Hurdles in bid for Hopkins’ old home
Nonprofit cites pandemic for delayed purchase plan
A nonprofit established in 2017 to purchase Johns Hopkins’ childhood home is close to owning the property, its founder said, but hit some hurdles during the COVID-19 pandemic and temporarily lost its tax-exempt status.
Robert Brown, executive director of the nonprofit, said his vision for Whites Hall in Gambrills is to turn it into a museum, tavern and inn.
“My goal is for it to take two years to get people walking in the door,” Brown said in a 2017 interview with The Capital.
But those plans have not been fulfilled. Four years after signing an 18-month, lease-to-own agreement with the owners at the time, local developer Polm Companies, Johns Hopkins House Inc. still doesn’t own the building.
Brown said Johns Hopkins House is close to owning it and cites the pandemic for the delay.
“We more or less had the sale locked down and would have owned it right before COVID,” Brown said. “We had a local business person who was willing to give us a hand in terms of a private loan, and COVID affected that person and that person’s business. That was the primary reason why it didn’t happen.”
Brown said the nonprofit is about 80% of the way toward having enough money to buy Whites Hall; the nonprofit owes the developer $840,000 for the historic site.
Whites Hall, part of the 13-acre Whites Hall plantation, is the home in which Johns Hopkins, the famous Baltimore philanthropist, was born in in 1795. He lived there until he was 17, according to a historic resources evaluation form from Anne Arundel County.
Hopkins has been the subject of recent news as he had been known as an early abolitionist, but recently uncovered records suggest he had enslaved people in his home until the mid-1800s.
Continuing to fundraise
The organization is continuing to collect money through a GoFundMe fundraiser, online donation packages and in-person beer garden fundraisers on the property.
Brown launched a new initiative in October to raise money for “annual academic scholarships [that] will help African-American students access a college or vocational education,” according to a news release.
“Each scholarship will be specifically named for one of the Hopkins family’s enslaved workers and will have a primary funding sponsor,” the release states.
Brown said funding for the scholarships will come from extra revenue the nonprofit hopes to have once the museum, tavern and inn are up and running.
“We think that the operations of Whites Hall eventually can generate probably in the area of $800,000 to $1 million a year in excess revenue,” he said.
The organization also collected $100,000 in February 2018 from a member of the Allyn family, founders of the medical instrumentation company Welch Allyn.
Brown, who says his mother lived in the house, used $70,000 of that donation to pay down some of the $840,000 initial sale price, according to the nonprofit’s website.
He said the organization had $8,500 as of Friday and expects to have more soon from its GoFundMe.
Losing tax-exempt status
Over the four years of the nonprofit’s existence, it failed to file 990 documents, which the IRS requires annually to ensure transparency between a nonprofit, the IRS and donors. The documents detail how much money the organization has collected, names of donors and what the money is being put toward.
The IRS legally requires an organization to present the 990 upon request from the public.
After multiple requests from The Capital, Brown has not yet shared the organization’s 990 documents and, on Dec. 2, provided a statement: “We’re working with a professional tax preparer to complete all required 990s and will have them available on our website shortly.” As of Friday, the forms were not online.
If a nonprofit fails to file the documents after three years of operations, it loses its tax-exempt status. Johns Hopkins House lost that status in May 2020, but the following December was granted an extension and had its status retroactively redeemed. The organization had not filed its 990 documents as of Friday. To retain its tax-exempt status, Johns Hopkins House must file the 990 forms by the annual deadline of May 15, 2022.
“Through my own personal lapse, during COVID we did experience a temporary and unexpected revocation of our exempt status. However, as soon as we were informed we immediately took the necessary action for successful retroactive reinstatement, with the result being there was never any lapse in our exempt standing, which continues to be current,” Brown said in a statement Friday. “And, in conformity with IRS requirements, all of our 990 returns will be available to the public in the next 10 days prepared by a third party. It has and is our goal to be totally transparent to the community that has been so supportive of our efforts.”
The most recent data lists 1,195,637 nonprofit organizations registered with the IRS that are eligible to receive tax-deductible donations nationwide. Meanwhile, 952,456 nonprofits have had their tax-exempt status automatically revoked; Johns Hopkins House was on that list due to delays the IRS is dealing with in updating its website.
The IRS website states that an organization that fails to file a 990 in a timely manner “will be liable for all income, excise or other taxes and penalties that may have been owed at the time it was automatically revoked. The organization will also be responsible for any future tax liabilities that accrue as a result of the organization’s loss of exemption.”
Once a nonprofit is identified as having missed the filing deadline, the IRS may reach out.
“The IRS has a wide range of enforcement tools,” said Anthony Burke, an IRS media relations spokesperson. “Generally, the IRS tries to bring organizations into compliance.”
Obstacles in fundraising
Johns Hopkins House has had between 1,500 and 2,000 donors, Brown estimates, many of whom attend fundraiser beer gardens organized by Brown on the Whites Hall lawn and purchase lifetime memberships with a donation of $50 through $2,500 through the organization’s website. Brown estimates the organization has brought in about 1,200 members, mostly from the surrounding Crofton area.
“It’s just harder raising money than one might think,” Brown said. “One of the obstacles in effectively fundraising is, when you lease, it’s harder to raise money because you’re leasing. I think people that are considering larger donations might hesitate because you don’t own the property yet.”
At present, Whites Hall is owned by a business entity named for the address of the building: 2173 Hopkins Road LLC.
Richard Polm, the developer behind Polm Companies, is “semiretired” now, said the company’s resident agent James Praley. As far as Praley knows, Polm no longer deals with Hopkins House.
In 2017, Polm handed the responsibility of collecting the money owed by Johns Hopkins House over to his attorney, Samuel Sperling, who is listed as caring for the property. The same year, Polm Companies stopped updating its website and appeared to be finished doing business.
2173 Hopkins Road LLC was forfeited in 2018 for failing to file an annual report noting the names of officers, directors and income being earned from the business, said Meghann Malone, public information officer for the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. By SDAT’s definition, forfeiture means the organization is no longer able to conduct business in the state.
However, property taxes have been paid every year since 2018, when the LLC acquired the property. The tax payments total $40,334, according to the Anne Arundel County real estate search engine. Yearly taxes have averaged $8,067.
A business cannot legally conduct operations in the state of Maryland when forfeited, according to SDAT; however, Brown said he has been paying rent to the LLC since the agreement began. He said he was unaware of the forfeited status.
Sperling could not be reached for comment.
Forfeiture is quite common in the state, Malone said.
“Approximately 50,000 businesses in the state forfeit every year because they didn’t file annual reports. Every fall, two letters go out reminding them they need to file; if they don’t then they’re forfeited,” Malone said.
After The Capital asked Brown about the forfeiture in November, the LLC filed articles of reinstatement and was revived. It now has a new resident agent: Riverside Filings LLC, a company that helps businesses and nonprofits with legal paperwork.
What’s next
Johns Hopkins House plans to continue raising money to purchase the house, renovate it and create the scholarships.
Brown said he is particularly excited about the organization’s plans to partner with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra for a concert on the lawn of the house.
Edgar Herrera, the symphony’s executive director, said his staff is still working out whether it’s logistically possible to set up a stage and instruments on the property but hopes a concert will be on the docket for next year.
Herrera said the symphony has been working on finding more venues, particularly outdoors, to play in and is eager for a new space to potentially perform at.
“Our main goal is to play more music, in more places for more people,” Herrera said.