Edwin Remsberg
In the April 2011 issue of Maryland Life, the McKim Free School was listed as one of the 2011 Endangered Maryland sites. Endangered Maryland is a program, started in 2006 as a partnership between Preservation Maryland and Maryland Life, to raise awareness of some of the state’s most threatened historic and cultural sites.
We are working with our partners on the local and national levels to see that the McKim Free School can continue its progress towards being a preservation success story. The McKim Free School is fortunate to have a dedicated board and an Executive Director, Dwight Warren, who is very passionate about the Center’s mission and the building. This 1833 landmark was designed as a replica of a Greek Temple and has a 175 year record of education and social service. Since 1945, the building has been home to the McKim Center, which serves children and adults in need in the Jonestown community of Baltimore. The city-owned site was listed on the 2011 Endangered Maryland list due to the building’s pressing need for internal and external repairs.
The McKim is now seeking assistance to win up to $25,000 for the continued restoration of the school building. You can vote for the McKim Free School in the This Place Matters Community Challenge organized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Online voting continues through the end of June and you can only vote once. We hope you will participate in this contest and encourage you to enlist your friends and family to do so, too.
The McKim Free School is one of 53 Endangered Maryland sites from 19 counties that serve as a testament to the breadth of historic resources in Maryland. We are pleased that so many of our Endangered Maryland sites have rallied support, found viable uses and are being saved. In a progress review of the Endangered Maryland sites just before the release of the 2011 list, we were delighted to see that only one site has been lost and encouraging developments have occurred in many other sites.
For more information on the Endangered Maryland program or on Preservation Maryland, please visit www.preservationmaryland.org.
Tyler Gearhart is the director of Preservation Maryland.
