Lonaconing Silk Mill Workshop

Lonaconing Silk Mill Workshop:

An Adaptive Reuse
Strategy Session






November 20, 2004
Lonaconing, MD








Hosted by
Friends of the Potomac












~~ Perspectives on the Lonaconing Silk Mill ~~


The mill is a contributing resource in the Lonaconing Historic District, listed in the National Register 9/15/83.
Peter E. Kurtze, Administrator
Evaluation & Registration
Maryland Historical Trust

~~~~~


Despite Mr. Crawford's many efforts, adaptive reuse projects involving the mill have not materialized and the future of the last intact silk mill in America is uncertain. I feel that it is important to document this important historic site and the industry that it represents by producing a photographic record of the Lonaconing Silk Mill.

Wayne Firth, Photographer
October, 2004
www.silverlight.net/silk_mill/index.html


~~~~~


"It just speaks to you, in your dreams, almost," says Tim Magrath, western Maryland field representative to Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD).

….

"Once you've been to the mill, it's kind of like finding religion," agrees Glenn Eugster, who works on preservation projects for the National Park Service… "How do you take the past and turn it into an asset for the future?" asks Eugster. "How do we do it and make it sustainable?"
Grasping for a Thread of Hope
Mary Otto, Washington Post Staff Writer
September 7, 2004

~~~~~

Lonaconing Silk Mill Workshop Report

Table of Contents
Introduction 1
The Lonaconing Silk Mill Story 1
Striving to Save the Mill 1
The November 2004 Lonaconing Workshop 2
A Review of Previous Efforts 2
Positive Climate for Change 2
The Challenge of Saving the Building 3
Adaptive Reuse Models to Consider for Lonaconing 5
Getting from Here to There—What’s Needed Next 5
Epilogue 6
AppendiCES 7
Thoughts on the Day 7
Participants List 8











Friends of the Potomac is a 501(c)3 membership organization that helps communities, businesses, governments, and individuals protect and restore natural resources while fostering sustainable economic development. Our vision is to create a network of sustainable, economically vibrant communities throughout the Potomac River Basin. Friends of the Potomac would like to thank the National Park Service, Senator Sarbanes and the Western Maryland Office, and all of the meeting participants for their support of our efforts on behalf of the Silk Mill in Lonaconing.
Introduction

The Lonaconing Silk Mill Story
The town of Lonaconing, Maryland, in Allegany County, is located in the George’s Creek Valley six miles south of Frostburg, in the northwestern part of the Potomac River watershed. Originally established in 1835 as a coal mining town, Lonaconing is the site of one of the last intact silk mills of a bygone era. When the Lonaconing Silk Mill, originally known as the Klots Throwing Company, ceased operation in 1957, its equipment was left in place. The building is a snapshot in time with appreciative owners – but time is taking its toll. Since the early 1990’s, the owners of the Mill have been looking for opportunities to adaptively reuse the building. They hope to find a way to restore the Mill building and highlight its operation, the people who worked there, its historic place in the community—and find an economically viable use for the building. To successfully reuse the Mill would protect the resource and the town’s cultural heritage while enhancing the community’s economic opportunities. A key challenge is the Lonaconing Silk Mill’s private ownership, which hinders the Mill from being eligible for grants and other support. A primary goal has been to find a sponsor to facilitate purchase of the property so the building can be stabilized and its contents warehoused and protected while adaptive reuse, preservation and restoration occurs.

Striving to Save the Mill
The most recent efforts to save the Mill began in 1999, when staff from the western office of Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) raised the issue of saving the Mill with Friends of the Potomac and the National Park Service. Friends of the Potomac (Friends) is a 501(c)3 membership organization that helps communities, businesses, governments, and individuals protect and restore natural resources while fostering sustainable economic development. Established in 1998, Friends served as the Community Partner Organization for the Potomac American Heritage Rivers Initiative (AHRI), which enabled federal support for community efforts along the river. For the last six years, Friends has partnered with the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and National Fish and Wildlife Service in community based projects throughout the watershed. Although Friends led several AHRI-funded workshops pertaining to the Lonaconing Silk Mill, and a dedicated group of people have worked hard over time to maintain the Mill and generate interest, no prospective owner has been found, and no substantial fund raising or groundswell of community-based support has resulted. Over time the roof began to collapse, and the onset of winter brings new threats to the structure.

As the AHRI was winding down, Friends, with funding from the National Park Service and at the request of Senator Sarbanes western office, agreed to hold a workshop in November 2004. It would emphasize the importance of the Lonaconing Silk Mill in the historical economy of the region and in the textile industry in the eastern United States. The workshop would focus on strategies to address the urgent needs of the Mill, from short-term stabilization to long-term plans for finding an owner willing to purchase the site and help in restoration, or salvaging the Mill’s historic artifacts below they were lost to winter’s destructive weather. From information collected at the workshop and from other background sources, a report would be written that could also be distributed to potential supporters.
The November 2004 Lonaconing Workshop

On Saturday, November 20, 2004, from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, Friends of the Potomac convened a Lonaconing Silk Mill adaptive reuse strategy session at the Good Will Fire Company Armory in Lonaconing, MD. Participants included staff from Senator Sarbanes office; heritage conservation, planning redevelopment, and micro-enterprise experts from federal, state and local government agencies and nonprofits; representatives from the local university and community heritage groups; and people simply interested in the heritage and environment of the area. Several of the attendees had been involved in previous workshops and other efforts related to the Mill; others had just learned about the Mill. A list of the twenty attendees follows.

Following introductions, attendees toured the Mill with owners Herb Crawford and Joyce Groden. Rebecca Trussell, a silk textile expert and Mill activist, staffed an informative and visually stimulating display on the history of silk, including a variety of samples, and information on the use of old mills as museums.

A Review of Previous Efforts
Glenn Eugster, National Park Service Assistant Regional Director for the National Capital Region Partnerships Office, provided a brief review of Mill preservation work sessions to date. Friends of the Potomac first became involved with the Mill in 1999, when Senator Sarbanes asked the newly formed organization and Eugster, as its first River Navigator, to look at the Mill. In 2000, Friends held a partner workshop over several days with local community members, leaders, and outside experts, leading to the development of an action agenda for the adaptive reuse of the Mill, heritage tourism in Lonaconing and Western MD, and to engage young people in the future of the community. Among other things that were tried unsuccessfully, an adaptive reuse feasibility study was proposed in April 2001, but was unable to be completed due to lack of matching funds. Said Eugster, it has been far harder to save the building than anticipated.

Positive Climate for Change
Al Feldstein, Regional Planner with the MD Dept. of Planning – Western Maryland Regional Office, Rich Harris, Manager of Project Services with the Allegany County Dept. of Economic Development, Duane Yoder, President of the Garrett County Community Action Committee, and others provided a perspective on the climate for development and tourism in the area surrounding Lonaconing. They agreed that, compared to five years ago, the climate for economic development is improving in Western Maryland, including George’s Creek and Lonaconing.

Overall, efforts to increase tourism in the area are succeeding, due in particular to a growing arts presence in Cumberland, MD, some fifteen mile away, as well as improved water quality leading to enhanced fishing and other outdoor recreation, and an effort to make the region more technology friendly. Retiring “baby boomers” are also starting to return to the homes of their youth in western Maryland, bringing financial resources, an active interest in maintaining the vitality of the community, and the time to support their interests. The tourism industry is going very well, although the network linking everything is still fragile.

One especially positive new consideration is the nearly-complete Allconet2 project that will bring wireless broadband Internet access (Wi-Max) into the George’s Creek valley. The operating system should be ready for kickoff to the private sector in January 2005. The equipment sites are 80% in place, and should be in George’s Creek by next spring. This will also end problems with cell phones and pagers. With high-speed internet access, the commercial potential of the 48,000 square-foot Mill building is enhanced.

A second opportunity pertains to the Grafton Branch spur railroad line that runs up the George’s Creek Valley; it may be available for land-banking for a possible future recreation corridor development project. CSX, the current owner, is in the process of selling off the Grafton system; a sale is expected in early 2005. While the spur has seen little or no activity in recent months, the Silk Mill is a key property along the route. Specifically, there is a plan being developed to extend a rails-to-trails corridor through this valley along the George’s Creek spur line.

The connection would be from the Allegheny Highlands Trail in West Virginia (near Thomas, WV) up the Western Maryland Railway branch line in the North Branch Valley to Westernport, and up the spur from there to Frostburg, linking with the Allegheny Highlands Trail of MD, and the Allegheny Highlands Trail of PA, just five miles to the north. This links the highly scenic Blackwater/Canaan/|Elkins area of West Virginia with both Washington, DC and Pittsburgh markets via the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Historical Park that meet at Cumberland. It was noted that Larry Brock is the planning committee’s County representative to the Allegheny Highlands Trail Links, and that adventure- and eco-tourism are booming locally.

The Challenge of Saving the Building
Based on preliminary assessments done in 2000, Rich Harris estimated that saving and renovating the Mill will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.5 to $4 million at a minimum, including acquisition, feasibility and planning studies, physical renovation, and furnishing. The annual operating cost for a staffed heritage museum would likely run $250,000 or more a year. Since a feasibility study has not been conducted, the actual costs, as well as the revenue-generating potential of the Mill, have yet to be determined.

Harris noted that despite the energy and enthusiasm generated by the workshops in 2000, community-based support has been limited. No measurable local government support has been obtained, which would be a way to attract State and Federal grants. Fund raising in general has been minimal, and no investors or buyers for contents or real estate have been identified. The project remains highly conceptual and lacks a specific, focused reuse plan and budget.

On the positive side, recent efforts to publicize the Mill’s plight met with success. The Washington Post ran a feature story on the Mill in September 2004. Grasping for a Thread of Hope by Mary Otto caught the eye of Wayne Firth, the Senior Photographer for the Architect of the Capitol, who has mounted a spectacular on-line photo essay about the Mill. Local Mill activist Mike Lewis recently received 501(c)(3) non-profit status for the Center for Appalachian Studies, which plans to make saving the Mill one of its projects.

Several people noted that one of the things missing in the effort to save the Mill was a shared common vision of the Mill’s future. The following was developed as a placeholder for such a vision, pending follow-up activities to the workshop.
A Vision for Adaptive Reuse of the Lonaconing Silk Mill
In 1907, as the result of a chance conversation on a train between a manufacturer and a visionary community member, the Klotz Throwing Mill, known locally simply as the Silk Mill, opened its doors in Lonaconing, MD, and began making silk thread. Fifty years later, the Mill was shuttered. With contents and records still intact, it was purchased for investment in the 1970s. Unable to find another commercial use, the still-intact Silk Mill began to attract interest in the 1990s as a site to be protected and preserved. The challenge in late 2004, of how to convert the Silk Mill to a sustainable reuse—to make a silk purse out of what some feel may now be a sow’s ear—is great indeed, especially as the owners age and the roof begins to fail.

In an ideal world, the renovated multi-use Silk Mill will be a source of jobs and revenue for the city and citizens of Lonaconing, a space for heritage education, local and on-line training in the fiber arts, coffee and conversation—a winning combination of studio, retail, commercial, and community space. It will include a working museum involving local youth, retirees, and all ages in between to tell the fascinating, multi-faceted story of a by-gone era of Maryland history. The Silk Mill will become a shining star of heritage tourism in Western Maryland, a rail- and trail-linked stop between Cumberland and Westernport, a must-see destination along the way from Pittsburg to Cannan Valley or Washington, DC. In its new incarnation, the Silk Mill will be a source of local pride, a well-linked regional asset, and a national model of sustainable adaptive reuse. Maybe. With your help.

While renewed efforts are underway to fund an adaptive reuse feasibility study—a road map for how best to use the space and how to pay for it—the property is being considered for transfer to the non-profit Pennsylvania-based Heritage Conservancy, a respected leader in protecting the natural and historic resources of the Mid-Atlantic region. The Conservancy has a long track record of partnering with conservation groups, consulting with community planning boards, providing expertise in land use planning, and offering authoritative evaluations of historic architecture. The Conservancy will hold the Silk Mill property in public trust and provide focus and staff assistance for finding a new owner.

At the same time, the new Lonaconing-based Center for Appalachian Studies will anchor local efforts to address the short-term issues that challenge the long-term vision, starting with emergency stabilization. The Mill’s roof is failing—and with the roof go options for preserving the structure and future choices. The Center is launching a new community-awareness effort, including a traveling exhibit, and will organize local fundraisers to generate money for immediate maintenance.

The Center will assist the owners and the community in sharing information about the past, present and future of the Silk Mill, keeping people informed about its progress, engaging the community in discussions about alternative futures, working to connect the Silk Mill to related regional activities, and seeking funding and community support. The Center will work with groups such as the Westsylvania Heritage Corporation, which defines heritage development as a resource-dependent approach to regional development that integrates the best practices of planning, business, and resource management with the values and expectations of the community. Westsylvania encompasses southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia, home of much of America's industrial heritage – iron and steel, railroads, coal and oil – and the national labor movement. It has much in common with, and much to share, with western Maryland.

To see the Mill, visit www.silverlight.net/silk_mill. To learn more, or to volunteer to help save the Silk Mill, contact the Center for Appalachian Studies at 301-xxx-xxxx or savethesilkmill@xxx.org.
Adaptive Reuse Models to Consider for Lonaconing
Acknowledging that the Lonaconing Silk Mill faces continuing challenges, Mikal McCartney, Executive Director of the Micro-enterprise Council of MD, Paula Zitzler, Research Director with the Westsylvania Heritage Corporation, Glenn Eugster and others offered the following models of successful redevelopment efforts that might offer insights to the people determined to save the Mill.
Cape Charles, VA – became the first ecological industrial park as a result of setting sustainable technology goals for an old industrial site, which didn’t even have a building standing. The community sold small as good – good workforce, good location, good transportation access, plus heritage of area – and found good new businesses who realized that the local work force could be retrained to fit their hiring needs.

MountainMade.com – a micro-enterprise using e-commerce to sell West Virginia arts and crafts, has had steadily increased sales, leading to expanded retail and community presence. They are now starting a new institute for the arts.

Explore-a-Story is the Westsylvania Heritage Corp. model – Explore-a-Story Centers are community commons, meeting-places where people interact and work together to conserve “their” local heritage, where they may participate in heritage conservation as much as they wish, and where they may volunteer or assume roles in the local conservation program that they find interesting or personally rewarding. Explore-a-story members get a card that allows them to donate 2% of their purchase price – often matched by retailers – to cultural heritage.

In addition to these redevelopment models, Frostburg State University professors Sudhir Singh and Keramat Poorsoltan described the FSU Arts Village Feasibility Study that is just getting underway. While focused on redevelopment of the Frostburg railroad depot, the study will look at a variety of issues that could have relevance for and help inform thinking about the Silk Mill, including a case-study on the Lynchburg, VA, arts village and artist-in-residence program.

Getting from Here to There—What’s Needed Next
Through out the day, strategies and suggestions for preserving the Lonaconing Silk Mill had been proposed. The following is a compilation of the group’s best thinking on what it will take.
Describe and agree on a one-page summary of a proposal for the reuse of the Silk Mill and its fit within the local and regional community.
Community, county and regional leaders need to agree—and demonstrate publicly—that the Mill is worth saving.
The local community must make trying to save the Silk Mill a priority; their buy-in and preferably their leadership will be needed to seek grants and other funds needed to stabilize and renovate the building.
Contingent on an agreement with the Mill's owners, non-profit ownership of the building is needed while new ownership is sought and the community gets engaged. The Heritage Conservancy has volunteered to work with the current owners to achieve this objective.
The building, especially the roof, needs emergency stabilization work completed before the snowfall this winter. Start a “Save Our Mill” campaign, and ask everyone to “Give a buck for the Mill”; ask the local arts council to host a concert or gallery fundraiser.
An adaptive reuse feasibility study must be completed, and it needs to include sustainable technologies, heritage, and education, and look at non-traditional economic development opportunities such as micro-enterprise approaches, not just traditional “big” employers.
Public investment in the project must be justified in the return to community – dollars are limited, and funding work on the Silk Mill must offer a better return than funding other projects also seeking public funding.
The project needs more time than volunteers have been able to contribute to date, and must be integrated into broader regional heritage conservation efforts to succeed.
People must successfully pursue sources of funds for saving the building, such as:
o VA-HUD appropriated funds include some of the most flexible funding sources in the Federal government; projects range from $35K to $10 million, and heritage projects are often a priority
o Save America’s Treasures grants, administered by the National Park Service (NPS) in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, are another possibility.
o Maryland State bonds are short term source of funding
o Appalachian Regional Commission funds
o USDA Rural Development funds
o Economic Development Administration (funds must be tied to jobs creation).


Epilogue
Since the meeting, the owners of the Silk Mill have been in discussions with the Heritage Conservancy, and it appears likely that the building will soon move out of private ownership. The Lonaconing-based Center for Appalachian Studies has received its 501(c)(3) status, and Mike Lewis and Rebecca Trussel will be exploring ways that the Center can help advance efforts to protect the mill. The roof is holding its own.


Appendix 1

Thoughts on the Day
As the meeting was wrapping up, people were asked to sum up their thoughts on how the day had gone. The following are comments shared by the various participants.
Advocates for saving the Silk Mill have lots of ideas, but must coalesce, identify the first feasible step, and take it.
Westsylvania should stay involved for the long term – bring in more of its resources to help project succeed.
Great people, wonderful ideas, but there is still no agreement on how to save the Mill.
Universal buy-in is still missing, and needed.
The strategy for preserving the Silk Mill has not yet been articulated.
Not clear how the day’s meeting will save the Silk Mill.
May need to wait for a third meeting.
The town and community must lead – others can support efforts, but not lead it and succeed.
FOP will support whatever comes of the day’s efforts.
The community is not yet using its own resources.
Continuing skepticism due to lack of consensus.
Saving the Mill takes knowing what’s inside before it’s lost forever and too late.
When the vision is on paper, progress can occur.
The project still needs leadership and vision – if Lonaconing was under Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii would still be buried in the ashes.
Lots of great options should not be viewed as mutually exclusive – but if something isn’t done about the roof before it snows, will it matter?
Day’s meeting has created resolve to do more, starting with moving building into non-profit status and making community fully aware of Silk Mill’s assets and potential.
It takes a village to save a Silk Mill – get the public relations engine pumping and create buy-in from Lonaconing community and leadership.
Difficulty remains – private ownership is the first hurdle to overcome.
Don’t overlook newcomers, and boomers returning to, Lonaconing – people with vision, a desire and capacity to foster change, and the stamina to stay the course, people like the Broadwaters, who’ve offered to help however they can, and the Creekside Café’s owner, who’s already making a difference. Find ways to use the new 501(c)(3), Institute for Appalachian Studies, and to provide resources to it so people have the time to advance goals.



Steve Biggs
Westernport Heritage Society
87 Poplar St.
Westernport, MD 21562
bikerider@prodigy.net
301-359-9570

Gary & Andrea Broadwater
9163 Woodland Way N.
Owings, MD 20736
andrea.broadwater@ameribanq.com
301-855-7338
OR
15 Robin St.
Lonaconing, MD 21539

Tom Clayton
Westernport Heritage Society
303 Pratt St.
Luke, MD 21540
hoagie1@mindspring.com
301-359-9586

Cliff David
President
Heritage Conservancy
85 Old Dublin Pike
Doylestown, PA 18901
cdavid@heritageconservancy.org
215-345-7020 ext. 112

Glenn Eugster
Assistant Regional Director
NPS, National Capital Region Partnerships Office
1100 Ohio Drive, SW, Room 350
Washington,, DC 20242
glenn_eugster@nps.gov
202-619-7492
202-619-7220 fax

Al Feldstein
Regional Planner
MD Dept. of Planning – Western Maryland Regional Office
113 Baltimore St.
Cumberland, MD 21502 - 3007
afeldstein@mdp.state.md.us
301-777-2158

Linda Goodman
7701 Woodmont Ave. #409
Bethesda, MD 20814
goodman725@comcast.net
301-656-1627
Rich Harris
Manager, Project Services
Allegany County Dept. of Economic Development
701 Kelly Rd.
Cumberland, MD 21502
rharris@allconet.org
301-777-5852

Gary Horowitz
31 Blair St.
Frostburg, MD 21532
ghorowitz@frostburg.edu
301-689-7963

Mike Lewis
16207 Douglas Hill Ave.
Lonaconing, MD 21539
ucandream2@adelphia.net
mplewis@djs.state.md.us
301-463-2487 (w)
301-689-9128 (h)

Tim Magrath
Senator Sarbanes Office
113 Baltimore St., Suite 201
Cumberland, MD 21502
tim_magrath@sarbanes.senate.gov
301-724-0695

Mikal McCartney
Executive Director
Micro-enterprise Council of MD
P.O. Box 3327
Annapolis, MD 21403-9998
mikal@emicromaryland.com
410-514-7563

Kevin Miller
Member, FOP Exec. Committee
Friends of the Potomac
woodie21620@yahoo.com

Merrily Pierce
Chairman, FOP Exec. Committee
Friends of the Potomac
1063 Carper Street
McLean, VA 22101
pierce111@verizon.net
703-848-1924
Keramat Poorsoltan
Professor
Frostburg State University
Guild Center #010, College of Business
Frostburg, MD 21532
kpoorsoltan@frostburg.edu
301-687-7498
www.westsylvania.com

Joseph Schlereth
11 Allegany St.
Lonaconing, MD 21539
301-463-5205

Sudhir Singh
Associate Professor
Frostburg State University
Guild Center #009, College of Business
Frostburg, MD 21532
ssingh@frostburg.edu
301-687-4093

Rebecca Trussell
3622 Petersville Road
Knoxville, Maryland 21758
rebeccatrussell@earthlink.net
301-834-8397

Duane Yoder
President
The Garrett County Community Action Committee, Inc.
104 E. Center Street
Oakland, MD 21550-1328
dyoder@garrettcac.org
301-334-9431

Paula Zitzler
Research Director
Westsylvania Heritage Corp.
105 Zee Plaza
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648
pzitzler@westsylvania.org
814-696-9380

Facilitator:
Michelle Mauthe Harvey, CF
MautheHarvey & Associates
107 Elm Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
fourharveys@starpower.net
301-891-3474