Help us find Annie
Time for the wrecking ball at American Brewery
Eric Siegel's lengthy two-part piece about the area surrounding the former American Brewery, published in the Baltimore Sun, neglects the obvious: the Historic Register status of the brewery building is at the root of the city's continuing inability to re-develop the area.
With so many abandoned dwellings surrounding the brewery, the ideal solution would be to raze the entire area, including the brewery itself. Then the area could be secured, and an entirely new infrastructure installed. To try rehabbing houses piecemeal in such an area requires too much time and risk, and three decades have already been wasted. The question of whether the historic buildings themselves are structurally sound cannot readily be answered.
This happens altogether too often when properties are placed in historic-preservation status. The process should be amended to provide a sunset date for the rehabilitation of a property, beyond which it would lose its protected status and become a candidate for demolition. If nothing permanent and positive has happened at this particular site in 34 years, it's time to pull the plug.
A building is only bricks and mortar, and if those materials must be pulverized in the name of progress for people, then so be it.