Burbank's Is No More
Jul 27, 2009 8:51 - 5 Comments
Yesterday, I stopped by Burbanks to see if the building had been demolished. On Friday, City Council candidate >Max van Balgooy had alerted us (using Twitter) that a demolition permit had been issued. Sure enough, the building was gone and construction trucks were flattening the lot.
According to City staff in April 2008, property met Rockville’s criteria for a local historic district. Built in 1890, the building was the oldest commercial structure still in its original location in downtown Rockville.
As Peerless Rockville describes, the building was constructed by Thomas Dawson, a prominent businessman who had a mercantile store and rented to many businesses. The 1 1/2-story structure with a sloped roof was definitely a reminder of days gone by. In the 1960′s, Perry and Eleanor Burbank opened a luncheonette and when Hence and Laura Maynard took over in 1974, they kept the name.
In February 0f 2003, the owner of the consignment shop at 18 West Montgomery Avenue, Vanessa Yvette Johnson Sosin, was murdered on a Saturday afternoon. The building was set on fire to cover up the crime, which has never been solved. The building was purchased by 18 West Montgomery Avenue LLC in 2004 and has been vacant.
As I wrote, the City tried to buy it as part of the new police station complex but the owner wanted $1.3 million.
So this is what a $1.3 million lot looks like:
I’m interested to find out what will become of the land.
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Not the news I was looking for this morning–I am very very sorry to learn this. Between the loss of Chesnut Lodge and now Bubanks’, it’s been a singularly tough year for preservation in Rockville. Though it was a long shot, I was hoping the idea of adding it to the Rockville Police complex might work out. (Full disclosure–I serve on the Board of Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd., though these opinions are my own and not those of any organization).
Burbanks was not worth saving after the fire and murder there…I don’ know why the loss of that building would be mourned. I hope someday the murder of poor Vanessa is solved. I have thought about her every time I ever passed that building. RIP.
That place was an eyesore and embarassment to town for the last six years. It was the site of an ugly crime and was then left to rot in front of all of us for over half a decade.People interested in “preserving” it could have bought it from the previous owner! But instead it was sold to somebody who eventually thought he’d cash-in on OUR tax money by getting the city to pay 1.3M for that tiny parcel of land. He’d be lucky to get what he paid for the place at this point. I think it was somewhere around 300K. Keep in mind there was ZERO driveway space. ZERO parking space. the little lot behind it was part of the post office site.Actually, it really *should* become part of the police campus there, and hopefully the police site can be designed to make future use of this little postage stamp of ground should it become available in the future at a sane price.
Yes, it was the site of a terrible crime, whose memory troubles all of us in part because it is still unsolved. But in my view it was also a fine example of small-town commercial architecture which would have made a nice project in adapative reuse. I still feel it’s unfortunate it did not work out. The fire damage was a hurdle, to be sure, but it was also a hurdle for Cordelia’s House on Wood Lane. IN that case, a happy resolution was reached despite the damage–it’s now an award-winning project that preserves our past while serving a vital role for its owners, Jerusalem-Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church, and our community.And to be clear, I am not arguing that the City should have put 1.3 million into purchasing the site at that price, if that is indeed the price quoted (I don’t know, personally). My post was not intended to suggest that public funding at that level was the solution.I am simply saying that in my view, the loss of such an attractive and familiar facade, with such strong connections to our community’s past, is to be regretted–and I do regret it.
Thank you for your clarifying comments, Erik.