September 12, 2017 TO: Historic Preservation Commission VIA

DATE: September 12, 2017

TO: Historic Preservation Commission

VIA: Robert E. Krause, Ph.D., HPC Liaison Howard S. Berger, Supervisor Historic Preservation Section, Countywide Planning Division

FROM: Thomas W. Gross, Senior Planner Historic Preservation Section, Countywide Planning Division

RE: Evaluation for Historic Site Designation: Findings, Conclusion and Recommendation

Historic Resource Spa Spring Site MIHP Number 69-001

Address 4500 bl. Tanglewood Drive, Bladensburg, MD 20710 Owner Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission

Environmental Setting 0.805 acres Description Map 50, Grid C2, Parcel 250

Procedural Background

March 1973 July 1981 September 1, 2017

September 1, 2017

Survey and documentation of the property initially completed by Michael F. Dwyer. Resource included in the Prince George’s County Historic Sites and Districts Plan. The property was posted “at least 14 days in advance,” according to the provisions of the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Ordinance (Subtitle 29-118) and the Prince George’s County Zoning Ordinance (Subtitle 27-125.03). Evidence of sign posting and written notice to the property owner are attached. The property owner, the adjacent property owners, the Town of Bladensburg, and other interested parties were mailed written notice of the time, date, and location of the public hearing on the application.

September 19, 2017 Date of HPC public hearing.

Findings

Description: Spa Spring Site is the site of a spring that served as a local landmark, tourist attraction, and drinking water source throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Undated photographs show a wood frame gazebo and trestle-mounted water storage casks at the spring site, no evidence of which remains. The area surrounding Spa Spring was maintained as a public park by the Town of Bladensburg and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission until the 1940s, after which the site was altered

Item E.2. Spa Spring Site

Evaluation for Historic Site Designation: Findings, Conclusions and Recommendation Spa Spring Site (69-001) September 12, 2017

dramatically by the realignment of Tanglewood Drive and the construction of flood control levees along the south bank of the Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River.

Setting: Spa Spring Site is located in northern Prince George’s County in the Town of Bladensburg. While the exact location of the spring and its associated structures could not be determined, it most likely occupied what is now Parcel 250, just west of the point at which a small stream crosses Tanglewood Drive near its intersection with 46th Street. The parcel is bounded roughly by Baltimore Avenue to the west, Tanglewood Drive to the south and east, and a floodwater protection levee that parallels the south bank of the Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River to the north. Research conducted for this evaluation determined that the location of the historic resource as reflected on the Prince George’s County GIS mapping software, on Parcel 257, is erroneous. Light industrial uses occupy properties to the immediate south and east of the historic resource, while riparian parkland lies to the north.

History: Spa Spring Site is located on property that was originally patented to members of the Beall family, although it is not clear whether Colonel Ninian Beall or his brother, John Beall, Sr., owned the land where the spring was located. A 918-acre portion of the patent, known as New Dumfries, was sold by Ninian Beall to John Gerrard in 1711. The deed describes the property as “formerly called Beall’s Meadows but now called or known by the name of Aston Clinton.” Shortly after the marriage of Gerrard’s daughter, Rebecca, to Charles Calvert in 1722, the land was transferred to the couple and resurveyed with the name Charles and Rebecca. In 1735 the property passed to Elizabeth Calvert, who owned it at the time the Maryland General Assembly passed an Act in 1742 authorizing the establishment of a town “near a place called Garrison Landing.” The land for the new town, which was to occupy 60 acres on the south side of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River, was purchased from Elizabeth Calvert by a group of five commissioners and divided into 60 one-acre lots.

Despite its historical association with Bladensburg, the site of Spa Spring appears to have been just north of the area purchased by the commissioners for the new town. There is a “town spring” noted on a 1787 survey of the town, but it was located near the east end of the settlement at what is now 4100 Edmonston Road. Spa Spring was located near the boundaries of several tracts but was likely within the limits of Charles and Rebecca, the northern boundary of which followed roughly the course of the Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River. Ownership of the property in the latter half of the eighteenth century could not be definitively traced in County land records, but by 1801 it is known to have been owned by William Steuart, an attorney living in Bladensburg. The Spa Spring site may have been among the considerable property near Bladensburg that Steuart is known to have held in trust for the sons of Dr. David Ross, although no record of Ross purchasing that tract—from either the Calvert or Beall families, the most likely previous owners—could be located. There is no evidence that Steuart developed the area immediately surrounding the spring.

In December 1852, Steuart sold 10 acres to James Crutchett of Washington, D.C., the deed for which sale includes a specific reference to “the Spa Spring” among the metes and bounds description of the property. Crutchett (1816–1889) was an entrepreneur whose ventures included the installation of gas lighting near the U.S. Capitol in the 1840s and a factory built in the 1850s to produce George Washington keepsakes from wood harvested on the Mount Vernon plantation. This scheme landed Crutchett heavily in debt and his factory was seized by the federal government at the beginning of the Civil War for use as a soldiers’ rest home. Crutchett likely purchased the Spa Spring acreage as an investment, although there is no evidence that he made any effort to develop or subdivide the land during his thirty-plus years of ownership.

In June 1886 Crutchett presented the U.S. Government with a deed of gift for six acres near Bladensburg, which was described as containing “an ever-flowing spring of the well-known and celebrated chalebiate [sic] mineral water so well known and commonly called Bladensburg spa water…the use of said spring and land has for these many years not been developed for the beneficent use they are capable of.” The deed expresses


Crutchett’s hope that Congress would authorize the erection of a fence and suitable buildings around the spring, as well as pumps and pipes to supply the spring water to the Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings. While nominally a gift, Crutchett concluded the deed by noting he “leave[s] it to the U.S. Government to allow me anything or nothing for said property.” Crutchett had recently asked Congress to reopen his claim for damages tied to the seizure of his property during the Civil War and may have thought the gift would persuade lawmakers to act in his favor. Congress did not officially accept title to the land until 1889, after resolving a question as to whether Crutchett’s claim of ownership was valid.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the Spa Spring site was generally accepted to be open to the public regardless of who held title to the land surrounding it. The earliest mention of the spring as a tourist attraction appears in a letter from Rosalie Stier Calvert to her parents in 1803, in which she relates that the “waters of Spa Spring have suddenly gained such a reputation that Dougherty’s House (a local inn) is not large enough to handle the crowds of the fashionable who come to drink the waters every day.” Stier warns her father of the likelihood of “inconsiderate and tiresome visits” to his home at Riversdale owing to the spring’s popularity. By the 1840s, Spa Spring and its adjacent grove regularly provided a venue for social and political gatherings. Spa Spring also lent its name to a local baseball team in the 1870s.

Real estate speculators and other entrepreneurs frequently referenced Spa Spring when promoting their Bladensburg ventures. An 1804 newspaper advertisement for the Union Tavern welcomes “such persons as feel disposed to visit the Spa,” while property owners with available rooms frequently touted the spring when soliciting seasonal boarders. The Spa City Hotel appears on the 1878 Hopkins Atlas, its name derived from a real estate enterprise promoted in the 1870s by the Washington, D.C., brokerage of Hall & Ross. Newspaper advertisements for land and houses in and around Bladensburg frequently mentioned the distance to Spa Spring from the property in question. An item appearing in the December 2, 1884 edition of the Evening Star, announcing the sale of property owned by the estate of Clark Mills, includes a 9.25-acre lot that purports to contain “the celebrated Spa Spring;” the lot description, however, does not match the location of the spring.

Spa Spring also makes a brief appearance in the written record of the Civil War. In July 1864, an agent of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad who had been sent to inspect the Laurel Bridge and the road from Beltsville to Bladensburg reported that rebel forces camped north of the town “have one piece of artillery, with which they threw a shell which fell near the camp in the vicinity of the Spa Spring.”

Although the spring was located outside the area acquired by the Bladensburg commissioners in 1742 and was not officially owned by the town until its transfer from the federal government in the early twentieth century, civic leaders made efforts to maintain Spa Spring throughout its existence. An 1873 account in the National Republican notes that the spring site had been “inclosed [sic] with a tasty pale fence, and recently planted with shade trees.” In 1901 the town commissioners authorized the erection of a new fence around the Spa Spring lot “and to open the same as a public park.” Since the lot was labeled “Bladensburg Park” on the 1878 Hopkins Atlas and had a long record of public use before that, it is possible that access was being reopened by the town after having been restricted during the period of federal ownership. A wood gazebo appears in early twentieth century photographs of Spa Spring, although its exact construction date is unknown.

References to Spa Spring as a tourist attraction diminish in the early 1900s, possibly because the spring itself had begun to falter; the Evening Star reported in 1902 that the veins of the spring had become clogged and needed reopening. The aquifer that fed the spring continued to serve as an important source of drinking water in Hyattsville and Bladensburg through at least the first half of the twentieth century and was also mentioned in 1912 as supplying the newly established Equitable Ice Company in East Hyattsville. The Spa Spring name also remained associated with Bladensburg through the opening, in 1910, of the Washington-Spa Spring-Gretta electric streetcar. The line ran from 15th and H Streets NE in the District of Columbia to its northern terminus near Hyattsville, and was later extended to Berwyn. The streetcar venture was reorganized as the


Washington Interurban Railway Company and sold following bankruptcy in 1915, after which “Spa Spring” all but disappears from the written record for nearly 20 years.

A committee of the Prince George’s County Exchange Club was formed in 1932 with the aim of redeveloping Spa Spring, but the effort appears to have failed. In 1940 the lot was sold to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which announced the following year that “the old ‘spa’ spring on the property will be raised 2 feet and a spring house built over it.” Commission officials noted at the time that the “exceptionally pure” water from the spring could supplement the local water supply in the event of an air raid. By the 1950s the landscape surrounding Spa Spring had been altered dramatically, to the south by industrial development and the realignment of Tanglewood Drive, to the north by flood control measures along the Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River, and to the east by the construction of a Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission sewage disposal facility. These changes to the surrounding area, and the lack of any visible trace of the spring, makes a precise determination of Spa Spring’s original location difficult. It is most likely just west of the point where a small stream crosses Tanglewood Drive near its intersection with 46th Street. Tanglewood Drive is referred to in several deeds from the early twentieth century as “Spa Spring Road,” although its current alignment dates to the 1950s.

Significance: Spa Spring Site is significant as the location of a prominent tourist attraction, drinking water source, and Bladensburg landmark throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The spring featured prominently in marketing materials for local real estate ventures and was frequently used as the venue for social and political gatherings. The waters of the spring were tapped not only for drinking but to supply the Equitable Ice Company in East Hyattsville, the first commercial ice manufacturer in that area, in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Although the structures associated with Spa Spring Site are no longer extant, the site may possess archeological potential. This site does not retain sufficient integrity above-ground to convey its significance as part of the social and commercial heritage of Prince George’s County.

Integrity/Degree of Alteration: Spa Spring Site does not retain sufficient integrity to convey its significance as an example of the social or commercial heritage of Prince George’s County. No structures associated with the spring were extant when the property was initially documented in 1973 or at the time of the most recent onsite survey in September 2017. Thus, the resource has lost its integrity of feeling, materials, design, setting, location, workmanship, and association. The site may retain archaeological potential. Overall, Spa Spring Site has lost integrity and is indistinguishable from its surroundings.

Conclusions and Recommendation

1. Staff concludes that Spa Spring Site cannot be found to meet any of the nine designation criteria of Subtitle29-104(a):

Historic and Cultural Significance

1. A. (i) has significant character, interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the County, State or Nation

1. A. (ii) is the site of a significant historic event

1. A. (iii) is identified with a person or a group of persons who influenced society


1. A. (iv) exemplifies the cultural, economic, industrial, social, political or historical heritage of the County and its urban and rural communities

Architectural and Design Significance

2. A. (i) embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction

2. A. (ii) represents the work of a master craftsman, architect or builder

2. A. (iii) possesses high artistic values

2. A. (iv) represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction

2. A. (v) represents an established and familiar visual feature of the neighborhood, community or County due to its singular physical characteristics or landscape

2. Although staff concludes that the resource cannot be found to meet any of the Historic Site designationcriteria, if the property were to be the subject of a future preliminary plan of subdivision, archeologicalinvestigations of the site could be required. Further, should M-NCPPC undertake plans to modify, enhance,or interpret the site, archeological investigations would likely be undertaken to identify anysignificant features that would inform that interpretation.

Staff recommends that due to the irretrievable loss of the associated structures, Spa Spring Site cannot be found to meet any HPC Historic Site Criteria and should therefore not be designated as a Historic Site and should be deleted from the Inventory of Historic Resources.


Attachments:

MIHP Form for 69-001 (including map and photographs) September 1, 2017 Notice announcing September 19, 2017 HPC Public Hearing

c:

Evaluation File 69-001 MIHP Inventory File 69-001 Sam White, Community Planner, Planning Area 69

Owner: Christine Fanning, Chief M-NCPPC Department of Parks and RecreationNatural & Historical Resources Division6707 Green Landing RoadUpper Marlboro, MD 20772

Municipality: The Honorable Walter Lee James, Jr. Mayor, Town of Bladensburg 4229 Edmonston Road Bladensburg, MD 20710

Interested Parties:

Douglas McElrath, Chairman Prince George’s Heritage 4703 Annapolis Road Bladensburg MD 20710

Alfonso Narvaez, Chairman Prince George’s Historical & Cultural Trust PO Box 85 Upper Marlboro MD 20773

John Petro, President Prince George’s County Historical Society PO Box 1513 Upper Marlboro MD 20773


Figure 1. Spa Spring Site looking east from Baltimore Avenue, September 2017.

Figure 2. Spa Spring Site, near Tanglewood Drive looking west, September 2017.

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MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST f · ~ 1)

/ 7 00-15'<13 z, 7 INVENTORY FORM FOR STATE HISTORIC SITES SURVEY

~NAME HISTORIC

Spa Spring-Site Al\oD/OR COMMON

(Z]iLOCA TION STREET & NUMBER

near Rte. 1, Tanglewood Ave. & N.E. Branch CITY. !OWN

Bladensburg _ VICINITY OF

STATE

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EJf CLASSIFICATION

CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS _DIS TR.I CT _PUBLIC _()CCU PIED

_BUILDINGISI 'J.PRIVATE _UNOCCUPIED

~TRUCTURE BOTH _WORK IN PROGRESS

_SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITIOl'l bCCESSIBLE _OBJECT _IN PROCESS ES RESTRICTED

_BEING CONSIDERED _YES UNRESTRICTED

_NO

EfjOWNER OF PROPERTY NAME

WSSC? STREET & NUMBER

CITY. TOWN

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6LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE.

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

COUNTY

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PRESENT USE

-jGRICULTURE

~COMMERCIAL _EDUCATIONAL

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_MILITARY

Telephone #:

_ REUG;OUS

_SCIUHIFIC

_TRANSPORT A TIO"

_OTHER

STATE I zip code

Liber #: Folio #:

REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC Prince George's County Courthouse STREET & NUMBER

CITY. TOWN

Upper Marlboro STATE

Maryland

ital REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE

DATE

DEPOSITORY FOR

SURVEY RECORDS

CITY. TOWN

_FEDERAL _STATE _COUNTY _LOCAL

STil.TF

~DESCRIPTION

_EXCELLENT

_GOOD

_FAIR

CONDITION

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_UNALTERED

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.!aRIG.rNAL SITE

r:r 1 .~r.· - / : \ ~,- . t,

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_ MOVED DATE ___ _

DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

The spring has been engulfed by a series of heavy commercial and industrial yards. Highway widenings, etc., have turned the area into a small, trash-filled, swampy ravine. The WSSC has a sewage pumping station here now.

CONTINUE ON SEPARATE SHEET IF NECESSARY

D SIGNIFICANCE

PERIOD

_PREHISTORIC

_1400-1499

_1500-1599

_1600-1699

-J700-1799

.£1 aoo-1 a99 _1900-

AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW

_ARCHEULUGY-PREHISTORIC _COMMUNITY PLANNING _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

_ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC _CONSERVATION. _LAW

_AGRICULTURE _ECONOMICS _LITERATURE

_ARCHITECTURE _EDUCATION _MILITARY

_ART _ENGINEERING _MUSIC

_COMMERCE _EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT _PHILOSOPHY

_COMMUNICATIONS _INDUSTRY _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT

_INVENTION

SPECIFIC DATES BUILDER/ARCHiTECT

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

_RELIGION

_SCIENCE

_SCULPTURE

_SOCIAUHUMANITARIAN

_THEATER

_TRANSPORTATION

_OTHER !SPECIFY!

This was a celebrated spring, that was visited for its supposed curative powers. During the 1860's, a real estate venture known as "Spa City" was formed to sell residential lots here to city dwellers. This was one of the earliest attempts at suburbanization in the area. The Spring was intact as late as the early 1900' s-. It had a Victorian gazebo and a heavy, raised platform, that held large wooden barrels of the water.


f6-::.._-tj--(

~MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 1) Promotional real estate brochure "Spa City" by Hall & Ross,

1868. 2) Old Maps & ca. 1910 photo at D.C. Public Library-Washingtoniana

Room.


Eij]GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY _______ _

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION

LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES

STATE COUNTY

STATE COUNTY

DlFORM PREPARED BY NAME i TtTLE

Michael F. !Myer, Senior Park Historian ORGA1'1ZATION

M-NCPPC STREET & NUMBER

8787 Georgia Ave. CITY OR TOWN

Silver Spring

DATE

3/2/73 TELEPHONE

589-1480 STATE

Maryland

The Maryland Historic Sites Inventory was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature, to be found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 Supplement.

The Survey and Inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.

RETURN TO: Maryland Historical Trust The Shaw House, 21 State Circle Annapolis, Maryland 21401 (301) 267-1438

1he mineral waters of the Spa Spring once drew visitors t.o Bladensburg, for they were renowned for their beneficial and curative powers. Surrounding the spring was a park, scene of many picnics and political gatherings throughout the nineteenth century. The spring was 1<> c.ated at the north end of. Wciter Street

imore Boulevard), now an indus-1......J area O:>urtesy of the Prince George's County Historical Society

PG: 69-1

Virta, Alan 1984 Prince George's County, a ~ictorial

History . Norfolk: Donning Co .

161

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION

County Administration Building • 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, 4th Floor, Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772 pgplanning.org/469/Historic-Preservation-Commission • 301-952-3680

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING

Tuesday, September 19, 2017 6:30 PM

County Administration Building 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro MD 20772

HISTORIC PROPERTY EVALUATION Spa Spring Site (Historic Resource 69-001)

4500 bl. Tanglewood Drive, Bladensburg, MD 20710 As part of its September 19, 2017 public meeting, the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) will evaluate Spa Spring Site, located on the 4500 block of Tanglewood Drive, Bladensburg, Maryland, for potential designation as a Prince George’s County Historic Site. Because the property is included in the Prince George’s County 2010 Approved Historic Sites and Districts Plan, this process is conducted through Subtitle 29-118 (The Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Ordinance). In conducting its review, the HPC will evaluate the property on the basis of the nine criteria for historic and architectural significance found in Section 29-104 of the Ordinance. The Historic Preservation Commission’s decision in this matter is final unless an appeal is filed. The Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Ordinance requires that the property that is the subject of this public hearing be posted with informational signs at least two weeks in advance. These signs will be posted no later than September 5, 2017. In addition, this notice complies with the Ordinance requirement to notify the property owner, adjacent property owners, and interested parties at least 14 days in advance of the Historic Preservation Commission’s hearing. Information on the Historic Site designation process and the staff recommendations for the case will be available on September 12, 2017 at www.mncppc.org/469/Historic-Preservation-Commission. As the property owner, or an adjacent property owner, or an interested party, the HPC is interested in any comments you may have on this matter. You are encouraged to attend the hearing. If you cannot attend, written comments for the case record should be received by the close of business on September 19, 2017. Please send comments to:

John Peter Thompson, Chairman Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission

14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive Upper Marlboro MD 20772

For additional questions, contact the Historic Preservation Commission staff at 301-952-3680.

DATE OF NOTICE: September 1, 2017

c: John Peter Thompson, Chair, Historic Preservation Commission Andree Checkley, Planning Director Derick Berlage, Chief, Countywide Planning Division Howard Berger, Supervisor, Historic Preservation Section Robert Krause, HPC Liaison, Historic Preservation Section Historic Property Evaluation File 69-001 Sam White, Area Planner, Community Planning Division

Municipality: The Honorable Walter Lee James, Jr. Mayor, Town of Bladensburg 4229 Edmonston Road Bladensburg, MD 20710

Property Owner: Christine Fanning, Chief Natural & Historical Resources Division M-NCPPC Department of Parks and Recreation 6600 Kenilworth Avenue Riverdale, MD 20737

Adjacent Property Owners: Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission 14501 Sweitzer Lane Laurel, MD 20707 Linda F. Wareheim Trust 1090 South Collier Boulevard, Unit 612 Marco Island, FL 34145 Barnaby Gardens Limited Partnership 1104 Good Hope Road SE Washington, DC 20020

Interested Parties: Douglas McElrath, Chairman

Prince George’s Heritage 4703 Annapolis Road Bladensburg, MD 20710

Alfonso Narvaez, Chairman Prince George’s Historical & Cultural Trust PO Box 85 Upper Marlboro, MD 20773

John Petro, President Prince George’s County Historical Society PO Box 1513 Upper Marlboro, MD 20773

Date of Sign Posting: September 1, 2017

September 12, 2017 TO: Historic Preservation Commission VIA

Documents

Transcript of September 12, 2017 TO: Historic Preservation Commission VIA