Random MOCO Pics of the Day

One of my favorite places in Montgomery County is National Park Seminary.  Strangely enough, given its name, NPS has never actually been a seminary.  It started as a resort in the late 1800s, became a girls' finishing school, and later an outpost of Walter Reed Hospital.  It has beautiful, if quirky architecture with a mixture of styles (An auditorium with Greek columns, some buildings that look like they belong in Dublin, and a pagoda).   

Over time the maintenance of the property declined. 

NPS is in the process of being redeveloped, but as these pictures show, it is a work in progress.  In fact, the private property that has been developed next to the it provides an interesting contrast to the quirky, Faulkner-esque state of decline of some NPS buildings.

 

 

Place, Longing, and the Wheaton Rec Center

 

This morning I read in the Washington Post that the Montgomery County Council voted NOT to give the Wheaton Recreational Center historic status.  Although advocates said the building's pagoda style roof made it special, the council ultimately disagreed.  The county can now tear the building down (likely) and build a new, updated rec center.   
 
 So, this morning I decided to head over to the center to see what all the fuss was about and take some pictures.  Full disclosure, I'm not from MOCO and had never been to the Wheaton Rec Center before this morning.  I'm also skeptical about battles to have particular buildings deemed historic.  It is often the go-to tactic of people resistant to change of any type.  When I lived in DC, for example, several people in my neighborhood tried to have our local Giant designated as a historical structure.  The building wasn't historical--it was a dumpy brick block with the charm of a paper cut (see it here)--but they were willing to use any available weapon to prevent redevelopment of the property.    

Fortunately, the Wheaton Rec Center was nicer than my old Giant, and prettier than I thought it would be.  That's not to say it hasn't seen better days.  It has.   

Ultimately, though, I don't have a dog in this race.  My visit did remind me, though, how much heart and meaning all of us invest in particular places.  It's never the bricks and mortar that people love.  It's not even the architecture in most cases.  Rather, its the association to other people, particular events, or even a mood of a certain time or place.

Hell, Led Zeppelin played at the Wheaton Rec Center (we think--attendees might have been too stoned to remember the right location).  There were probably lots of girls screaming over a shirtless Robert Plant, and just as many guys playing air guitar to Stairway to Heaven.  I'm too young to have seen the bad boyz of Led Zeppelin, but I can imagine how stoked I would have been if I had, and why I might never want to see the building go.