ThayerAvenue.com

The Horse is Dead
Last night, the Montgomery County Planning Board voted unanimously against a draft amendment to the Master Plan for Historic Preservation, thus bringing to a close attempts to declare the First Baptist Church at Wayne & Fenton a historic landmark. The most interesting remarks came from Commissioner Norman Dreyfuss:

I’m persuaded by the fact that the HPC [Historic Preservation Committee] had heard all of this testimony from everybody and had reached a conclusionIt seems like they have more historic preservation expertise than certainly I have.

And from Planning Board Chairwoman Francois Carrier:

I’m inclined to defer to the HPC. …their judgment was that there’s no reason to designate this as a historic property.

So, thanks for wasting time and money, historical people. This was already decided by the HPC, but I’m sure the taxpayers in the community as well as the church really enjoyed forking out for the salaries of people to be there. More here courtesy of the Gazette.

See you next year, Chompy
Discovery won’t be putting up the infamous inflatable shark this year to promote its Shark Week, but he should return next year for the event’s 25th Anniversary. In place of Chompy, Discovery plans to, among other things, show Shark Week features on a giant, inflatable screen on Veterans Plaza. I think they should have a late-night showing of Jaws. Anybody with me?

Go to Fenton Street Market Tomorrow
A survey will be going on this weekend at FSM to gather information about spending habits at the market. It seems the bonehead bureaucrats in Rockville are making it difficult for the FSM organizers to have the plaza next year. The market itself doesn’t really fall into the any of the facilities use models they have, and rather than find a way to perpetuate success, they are leaning toward eliminating that which frightens and confuses them. Idiots.

The weather is supposed to be spectacular this weekend. Get out, spend some money, answer some questions, and help keep this where it needs to be – on Veterans Plaza – next year.

This is a letter indicating that Marci Stickle and George French will assume the official role of nominators from the Silver Spring Historical Society (replacing Jerry McCoy) for “Determination whether to prepare Public Hearing Draft Amendment” concerning the historic designation of First Baptist Church at Wayne & Fenton.

If you can’t read it, don’t worry. You can find links to all the documents on the Planning Board web site for the 23 June 2011 agenda under Item 6. Yeah, you heard that right. Beating a (mostly) dead horse. Among those documents, you’ll find a letter from the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission (315K PDF) outlining their 6-2 ruling against the church being added to the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites or included in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. You’ll also find a staff memo from the Historic Preservation Office (2.4MB PDF) of the Montgomery County Planning Department (M-NCPPC) attempting to rebut all the claims from the Historic Preservation Commission.

This is now going beyond simple historic preservation. It’s not a developer looking to just tear something down to make money. Sure, a developer will make some cash in the long run, but this is about letting these people have the church they need when the facilities they have are crumbling around them. But there’s something else here. If the Silver Spring Historical Society (with other preservation organizations supporting them) loses this battle, they’ll become more marginalized than they ever were, almost to the point of irrelevance. I’d be fighting, too, if I were them. But don’t forget that Dr. McIntosh and the rest of the congregation NEED a new church, and this isn’t helping matters.

At any rate, there it is. Thursday, June 23, 2011 – one week from today. Do with it what you will. And please, for the love of all that is good and holy, someone tell these people that unless they’re using an old Smith Corona (or a monospaced font), they can stop double-spacing between sentences on all these documents.

For those of you with some time on your hands this evening, you might think about attending the Historic Preservation Committee Hearing at the Planning Commission. As you may know, the Silver Spring Historical Society is trying to get the building on the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Designation.

I outlined my thoughts thoroughly on the matter, and I (thankfully) expect the push for historic designation to be crushed. If you’re up for a large download (~20MB) and a thoroughly-detailed argument against the designation (brought to you by the church itself with the help of historian David Rotenstein), I recommend you download the PDF submitted to the Planning Commission. Lots of great stuff in there. Otherwise, the introductory letter is a good overview.

Best of luck to Dr. McIntosh and the rest of the crew.

And so it begins.

It looks like this year’s Zombie Walk (site updated soon) will be held on Saturday, October 24 in Downtown Silver Spring. Those of you who participated in last year’s event know what a great time it was, and we hope this year will be even bigger. A rough count of 2008′s participants clocked in at nearly 200 undead from the estimates we got, and I know we can get enough people to fill the theater this year.

Speaking of which, stay tuned for a special announcement in the coming days about the entertainment we’re trying to line up. And I call dibs on my special zombie costume for this year.

In Other News…
Keep an eye out for some historical banners making their way to Silver Spring, sponsored by the Montgomery County Historical Society. They’ll highlight different themes, including agriculture, the Civil War, the Depression, and slavery and freedom in three different languages: Chinese, English and Spanish. And seeing the MoCo Society’s site and the wealth of information it has makes me think it’s a shame the Silver Spring Historical Society can’t get a decent site up.

“I want my Harris Teeter.” Not since Solome uttered the words “Bring me the head of John the Baptist” has a more important phrase been spoken. The Montgomery County Planning Board today postponed the hearing originally scheduled for this Thursday that was to address the very historic Falkland Chase Apartments and its arch nemesis: progress.

Now postponed until sometime in July, the hearing will help decide the fate of Falkland Chase, and whether or not developers would be allowed to (reportedly) take nine of its 22 acres to build more dense housing and a (gravely needed) Harris Teeter. I certainly wouldn’t advocate trashing the whole complex, but I think the CBD is where we need more dense development.

While there has been listserv traffic trying to get people to the meeting to protest the “destruction,” I plan on showing up with big Harris Teeter signs showing my support. There are certainly valid questions about traffic and infrastructure, but I think a solution can be found.

It’s the Central Business District, for crying out loud. And our two venerable grocery stores – Safeway and Giant – suck. So until then…

There’s been a lot of chatter recently (with some great comments at the Penguin, in particular) about the fate of the Perpetual Building at the corner of Georgia and Cameron. There’s a proposal on the table to tear it down and build a new structure with ground floor retail, offices, apartments, and a “pocket park.” (I expect someone, at some point, to ask the inevitable question: “Is that a park in your pocket?”)

While historical types want it to stay (It’s *50* years old! That’s historical!) because if its “significant architectural importance,” public opinion seems to sway heavily toward the “tear it down” contingent. I, personally, don’t find it all that attractive and couldn’t care less either way. If a structure can go up that would provide more resources to the community with something other than a “suburban Baby Boom modernism” feel, I say go for it.

But I think an even better idea would be to have a demolition party. The technology is available to implode the thing without harming the Metropoplitan Building next door, and who doesn’t enjoy watching shit blow up? Mind you, I don’t harbor any ill will toward the structure, but I’d be the first in line to buy front row tickets if they sold them.

I even set my alarm to watch Three Rivers Stadium go up in smoke. If this doesn’t get your heart pumping, I don’t know what would.

This site would not be half what it is today without the people that comment and contribute. This is a prime case in point, and a venture back to our eponymous roots.

The earlier post about the history of William Thayer (and that awesome Thayer’s Quest game) seemed to strike a chord with some people. Rhona, our newly-obsessed Thayer historian (and the bug has spread to our house, thanks to her), trekked through a brisk late-autumn day to find William Thayer’s tombstone at Rock Creek Cemetery. I am now determined to have a shin dig in honor of either his death or his birth. Either way, many thanks to Rhona for all her work.

We’ll have more posts to come about the Thayer family and its history, but for now, I leave you with an excerpt from a Washington Post article dated August 24, 1893:

The will of William M. Thayer, filed yesterday, bequeaths one third of all his real estate holdings to his wife, Julia Thayer, in lein of dower. The remaining real estate located in the District of Columbia is to be divided equally between Nathanial Thayer, Caroline Thayer Manning, and David Halcheson (? – bad print – unsure of last name). The remainder of the real estate, located in Montgomery County, is to be divided equally between the above-named heirs and Lucius W. Thayer and Mary Thayer Jones, the sixth apportioned to Nathaniel and Elenor Thayer to be held in trust for their children.

For the record, the middle name “Melanchthon” comes from the Lutheran theologan Philipp Melanchthon, a key leader of the Lutheran Reformation. I can almost imagine Philipp standing next to Martin Luther, nailing the note to the church door saying, “Hang on a minute.” But I guess it was in German, so it would really be “Ein minuten, bitte.” Or something like that.