History, traffic are obstacles to school plan

Neighbors of Port Tobacco parcel oppose campus

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008

A historic house, Ellerslie, is on the land where Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution, was born, and the property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Maryland Historical Trust. The house where Jenifer was born was called Coates Retirement and there is archaeological evidence that the house was on the land near where Ellerslie now stands, said Scott Hill, a park ranger with the National Park Service who is the acting supervisor of the Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Port Tobacco, in an interview last week.

One of the county's oldest tobacco barns and several historic outbuildings, including a smokehouse, are also located on the property, Hill said.

It is possible – although there is no physical proof at present – that Jenifer is buried somewhere on the land, Hill said.

"It's the ancestral home of Jenifer's family so it seems logical if Jenifer was looking for a burial place that it might be at the location of his family's ancestral home," he said. "There's a belief that he is buried there. Whether it's true is still unknown."

The group of parents needs to obtain a special exception to build the Pope John Paul II Academy on Ann Harbor Drive — plans for which also include a campus that will eventually contain a freestanding chapel, gymnasium, library, baseball and athletic fields with bleachers, tennis courts and parking areas — because it is in the rural conservation zone, said Michael Schreyer, president of the proposed academy's board of directors. The school would be designed for Grades 9 through 12 and will offer a classical curriculum, he said.

The historic structures on the site would not be disturbed if the group is allowed to move forward with the project, Schreyer said.

"The house will be preserved for the benefit of the community," he said. "Right now, this property is privately held and is not open to the public. Very few people get to see the property and enjoy it. If it remains in that status it would be unfortunate because the public won't be able to enjoy it."

The Charles County Board of Zoning and Appeals first held a public hearing on the request in October, but the board called for a continuance until the meeting Dec. 9 because members wanted to wait until an issue regarding where the main entrance to the academy was going to be built was resolved with the Maryland State Highway Administration.

The hearing was set to continue last week when Mark Mudd, the La Plata attorney representing the academy, asked for another continuance so that the group could further work out issues with state highway officials.

Originally, the SHA denied the group's request to build the main entrance on Route 6, Mudd said.

Although the board granted the continuance, Fred Mower, board chairman, made it clear that this would be the last one.

"I appreciate that people [who were set to testify on the proposal] have been here twice," he said. "If we do vote for a continuance, this will be the last one, so be ready."

Mudd said that he feels positive that the state will approve the entrance on Route 6.

"We had a meeting on Dec. 8 and we got a favorable response, but the state needs additional information that we didn't have that day," he said.

Quite a few people turned up for the hearing and some of them spoke about their opposition to the proposal before the meeting, including Robb Jones, who lives near the property where the academy would be built.

"The property is an historical treasure," he said. "The grave of one of the signers of the Constitution is supposed to be located on the property. There are also Indian burial sites and slave graves buried there. I don't believe … that these treasures should be destroyed."

Schreyer said that if there is evidence that there are burial sites on the property he would welcome archaeological research on the land.

"If we learn that there is something of archaeological interest we would be excited to work with people who have that academic expertise to learn more about the property," he said, adding that none of the historic structures on the property would be torn down or compromised in any way. "It would benefit the whole community."

John Lohr, who also lives near the property, said that Port Tobacco residents are working to establish a group, Friends of Historic Ellerslie, to preserve the property from development.

"This is the 350th anniversary of Charles County," he said. "This is no way to treat that property."

Some residents said that they were also concerned about having the main entrance to the school built on Ann Harbor Drive, which they say is already a very dangerous road.

"It's a really tight street and they're going to try to make traffic go that way to get to the school," said Kurt Aspelin, who lives in the Port Tobacco Riviera subdivision on Ann Harbor Drive. "It's a dangerous road, anyway. There have already been some close calls on that road."

"We have enough traffic on that road," said Lewis Buckley, who lives on Port Tobacco Hills Court.

Schreyer said the group has asked for the main entrance to be off Route 6 from the very start of the process. Ann Harbor Drive would only be used temporarily until the school building is constructed which would take about two years.

The group plans to offer a freshman class of 15 to 30 students next fall.

Those families would access the school from a temporary entrance on Ann Harbor Drive, he said.

"We never proposed that the access on Route 6 be eliminated," he said. "If the state highway administration says no then we'll have to determine if there's any other possible entrance that we could use for the school."

Buckley said that he is also concerned about how development on the property will impact the surrounding properties' groundwater level.

"All of us on are wells and septic," he said. "If they start pumping [a lot of gallons of water per day] and the water level drops what are we going to do?"

A few residents said that they supported the building of the academy, including Patricia Walter of Dentsville.

"I home-schooled two children because there weren't any schools in the area for us," she said. "I think that the academy would be a great asset to the county."

Schreyer said that the academy will be operated by Catholic parents who have children enrolled in Catholic schools in Charles County. A secondary school is needed because otherwise parents must drive their children to Bishop McNamara in Forestville or St. Mary's Ryken in Leonardtown, he said. The archdiocese announced this week that they might close three elementary schools in Southern Maryland — St. Mary, Star of the Sea in Indian Head and St. Michael's in Ridge and Holy Angels Sacred Heart in Avenue in St. Mary's County.

The academy is not affiliated with the Archdiocese of Washington, but the group is working with the archdiocese to officially make the school a Catholic academy, Schreyer said.

Buddy Parsons lives on Howard Drive near the property and he said he really does not have any issues with the group building the school.

"Probably a lot worse things could be built on the property," he said. "I'd rather have a school built there than high-density development."

Hill said the property would be irreparably altered if the school and surrounding campus were built on the land.

"The whole project would dramatically change the landscape from the historical appearance that it has now," he said. "The number of historic structures on the property could be greatly affected if the school is built there. Charles County's got a number of these historic structures and it's imperative that they are saved."

But, Schreyer said that using the land for a school and campus would open up the opportunity for the public to enjoy the historical buildings on the property.

"The real tragedy here is that for many, many years it was always private property," he said.

"It's never been open to the public. Now, we're proposing something that would open it up quite a bit more and the neighbors are resisting it. We feel that this is an opportunity for the people of Charles County to enjoy this treasure."

nmcconaty@somdnews.com