[RP TownTalk] MacAlpine History

[Melissa Avery]

This is a well know resource. 
The federal government purchased the property , much to the chagrin of the Towns citizens, to house unnecessary workers during WWII. 
The town's citizens were hoping the Federal government would not commandeer the property and the historic home could be salvaged. 
Unfortunately, because of its proximity to ERCO the government  took the property over and built a 550 unit  prefab temporary housing project in 1942 out of asbestos cement board. 
By 1943 it was already deteriorating and concurred a shanty town by town by Riverdale residents. 
After WWII it basically was housing for married students at the University of Maryland.
the 1950's era of the housing site is a bit controversial.
The federal government closed the housing up in 1954. Part was developed as a central us mail facility and part as an army reserve location. the rest was sold at auction to Cafritz in 1959.

 



________________________________
 From: Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>
To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org 
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 3:52 PM
Subject: [RP TownTalk] MacAlpine History
 

 
All –
 
I found this history that was written in 1934 concerning the MacAlpine Mansion.  The author prepared it as part of his initiation into the Phi Mu engineering honorary fraternity.  While not a trained historian (as far as I know), the author did derive much of the information from interviews with the surviving Calvert family:
http://www.archive.org/download/TheHistoryAndConstructionOfMacAlpineAtCollegeParkMaryland/PhillipsJack-univarch-014831.pdf
 
Jonathan W. Ebbeler | Councilmember – Ward One
Town of Riverdale Park
jebbeler at riverdaleparkmd.gov


_______________________________________________
TownTalk mailing list
To post to the list, send mail to TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
TownTalk-request at riverdale-park.org is for automated subscription processing only
http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk

For more information about Riverdale Park, visit http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20120217/43f70da6/attachment.html>