More News

Historic wishes granted

State money will allow preservation group to move archives from basement to building

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

After nearly three decades of protecting Takoma Park’s Victorians and bungalows, documenting the city’s origins and fighting the effects of development, Historic Takoma is nearly ready to settle into a home of its own.

The Maryland General Assembly approved grants totaling $210,000 last month for the organization, meaning that Historic Takoma, which has had to maintain the city’s unofficial archives in the basement of one of its members, now has the financial backing to buy a property.

‘‘We’re still in that state of shock when something you’ve wanted for so long finally comes through — you’re afraid to think that it’s real,” said Sabrina Baron, president of the group. ‘‘We’re looking at 30 years of this organization being in existence, and over the years, we’ve had a great desire to have a premise of our own, a building of our own, someplace to call home. Someplace prominent in the community, in the [Takoma Park] Historic District.

‘‘So it looks like after many years and a lot of hard work, we may be able to make that a reality.”

Historic Takoma’s leadership has identified a property to operate as a museum, meeting space and permanent home for the archives. However, because negotiations are under way, members will not yet identify the location publicly. What they will say, however, is that the property is in the historic district, that it needs work, and that the acquisition will be a milestone.

‘‘We have lost important collections in the community in the past because the donors weren’t comfortable with us being in a basement, or not having a permanent location,” Baron said. ‘‘All kinds of things now can happen with programming, Internet outreach and bringing in more material that we know is out there in the community, where people have been waiting for us to have more permanent circumstances.”

Historic Takoma will combine the 2006 legislative grants, which represent $125,000 from the House of Delegates and $85,000 from the Senate, with a similar grant of $50,000 the group received from lawmakers last year. Each of those grants requires matching funds, and Baron said the group would use its mortgage and in-kind donations from residents and businesses to meet the grant requirements.

State Sen. Ida G. Ruben (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring said money was tight this year for General Assembly bond bills, the vehicle that legislators use to get funding for local projects like the Takoma Park Community Center or the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts baseball team. More than 200 organizations appeared before a General Assembly committee to make the case for their projects, Ruben said, but there was an added sense of urgency for Historic Takoma because negotiations had already begun for the property.

‘‘We needed to make sure they didn’t lose that property that they wanted — that was key,” Ruben said. ‘‘I knew that they needed the money this year or else they might have lost it.”

Finding a permanent home for the city’s archives means the public can more easily see important articles like Takoma Park’s first ballot box, city founder Benjamin Franklin Gilbert’s business card or newspaper clippings detailing life in a young Takoma Park. When Historic Takoma rented a commercial basement on Laurel Avenue in Old Town, Baron said members of Historic Takoma often would receive walk-ins who wanted to access the archives. ‘‘We hope we’ll have that kind of traffic [again], as well as destination traffic.”

Historic Takoma made its case for state funding in a professional but persistent and determined way, said Del. Peter V.R. Franchot (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park. ‘‘It’s an important project for our community ... and it really represents why we do these local projects,” he said. ‘‘They would not have been able to raise the money without the state’s assistance, and this is going to be a benefit to Takoma Park and to our culture and our history, so all of us [in the District 20 delegation] are delighted to have helped.”

Historic Takoma will continue its general fund-raising efforts. ‘‘This is the crucial piece that we need, but we’re going to be looking to other sources for grants, loans and however we have to put this together,” Baron said. ‘‘And there are all kinds of people in the community who we can tap into. Absolutely, people can expect phone calls and knocks on their doors.”