Lost to the ages: City plans park to honor forgotten Hagerstown history dating to 1700s

The city of Hagerstown wants to develop a Civil War-related park off East Antietam Street that would highlight urban battles in the city during the war, as well as other history, like a women's seminary and women's nursing school that operated in the neighborhood.

The proposal, presented to Mayor Emily Keller and the Hagerstown City Council Tuesday, is envisioned to include a "ghost building" that would imitate the size of the seminary as well as replica artillery and interpretive areas.

The park would be developed on property previously occupied by Washington County Hospital before it was torn down and Meritus Medical Center was built off Robinwood Drive. The city is proposing to buy about a dozen parcels Meritus Medical Center still owns on East Antietam, Mill and Baltimore streets for $900,000.

Not all the parcels would be used for the park. The city's proposal to buy all of them was a condition of Meritus, city officials said.

The properties would be paid for through grants from the American Battlefield Trust and the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program, according to a proposal from Doug Reaser, the city's business development specialist, and Steve Bockmiller, the city's development review planner and zoning administrator.

"Success is not guaranteed, but all indications suggest a strong probability of success," Reaser and Bockmiller said in their report about the grant funding.

The parcels are in an area where drug abuse, crime, blight and related struggles have tested the patience of some neighborhood residents, some of whom have been appearing at city council meetings to complain.

When asked in an email Monday about whether the park is an idea to help reverse some of that, Reaser said it's more about the continued revitalization of downtown because the site has been eyed in city redevelopment plans.

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"The focus is more on this being part of the Community City Center Plan and a catalyst project," Reaser said in the email.

The proposal said the design of the park will be "hardened to resist damage." One of the parcels is a former Washington County Hospital parking deck along East Antietam Street that neighbors say has been a common area for drug use.

What will be the theme of the "Civil War-related" park?

Reaser and Bockmiller, an author and local history expert, said the primary theme of the "Hagerstown Battlefield Park" would be the First Battle of Hagerstown on July 6, 1863, which they said was likely the largest urban cavalry battle in the war. Urban cavalry battles were rare because of the difficulty of maneuvering mounted soldiers in town environments, Bockmiller said.

"Here you literally had hundreds of mounted cavalry fighting one another here in the streets of Hagerstown for about six hours," Bockmiller said in a Council wRap session after Tuesday's work session. The televised program is led by city spokesman Wes Decker about highlights from council meetings.

Other area Civil War action would also be highlighted and plans call for the construction of a 75-foot-by-50-foot pavilion with exhibits. Reaser and Bockmiller said they envision licensed battlefield guides giving tours of the park, which will also get more tree planting. Then visitors will be invited to make stops at certain points downtown to learn about the First Battle of Hagerstown up close.

"It's not just going to be a great big grassy hillside with a single historical marker in the middle of it" Bockmiller told the mayor and council.

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The park idea is being described as a "passive open space" that would provide needed green space in the neighborhood. Reaser and Bockmiller described the area as one of the most historic sites in the city and referred to it as "Cannon Hill," which they said was Hagerstown's version of Baltimore's historic Federal Hill. The local site was the site of early 19th century patriotic celebrations, and the park plan calls for the regrading of the site to its historic layout.

Bockmiller said during Council wRap that the history of the site has basically been lost to the ages.

"The more I dug into it, the more I realized what happened on that property," said Bockmiller, adding the site's history actually dates back to the 1700's when the U.S. Constitution was ratified. To celebrate, cannon salutes were staged there, he said.

Reaser and Bockmiller believe the park will help spur added investment in downtown and attract Civil War history tourism. They said development of the park could be funded through a "Battlefield Development Commission."

What's the history of the Hagerstown Female Seminary?

The focus on the seminary school, known as Hagerstown Female Seminary, illustrates the plan to interpret other history associated with the sites.

The seminary was built in 1853 as a large girls boarding school and was also known as Key Mar College, said Bockmiller. The building also served as a headquarters during the Civil War when the Union army was protecting the Potomac River in 1861, as well as serving other uses in the war, Bockmiller said.

The proposed "ghost building" to imitate the size and shape of the seminary would be a metal frame structure that would be a "visible skyline feature" from the eastern approach to Hagerstown if it is built, Reaser and Bockmiller said in their report.

A similar structure is used by the National Park Service in Philadelphia to show the outline of Benjamin Franklin's house. Franklin's grandchildren demolished the house in 1812, but the foundations are still visible, according to the park service website.

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Other history affiliated with the site include medical facilities, including county hospital operations between 1912 and 2010 and an affiliated women's nursing school.

There was no objection from council members on the plan. Reaser said the project has been in the works for months.

Bockmiller said it's possible the city might have the grant funding by the time the city closes the real estate deal, which slated to occur in late June.

Reaser said an ordinance for the purchase of the parcels will be presented for introduction to the council next Tuesday with a final vote expected on Jan. 31.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown unveils plan for American Civil War park