National Park Seminary — later called National Park College — was a private girls' school open from 1894 to 1942. Located in Forest Glen Park, Maryland, its name alludes to nearby

Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890 and today is administered by the National Park Service. In addition to the park proper, the Rock Cr ...

. The historic campus is to be preserved as the center of a new housing development.

History

College

The campus began in 1887 as "Ye Forest Inne," a summer vacation retreat for

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, residents. The retreat did not succeed financially, and the property was sold and redeveloped as a finishing school, opening in 1894 with a class of 48 female students. The architecture of the campus remained eclectic and whimsical. In addition to various Victorian styles, exotic designs included a Dutch

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

, a Swiss chalet, a Japanese

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

, an Italian villa, and an English castle. Many of these small homes with international designs were built from blueprints obtained by competing sororities, but all were designed by architect Emily Elizabeth Holman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The campus also featured covered walkways, outdoor sculptures, and elaborately planned formal gardens. Among the administration was Assistant Dean of the college, Miss Edna Roeckel. In 1936 it was renamed "National Park College" and its focus was realigned with more modern education trends; it remained one of the most prestigious women's schools in the country.

Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex

With the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

began planning for the medical needs of returning soldiers. In 1942, the property was acquired by

Walter Reed Army Hospital The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and ret ...

as a medical facility for disabled soldiers, thus closing the college. The Army paid $890,000 for the land and buildings that became the Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex. The goal was to provide to seriously injured service members a quiet, green space for rehabilitation and recovery that was within a short drive from the heavily urbanized neighborhood surrounding the hospital. Following World War II and the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, the U.S. Army attempted to maintain the space with progressively limited funds; the U.S. Army employed some of the unique sorority houses as base housing for

military officers An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

who organized themselves and enlisted soldiers to maintain the seminary space. Eventually, however, the Army lost sufficient funding from the U.S. Congress during the 1960-1970s to maintain the space and was compelled to declare the property excess, pending transfer to the General Services Administration to find a new owner.

Preservation and development

On September 14, 1972, a 27-acre (0.11-km²) National Park Seminary Historic District was listed as a national historic district on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In the following years, the historical integrity of the property was threatened by neglect and

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term ...

. The

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

Odeon Theater was lost to arson in 1993. Local preservation groups took action and "Save Our Seminary" (SOS) was formed in 1988. In the late 1990s, Senator

Paul Sarbanes Paul Spyros Sarbanes (; February 3, 1933 – December 6, 2020) was an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party from Maryland, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 ...

was instrumental in encouraging the Army to make repairs to some of the buildings and, ultimately, in releasing the property for development. With private donations, SOS began an exterior restoration project of the pagoda in 1999, completed in 2003. In 2003, a development team led by the Alexander Company began implementing a plan to preserve the campus as the core of a new residential neighborhood. The residential neighborhood consists of townhomes, condominiums, and apartments. The townhomes are in a variety of architectural styles from Spanish mission to colonial. The apartments, some of which are affordable housing, are in the main structure. Condominiums are located in several buildings that branch off of the main structure including the Senior House, Senior Annex, and Music Hall. There are condominiums in the Chapel and Aloha House. The Alexander Company's plans for redevelopment of the site were featured in a 2006

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

story. Portions of the abandoned seminary grounds were made available for townhouse development which began in 2006. Portions of the old-growth forest in the glen were cut down for the commercial housing development and portions were retained; likewise, parts of the historically sensitive yards and courts were spared from redevelopment.

Gallery

Image:National-Park-Seminary-01.jpg Image:National-Park-Seminary-02.jpg Image:National-Park-Seminary-03.jpg Image:National-Park-Seminary-04.jpg Image:National-Park-Seminary-05.jpg Image:National-Park-Seminary-06.jpg Image:National-Park-Seminary-May-Day-1907.jpg

References

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...