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Glenn Dale, Seabrook and Lanham residents want to see the aging, abandoned Glenn Dale Hospital, a former tuberculosis sanitarium that closed more than 25 years ago, reopened and redeveloped.

The hospital served as a tuberculosis sanitarium in the 1930s and closed around 1982. The hospital — located on Glenn Dale Road and north of Annapolis Road — is owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and encompasses more than 200 acres of land and 23 buildings.

Sixty acres of the property have been designated to be used as a continuing care facility, similar to a nursing home, under House Bill 113, which was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1994.

At a Glenn Dale, Lanham and Seabrook Community Advisory Group meeting Oct. 2, local residents offered suggestions about the historic preservation of the hospital site and how to best use the remaining 150 acres of the property. The group will continue its discussion during a second meeting Oct. 23.

CAG members said at last week's meeting they want to see the buildings be repaired, such as fixing holes in the roofs.

Carol Binns, a senior planner for the M-NCPPC Department of Parks and Recreation, said the remaining 150 acres could be used for recreational facilities, such as baseball fields or tennis and basketball courts.

"I don't think anyone wants to see it remain the way it is, and I don't think they want it to be developed into single-family homes," Binns said.

Fred Stachura, a planner coordinator for the historic preservation section of the M-NCPPC who gave a historic preservation presentation at the CAG meeting, said community members have favored using the property for a continuing care facility, as mandated by House Bill 113.

"The Glenn Dale Hospital seems to be of significant importance to the community and has a high importance with respect to planning," he said. "The buildings have been abandoned for a long period of time. You can see them from the public roads. It's important in people's minds that it doesn't go away."

Leah Latimer, a Mitchellville resident, has personal ties to the Glenn Dale Hospital. Her mother, Etta Young , 82, of Bowie was a tuberculosis patient at the hospital from July 2 to Oct. 29, 1954.

Latimer and Young have been to the hospital only a couple of times together.

"It's disturbing," Latimer said. "There's an emotional connection. I'm awed and it's surreal. Other times I'm upset by my own personal story."

Latimer has been researching the hospital for four years because she is fascinated with the Glenn Dale area.

"I don't have any thoughts on what happens to it," Latimer said. "The current state of affairs is a part of its history and what we see is part of history."

The site is a historic resource and currently not on the national register of historic places, Stachura said.

Historic places are nominated to the National Register by the State Historic Preservation Officer in the state where the property is, according to information from the national register of historic places on the National Park Service Web site. Nominations are submitted to a state review board of history-related professionals to make a recommendation to the SHPO.

"[The community] wants open space, and the reuse of significant historic structures is a primary concern," Stachura said. "I think from what I've heard, there's widespread support to reutilize those buildings."

Binns said no timeline or dollar amount has been set for the 60-acre continuing care facility project. No one has come forward since the M-NCPPC acquired the hospital in 1995 to present a plan to build the facility.

"Until someone comes in with a plan, we're holding on it," Binns said. "I think [the community] wants low density, not a lot of traffic, so a senior housing development probably sits perfectly with what they want."

E-mail Liz Skalski at

eskalski@gazette.net.