In the increasingly embittered battle over the future of the Patapsco Valley -- whether to turn it into a certified heritage area and market it to tourists, or whether to leave it the way it is -- one voice has been overlooked: that of the museum directors in Baltimore and Howard counties.
Not surprisingly, directors who stand to gain the most -- because of increased visitation -- are enthusiastic about the plan, known as the Patapsco Heritage Greenway. They run the Ellicott City B&O; Railroad Station Museum and the Patapsco Female Institute in Ellicott City -- two museums that do not receive a steady source of public funding and therefore stand to benefit a great deal from better marketing and increased visitation.
Two other museum directors are lukewarm toward the greenway. One, the director of the Benjamin Banneker Museum in Oella, worries that the project will have a negative impact on the environment. The other, the director of the Howard County Historical Society Museum, has removed herself from the debate, believing that she should instead focus on preserving Howard County history.
Marketing trend
At least one expert says lack of organization on the museum directors' part could hurt them, causing them to miss out on an effective marketing trend that is sweeping the country.
"While the individual sites have important things to tell in aggregate, they are even more interesting as a group," said Peggy Burke, a Baltimore-based cultural resources consultant. "They tell a bigger story."
Instead of leaving the museums to fend for themselves, as they mostly do now, the greenway could market them as a group -- a proven strategy for success, Burke said. The project would connect area museums with Patapsco Valley State Park, planners say, and would tell the story of the Industrial Revolution that flourished along the river in Baltimore and Howard counties in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Ed Williams, director of the Ellicott City B&O; Railroad Station Museum, site of the nation's first railroad terminus, hopes the greenway will attract local residents who don't think to explore the treasures in their own back yards.
"I have seen the streets of Ellicott City teeming with people and they're not coming in here," Williams said. "I think there's enormous potential for local people to take advantage of the resources that are there."
On average, Williams said, the railroad museum has 22,000 paying visitors a year. It costs about $153,000 to run the museum, he said; admission does not cover that full amount. He said the rest comes from merchandise sales, small county grants and Historic Ellicott City Inc.
"I guess my perception of a greenway was not that it would be an environmental or heritage Disneyland, but a tremendous resource for communities," Williams said.
Deborah Ing, director of the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City, said she and the institute board support the idea of a greenway and "would love to come out and help in any way we could."
Ing said it's always a struggle to make enough money to stay afloat, and the board spends much of its time applying for grants and organizing fund-raisers. Last year, she said, 5,000 people visited the museum, and the projected operating budget was $30,000. For 1999, she said, it's $40,000.
If the greenway comes to pass, it would include the park, which has ruins from one of the first private girls' schools in the 19th century.
"It would be great for the exposure," Ing said. "I know it would be a great boon to a small museum."
Environmental concerns
Steven Lee, director of the publicly funded Benjamin Banneker Museum and Park, is less enthusiastic. He worries so much about the environmental impact of the project that he organized a committee to address it. Members met for the first time last month.
"I think it is critical that where you preserve people history, you preserve natural history as well," Lee said. "For that reason, we are both supportive and concerned about the greenway."
The Banneker Museum, which celebrates "America's First Black Man of Science," opened in June and has about 600 visitors a month, Lee said. The park has 142 acres -- including the well-used Trolley Trail No. 9 -- that Lee hopes to turn into an arboretum of native plants.
The museum is funded by the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks, Lee said -- not including donations from the "friends of Banneker Historical Park." John F. Weber III, Baltimore County Recreation and Parks Department director, said the county spends more than $84,000 a year on the museum and park.
Phyllis Knill, director of the Howard County Historical Society Museum in Ellicott City, said she has avoided taking a stand on the greenway, saying she's "not sure it's really our mission" to do so.
The Historical Society Museum -- funded by membership and grants from the Columbia Foundation, Howard County, the Maryland Historical Trust and the Howard County Arts Council -- receives about 1,000 visitors a year, she said.
The museum and library are not explicitly included in the greenway proposals, but could receive increased visitation if the project brought more visitors to the Ellicott City.
Living up to its potential
Burke, the cultural resources consultant, said she supports the greenway project because she believes in the inherent good of heritage tourism. She said she and her family visited sites in the Patapsco River Valley last summer and came away with the sense that the valley was not living up to its potential.
"We just felt that there was so much more that could have been done to make the area come alive," she said.
Pub Date: 3/21/99