Demolition

Preservationists in Fells Point won a reprieve yesterday in their battle to save a row of buildings that were once a school run by Franciscan friars. Workmen who were about to begin demolishing the structures next to the former St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church were forced to lay down their tools when confronted with the news that they lacked a crucial permit. After asking to see their paperwork, City Councilman James B. Kraft said city officials had not officially approved the wrecking crew's plan to stabilize an 18th-century house that the preservationists hope will remain standing on the site.

Instead of shovels in the earth, Army officials brought in an excavator and mixed demolition with the groundbreaking for a $477 million project at Aberdeen Proving Ground yesterday. After all, a nine-building complex that is the base's first major BRAC-related construction should resonate a little louder than an ordinary observance. The complex - named C4ISR for the acronym that denotes its mission: command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - begins the base realignment and closure initiative that is expected to expand the Harford County post by nearly 10,000 jobs in the next three years.

CAMBRIDGE -- Preservationists are scrambling to save the fire-battered facade of a century-old storefront that was destroyed by a seven-alarm blaze Tuesday in the historic business district. Developer Brett Summers has obtained a temporary restraining order blocking demolition of the brick storefront, which housed two antiques shops. The building is next door to an old McCrory's store Summers converted into seven apartments and restaurant space. Summers said the 10-day court order will give the Cambridge Main Street program time to seek an emergency grant to shore up the storefront facade while he and other potential buyers decide whether to bid on it. "My first priority is to make sure [the McCrory's]

President Street Station in Baltimore is the oldest surviving big city railroad terminal in the United States. The property was a stop on the Underground Railroad used by slaves fleeing from the South. The building played a key role in the first fatalities of the Civil War. It's also sitting vacant in an area of intense commercial development on Baltimore's waterfront. So when members of Baltimore's preservation commission learned that Mayor Sheila Dixon plans to seek proposals from groups interested in redeveloping the city-owned property at 601 President St., they decided to take steps to protect the former train station from disappearing altogether.

Johns Hopkins University professor James Harris says he and his wife thought they had found the perfect steward for their home of 27 years when they agreed to sell it to Calvert School in 2005. They were so delighted with the buyer, Harris said, that they sold the house for $400,000 less than its appraised value of $1.8 million and then donated $100,000 to the school to fund an educational program for students with special learning needs.

One day this week, workers began to disassemble a red barn in Green Spring Valley. They did not get far. Before the crew could finish removing the siding, a neighbor had called police, and Baltimore County officials ordered the work stopped, threatening a hefty fine. The barn is, a lawyer for its owner has said, nothing special. It is, some neighbors say, a precious link to the area's past. In Baltimore County, more than a few battles have been fought over a community's interest in preserving its history versus an individual's right to do as he pleases with his property.

Soon after Bethesda car dealer Jack Fitzgerald bought what was left of Rent A Wreck of America, he kicked its founding franchisee off the company's Web site, just to "see how high he jumps." "Mr. Fitzgerald is a very charming guy and he's a great salesman, but he's a very, very competitive person - beyond competitive," says founder David Schwartz, who has sued the company and Fitzgerald to get reinstated. "Me, I'm a win-win guy. I'm not trying to beat up on anyone." "He's got more bull---- in him than an Irishman who's kissed the Blarney Stone," responds Fitzgerald.

In a big-game atmosphere that plays out just a few times each regular season, the New England Patriots proved again last night that nobody rises to the occasion better than they do. The Patriots' 48-27 demolition of the Dallas Cowboys was pitch-and-catch football at its finest. Quarterback Tom Brady put up fantasy numbers in what looks more and more like a fantasy season for the Patriots. Five touchdown passes and 388 passing yards when he had barely the threat of a running game seems to suggest Brady has recaptured the unofficial title of the NFL's best quarterback-if, in fact, he ever lost it. What is so striking about last night's win is that the bigger the game, the better the Patriots play.

At 7:30 last Sunday morning, the 10-story Mercy Medical Center parking garage that filled nearly a block at the northwest corner of Calvert and Pleasant Streets in downtown Baltimore vanished behind great billowing clouds of ivory dust to the accompaniment of a jarring series of percussive blasts. A few minutes later, when the air had cleared, the garage was gone, reduced to a massive heap of broken concrete, twisted steel and mangled wire destined to be cleared to make way for construction of a new hospital building.

This is the way the Mercy Medical Center parking garage ended: not with a whimper, but a bang. And a bang. And a bang. And still more bangs. In mere seconds, the 10-story garage on Calvert Street collapsed into itself and passed into memory, leaving behind a crater-like hole, thousands of tons of rubble and, in the air and everywhere, clouds of fine dust. "This is step No. 1," said Dan Collins, senior director of media relations for the medical center. Once the site is cleared - a process that will take about a month, he said - plans for the new 18-story medical tower on the site can move forward.