Fort Ritchie is named an endangered site

The Record Herald. By Record Herald staff. Saturday March 15, 2008

Cascade, Md. -

A Maryland preservation group has named the former Fort Ritchie U.S. Army base one of the 11 most endangered sites in the state.

The Camp Ritchie Historic District is on the site of the 600-acre former base and espionage school near Cascade.

Preservation Maryland, a non-profit organization, announced the list in conjunction with Maryland Life magazine.

The list is designed to raise awareness of sites throughout the state that face threats, according to the group.

‘Vital part’

The Preservation Maryland Web site calls Camp Ritchie a “vital part of Maryland's military history.”

The historic district includes at least 50 stone building, two lakes and roughly 30 acres of open space known as the parade grounds.

“The district represents the time period when the National Guard controlled the fort, as well as when the fort served as the War Department’s Military Intelligence Training Center” during World War II, according to the Web site.

The Army and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have approved a plan by Corporate Office Properties Trust to develop suburban office buildings and parking areas there.

“These developments would threaten the integrity of the Camp Ritchie Historic District,” according to Preservation Maryland.

Preserving the past

The parade grounds are protected as part of a set of guidelines established in 1997 by the U.S. Army, the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Maryland Historical Trust and Pen-Mar Development Corp.

COPT, based in Columbia, Md., purchased the former base in two phases beginning in October 2006.

COPT is planning to invest $5 million in a new community center, which will be built on the footprint o the old gym, about half of which has been torn down. Planners intended to use the parade grounds for recreational purposes, such as softball and soccer fields.

History

The base itself dates to 1926, when it was built by the Maryland National Guard.

At the time, Fort Ritchie was known as Camp Ritchie.

In 1942, Camp Ritchie was taken over by the War Department’s Military Intelligence Training Center. Intelligence officers and interpreters were trained there before being sent overseas. With the U.S. Army’s presence, the base grew from a camp to a fort.

The base was closed in 1998 as part of the federal Base Realignment and Closure Program under then-president Bill Clinton.

On the net

www.preservemd.org