned pickle factory be turned into a WaWa? Before it needs an upscale hotel, Chestertown needs a decent hoagie.
Meanwhile, there is some good news for preservationists. Now comes word from one of the insiders that the demolished building and the guardsmen who served there will be “memorialized in a tasteful way.”
I’m for that. Except those parameters probably rule out my wish that the new hotel include a bar named “The Arsenal” where the featured vodka cocktail will be the “General Patton.”
J. Taylor Buckley
Broad Neck
David Haught Sheets says
As with the above letter, the years of neglect of the [old] armory was and is now evident and an eye sore largely due to the above now has become a dumping ground for the college in its collection of old boats cast off most likely by college staff and/or students past and present. Yet, as John Siedel wrote of his and other’s past doings in upholding the retention and preservation of the multitude of older [colonial] and Victorian style homes in the town, the one building long neglected by this community personifies what so few in Kent County and thus Chestertown were and that is Veterans who so served this country in time of war and those National Guardsmen!
There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that service to this country – of which only three of whom have served in war and peace time in the Chestertown community where this writer and his wife reside have served in our armed forces CRL. Nevertheless, that historical structure that for so long has gone neglected and so badly in need of significant care and repairs, can now be cast off by the College as being uninhabitable due largely to the presence of mold much less likely asbestos and other infestations likely present, is also said of such buildings of neglect that same should just be demolished and forgotten that it ever existed. Yet at the same time the city and store owners of this town thanks largely to the generosity of monies made available by the federal government’s Covid small business rescue offerings have rebuild and/or refaced most of the downtown businesses. This is understandable to a degree, however, are owners of same contributing to such repairs from their own resources? Why was the Armory allowed to so deteriorate by not only the town and county but also by the residents of same can only be answered as largely not caring …
Stephan Klingelhofer says
Brilliant!
Should this be attributed to Mark Twain?
V Overton says
Amen Taylor
Bill Anderrson says
When it is all over but for the shouting, the town can either all demolition of the Armory because it is not readily convertible to any perceived furture use. The costs of remediation and construvtion are necessarily compromised by its proportions and numerous other factors that make it easy to determine that ir would be more attainable to construct a facility designed for the intended purpose it will fill.
There are those who will stand on a position of “Once demolished, a future for the Armory is forever lost.” And that is true.
On the other hand, leaving the building stand, as it has for about 20 years, unused and unoccuopied only allows uts condition to worsen, thus almost certainly affording no future opportunity to rehabilitate the structure for any use whatsoever. That solution leads only to its eventual demolition by man, or its yielding to natural causes, at a future date when the cost of demo0lition and disposal would only increase.
Bottom line, I believe, is to permit the Armory’s demolition now, either prior to selling the land or afterwards, to receive the largest overall benefit.
b
Gerry_levin says
Why doesn’t Washington College demolish itself? They’ve had unresolved mold issues for years but don’t seem concerned with that.
Richard Keaveney says
please share more of your writing Mr. Buckley … an enjoyable read. and i look forward to our town finally having a quality waterfront hotel with a Major Bar menu.
George Jamar says
Fortunately, the other historical National Guard Armories, located in Easton, and Denton, did not meet with the same irresponsible fate.
Although these two Armories were decommissioned decades before the Chestertown location, they were renovated and continue to serve the community.
The Denton Armory, now known as the General James Frettered Community Center, was faced with the same obstacles, including mold, lead, and asbestos. This 1939 gem, that served the community decades, was returned to her glory, and continues to serve as a recreation and parks office, community center, and gymnasium, while preserving the history of the 29th division.
Leon T. Pickett says
I hope this building is finally demolished. It has been an eyesore for the past 50 years. If the building was so important why wasn’t it restored sooner. I don’t understand why Barbara J. Is bullying the commission and staff over this. This seems senseless. Please finalize this project by demolishing the armory.Uh rah!