National Register

The red-brick architecture of Wiley H. Bates High School is not distinguished, and tourists do not visit it when they come seeking history in the Colonial city of Annapolis. But a state advisory panel says that as a monument to social history, the shell of the once-segregated school rates a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.The Governor's Consulting Committee on the National Register recommended Wednesday that the vacant school -- restricted to only black students from 1932 to 1966 -- be put on the list.

Marshall Norval "Buzz" Ragsdale, a retired National Cash Register sales executive, died of complications from multiple myeloma Saturday at his Timonium home. He was 91. Born in East Orange, N.J., he was a 1939 graduate of East Orange High School and attended Bucknell University, where he played freshman basketball. In July 1942, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and attended Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Va. He then served with Marine Fighting Squadron 314 on Midway, Ie Shima and Okinawa.

Carroll County has no shortage of towns in the National Register of Historic Places. Sites in Westminster, Sykesville, Uniontown and Taneytown have been recognized for their historical significance.Now it's Union Bridge's turn.The town's Main Street area is the latest Carroll district to be included in the register, a division of the National Park Service."Union Bridge had not really even been looked at, and it was time," said Ken Short, the county's historic planner. "There are so many great resources there."

Faced with the challenge of keeping a historic mansion warm for elderly residents while reining in costs, the nonprofit organization that operates the 18th-century Chase-Lloyd House in Annapolis is turning to 21st-century techniques to save the day. Chase Home Inc., an organization that runs the historic building as both housing for elderly women and a tourist attraction, recently contracted for an energy audit to determine if technology can help...

The Baltimore Planning Commission unanimously agreed last night to nominate the neighborhood of Guilford for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The recommendation goes to Mayor Martin O'Malley. If he endorses the designation, it will be taken up by the Maryland Historical Trust on Feb. 6 in Crownsville. It must pass state approval before the federal government considers it. In an attempt to win tax breaks for repairs to the expensive North Baltimore properties, the Guilford homeowners association made the request at a meeting of the planning commission.

It was supposed to be a patch-and-paint job that would take three weeks in 2003. Instead, it was a major restoration that took seven months. But when the plaster dust cleared, what emerged was a gracious, century-old farmhouse in Harwood, now nominated for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance and place in regional history. In 1892, what was then called Richland was commissioned by Robert and Mary Cheston, a couple born into the landed antebellum gentry of southern Anne Arundel County.

Before this summer's train fire, not many people in Baltimore knew the 106-year-old Howard Street Tunnel had been underfoot all this time, let alone that it has a spot on the prestigious National Register of Historic Places. As it turns out, the U.S. Park Service's idea of what is significant does not stop at elegant landmarks such as City Hall and creaky old mansions where somebody famous has lived. The tunnel, known for its innovative engineering, is just one of several out-of-the-ordinary entries.

Set in a neighborhood becoming dotted with new homes, the white building that houses the Freetown Improvement Association looks plain and unremarkable. The building, however, used to be a focal point of a small community of black farmers founded by ex-slaves in the mid-1800s. Freetown Elementary was a two-room schoolhouse when it opened in 1925, funded partly by a philanthropist who sought to provide schools to blacks when segregation and discrimination were standard practice. It had no indoor plumbing, so students had to use outhouses.

THE FIRST BUILDING constructed as part of Baltimore's Charles Center renewal area, the One Charles Center office tower designed by world-renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, may soon be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination, to be considered this spring by the U.S. Department of the Interior, would, if approved, mark one of the few times local examples of modern architecture have been accorded "historic" status by the federal government. Two preservation groups, the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP)

SMITH CENTER, Kan. -- The buffalo no longer roam and the antelope certainly don't play around here anymore.But in a stand of cottonwoods on the banks of Beaver Creek is the one-room log cabin where Dr. Brewster Higley wrote a song of the West more than a century ago. "Home on the Range" became the favorite of Franklin D. Rooseveltand the state song of Kansas.This dilapidated little cabin shares a distinction with more famous structures and places, such as Mount Vernon, Yellowstone National Park and the grounds of the Battle of Gettysburg.

A 250-year-old grist mill near the mouth of the Susquehanna River has sat mostly vacant since the end of the Civil War, its thick stone walls serving no purpose but the protection of a few old tools. Though the building is historic - it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places decades ago - it is uncelebrated and receives few visitors. While many old mills are being restored, plans to develop the Cecil County property have stalled. The lack of interest in the old mill is partly due to its owner: the federal government.

Havre de Grace Main Street has named Matthew Kriegl as its new Main Street manager, a position he begins March 12. "Our board is very excited about what Matt brings to our organization," Billee J. Smith, president of Havre de Grace Main Street Inc., said in a press release announcing the hiring. Kriegl was born and raised in New Jersey and has degrees in geography and anthropology from the State University of New York-College at Plattsburgh in Upstate New York. In 2011, he received a Master of Science degree in historic preservation from Ball State University in Indiana, according to his bio. Kriegl was an environmental technician and later spent several years working as a geographic information systems specialist for Hunterdon County, N.J., where he created and updated county maps and worked on several projects involving local history and historic cemeteries.

The rehabilitation of the Old Towson Jail into an office building was honored by the Maryland Historical Trust last week as part of the organization's 2012 Maryland Preservation Awards The rehabilitation of the historic jail, now known as Bosley Hall, was cited as, "an outstanding example of a public/private partnership undertaken by the Baltimore County government. " The trust gave the project its award under Preservation Partnerships, and noted the collaboration of Baltimore County government; developer Towson Jail Associates, which was created for the rehabilitation project; Azola & Associates Inc.; and others for the project.

Today, The Sun can refer with pride to "Baltimore's venerable landmark Bromo Seltzer Tower," but it wasn't always so. As recently as 1971, the city of Baltimore saw the tower as an eyesore destined for demolition. Why does the tower still stand? For that you can thank historic preservation, the National Register and the Maryland Historical Trust, which stood up for the tower's preservation to former Mayor William Donald Schaefer. (Years later, of course, Schaefer too became an avid preservationist.)

William Ferdinand Eberhart Jr., a retired McCormick spice official and city neighborhoods activist who championed urban stream valley parks, died of cancer Tuesday at his Tuscany-Canterbury home. He was 72. Born and raised in West Baltimore's Franklintown neighborhood on Crescent Street, Mr. Eberhart was a 1956 Polytechnic Institute graduate and earned an English degree at Lehigh University. He joined the Army and was trained in Russian at its language school in Monterey, Calif. He was assigned to Bonn, Germany, during the Cold War and retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves.

The newly-renovated Hays-Heighe House at Harford Community College was the site for a "Fun With American Girls" youth enrichment camp during the second week of August. During this week-long summer camp, girls ages 8 to 12 combined learning about American history with a variety of cultural projects. They experienced the stories and characters behind the American Girls dolls, making crafts, toys, decorations, recipes, and other fun activities similar to those done by Kersten, Josephina, Addy and other dolls in the series.

CHESTERTOWN -- Lauretum looks like someone slapped together the "Addams Family" mansion and a gingerbread house.It is just that combination of characteristics that won the Chestertown bed-and-breakfast a spot on the National Register of Historic Places."

Residents of Original Northwood are confident they've come up with a lesson in what makes a lovely and livable neighborhood.Standing before the city's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation recently, they ticked off their reasons why this home-proud Northeast Baltimore community, constructed during the depths of the Depression, should be listed on the prestigious National Register of Historic Places."

Cleora B. "Cleo" Thompson, a city planner who became Howard County's first archivist and whose countywide architectural survey resulted in many structures being placed on the National Register of Historic Places, died Feb. 13 of Alzheimer's disease at a daughter's home in Newton, Mass. The former longtime Columbia resident was 79. Cleora Barnes was born in New York City and raised in New Haven, Conn. After graduating in 1949 from Milhouse High School in New Haven, she earned a bachelor's degree in 1953 in political science and history from the University of Connecticut at Storrs.