By Carly Berkowitz
Preservationists are voicing their concern about the historic buildings located on the lot chosen to be the site for the downtown Frederick hotel and conference center, particularly the Birely Tannery.
The tannery is the last remaining tannery building in the city of Frederick, and possibly the last in the county as well.
The site chosen for this project is the corner of E. Patrick and N. Carroll streets in downtown Frederick, which contains two historic buildings on the lot including the Frederick Railroad Company trolley building and the tannery itself.
“The concern is, if it is built on that lot will it do such damage to the downtown area that’ll keep Frederick from being the draw that it is,” said Mary Mannix, manager of the Maryland Room at the C. Burr Artz public library and board member of the Frederick Preservation Trust. “Downtown Frederick looks very much like it did when the Confederates came through town, so that is the draw – that Frederick is a beautiful community, it’s a relatively preserved community in many areas.”
Cursory plans for the hotel and conference center appear to include rehabilitating the trolley building, but plans for the tannery are less clear.
“The biggest part of the contention right now is the tannery building and what is going to happen to it,” explained Anthony Moscato, chairman of the Frederick Preservation Trust.
Out of the five different cursory renderings of the finished project, only one does not include the demolition of the tannery.
Because of the historical significance of the tannery to the Frederick area, many preservationists see the possibility of losing it a great risk.
“Good preservation is one that really tries to adaptively re-use… historic buildings or structures that are there,” Moscato said. “We have such a historic piece that is really important to our identity and our history in the city that it would be best in any way possible to try and incorporate its re use.”
“Even if it’s integrity has been damaged some, whether or not it needs to meet certain criteria, it’s still a part of downtown Frederick history and a part of the historic preservation community,” Mannix said in agreement with Moscato. “There’s a certain element in Frederick County or at least Frederick City who believe that something should be saved of this poor, sad building.”
The concern over the tannery arises due to its lack of upkeep and the argument that the building, which has seen several fires and rebuilds, has lost the bulk of its historic significance.
“It’s not like looking at an old mill or an old barn that’s been adaptively re-used and you look at it and say ‘isn’t that cool, they’re using an old building for this and that,’ when you look at that building, it doesn’t scream tannery to you,” said John Fieseler, executive director or the Tourism Council of Frederick County.
According to Fieseler, the building has been rebuilt so many times over the years, that there isn’t much of the original building left, which detracts from the buildings overall historic fabric.
“I’m all for seeing the historic fabric preserved, but not everything ever built can be saved forever,” Fieseler said. “We’re hoping to be able to continue to tell that story, but there is a process in place that
the Frederick Historic Preservation Commission will be going through to look at if that building is proposed for removal.”
As the developer of the project, Plamondon Hospitality Partners is currently investigating the building and grounds to make that assessment; however, even proving historical value would not ensure the rehabilitation of the building.
“If they were to determine that it [the tannery] is contributing then they could either decide not to allow it to be removed, or they could allow it to be removed and documented,” explained Richard Griffin, director of economic development for the City of Frederick and project manager. “The rules say that in order to make that decision it has to be a project of significant or overwhelming community benefit.”
According to Griffin, the city had done a prior analysis of the site years ago and only the trolley building was found to be contributing.
The other main concern of preservationists is the disruption of the downtown areas distinctive streetscape and view shed.
“Anytime you have a project of this magnitude and size and it’s going into a historic district, it really should be something that really compliments the historic district and not one that ends up ruining it in any way,” Moscato explained. “When you look at the historic district, one of the pieces that is very important is the setting of something and making sure that any project really compliments what’s already there.”
The hotel would have to blend with the streetscape of the area, while at the same time complying with requirements to not block or protrude on Frederick’s famed clustered spires view shed.
“Frederick is known as the city of spires and if you get rid of that view shed you get rid of our identity,” Moscato said.
Fieseler, however, is sure that the developers will take this into consideration and that the building will not be obtrusive.
“There are requirements for the height and the mass of the building – how high above a neighboring historic structure a building can go without stepping back a couple of stories up – so whatever gets built on that site, whether it’s a hotel or it turns out to be something else, is going to meet those same requirements,” Fieseler said.
Most preservationists are in favor of the hotel project, but only done if the consideration of Frederick’s historical preservation community is kept in mind.
“The concern is if the hotel – which would be built to service that community – damages the integrity of that historic district to the point where it would no longer be a draw to come downtown,” Mannix explained.
“The biggest hope would be that there’s a project that ultimately takes into consideration the historic equities that we’ve been articulating, it allows for the redevelopment for that site so that there is that profitability for them, but also taking into consideration the historic equities,” Moscato said.
Some video courtesy of the Tourism Council of Frederick