City panel delays hearing on creamery demolition
A historical preservation board meeting in Baltimore took on the air of courtroom drama Tuesday, with objections, finger-pointing and cross-examinations. No crime had been committed, but there was a body.
The Hendler Creamery building on East Baltimore Street was marked for redevelopment a decade ago and partially demolished several years ago. Without a roof, rain and time ate away at the structure. The facade, three walls buttressed by supports, is all that remains.
City staff determined that the building had lost its historical integrity because it had deteriorated beyond repair, and the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation voted in March to approve its demolition at the request of a nearby nonprofit that wants to turn the site into a green space.
The commissioners were expected to finalize that decision Tuesday.
Instead, the commission decided to redo the first hearing, because part of that meeting was not posted online. This time, the commissioners overturned their own staff ’s findings, voting that the structure still was historically significant, though demolition remains an option. There will be another hearing next month to decide its fate.
Eric Holcomb, executive director of CHAP, said he did not expect the building would sit and deteriorate for years. He acknowledged that it was once a “super” building, but no more.
“This is a ruin of a building,” Holcomb said.
After plans for a residential complex that incorporated the creamery’s facade stalled, Helping Up Mission, a nonprofit that helps people with homelessness and addiction, applied to demolish the remaining structure.
Several people spoke at Tuesday’s hearing, and some touched on a broader question about the nature of development in a city like Baltimore with many historically significant buildings: Was this a case of “demolition by neglect?”
That phrase was used multiple times by John Murphy, an attorney representing two Inner Harbor residents who attend religious services near the former creamery. Murphy objected to the proceedings dozens of times and requested a closing statement, causing commissioners to consult their own legal counsel.
“This is not a court of law,” said Nichole Battle, one of the commissioners. “This is a CHAP hearing.”
But Murphy called it a “quasi-judicial hearing,” and the panel ultimately granted Murphy a closing statement.
At one point in the hearing, Murphy described the creamery as the “most important building” that commissioners had considered in the past few years.
After more than 2 hours, commissioners took their vote and recessed. Holcomb got up and shook a man’s hand.
“I need a couple of beers,” he said.