Friday, December 1, 2006

the seminary grows up

Two years ago, as a senior in high school, I wrote about my horrified reaction to the opening of the Downtown Silver Spring where, every weekend, thousands of people were descending upon a place that it seemed only a wrecking ball could love. The neighborhood I'd grown up in had changed and, suddenly, it no longer felt like it belonged to me.

That might be a good way to describe how some are taking the redevelopment of the National Park Seminary, the former summer resort, women's college and army hospital in Forest Glen. After decades of decay, the seminary is getting some well-deserved attention in the form of 257 new or renovated homes.

However, it all comes at a cost. While neighbors of the campus used to exploring the ruins won't be barred from roaming around the new project, there's probably a little resentment towards the well-heeled homebuyers they have to share the neighborhood with.

Check out this photo-essay on the redevelopment of the Forest Glen or National Park Seminary, complete with pictures of buildings both new and old. As the latest frontier in the revitalization of greater Silver Spring, the Seminary is a unique opportunity to see how historical oddities can be re-used for appreciation by a whole new generation.

third in a week of features at Just Up The Pike.

3 comments:

Silver Springer said...

I often wonder what the repercussion of this project will be on the downtown area.

They price them at $900,000 but the homes are practically a million dollars.

Will the surrounding neighborhoods eventually end up like the surrounding neighborhoods of Bethesda or like Potomac?

Anonymous said...

Dan, I'm sorry this is off-topic, but I'm writing to ask you to remove "MoCo Progressive" from your list of links to Montgomery County blogs as other local bloggers have done. "MoCo Progressive" is a disgusting, right-wing rant about Latinos that refuses to allow posts contrary to the author's point of view.

Anonymous said...

Dan, So now you're a coward too (deleting my last post)... the NIMBYs really did win.