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The Whole World's Mad...
Sep. 25th, 2009 02:46 amWhen we first started looking for a new home, closer to Julie's job, we were keeping our options open, and we looked at townhouses and condos as well as single-family homes. We eventually decided no, we really did want our own house, but it was not a foregone conclusion.
Anyway, one of the first places we looked at was National Park Seminary, in Silver Spring. The original building had been a hotel, and then the site was a girls' finishing school, and then a military hospital, and finally it was abandoned and left to rot for about thirty years before a bunch of preservationists got together with developers and bought the place.
The central building, the old hotel, is now rental apartments. The outbuildings are being restored as single-family homes. The surrounding land and some of the buildings have been turned into townhouses.
The really interesting stuff, though, is the old dorms and classroom buildings, which are being rebuilt as luxury condos.
A couple of years ago, when we were still in the very early stages of looking at real estate, we seriously considered buying one of those condos. Specifically, we wanted the upstairs of the music hall -- I can't link to a floor plan or anything because it's been sold. In fact, it was already under contract when we first looked, which was a great disappointment to us. Still, we toured the place a couple of times, those parts that were open for visitors -- which wasn't much of it at the time, as construction was still very much ongoing.
The place had been a ruin, and needed a lot of renovation -- more than the developers realized, I think, as many of the condos, including the music hall suites, are running more than a year behind their original scheduled delivery dates. It was still in rough shape when we looked at it. Some of it was very cool, though; we got inside the chapel and the Aloha House and admired them.
The condos were expensive for what you got; yes, there were major tax breaks for historic properties, but the prices were still very high on a square footage basis, and the condo fees were ghastly. The location's good, but not ideal for us. So we decided not to buy there, but we were on their mailing list, in case the situation changed.
Then a year or so later we went back and checked out some of the new townhouses on the property. One floor plan was absolutely gorgeous, but didn't quite work for us; another had all the spaces we needed, but spread over four floors, which would mean a lot of climbing stairs. We decided to pass on those, but since we were in the area we took another look at the Seminary proper; progress was being made. The Aloha House was partly owner-occupied; the chapel was sold. All in all, though, the place was still something of a mess.
We got busy finding somewhere more suitable, and of course we eventually found it and moved, which kept us very busy, so we didn't think much about the Seminary.
But a few days ago we got an invitation to an open house on the evening of September 24th, and we said what the heck, why not?
So last night we headed up that way. And we figured we'd have dinner in the neighborhood; I'd gotten an e-mail from our Discover account listing a bunch of local restaurants they said would give us a $5.00 rebate if we ate there and paid with our Discover card. One of them is right near the Seminary.
So we went and drank the developer's booze and ate hors d'oeuvres and talked to a nice lady from the historic society that was responsible for putting together the redevelopment deal. We admired the Seminary ballroom, which is really very spiffy, and toured a couple of the finished condos. The place has made immense progress over the past year or so, and is turning out very nice indeed.
And we were informed that the condo we'd wanted in the music hall, originally scheduled for March 2008 delivery, still isn't ready, though they're scheduled to close next month. Jeez. That would have been a long, awkward wait.
So after we'd had our fill of admiring the architecture we headed out to dinner. We ordered, got our food, ate -- and discovered that the restaurant doesn't accept Discover.
Huh?
I mean, we found it by getting the address from a Discover e-mail; how can they not accept Discover?
So we paid with MasterCard and came home, and for the rest of the evening, every so often one or the other of us would say wonderingly, "We don't take Discover?"
I guess we won't be getting our $5.00 rebate, will we?
Anyway, one of the first places we looked at was National Park Seminary, in Silver Spring. The original building had been a hotel, and then the site was a girls' finishing school, and then a military hospital, and finally it was abandoned and left to rot for about thirty years before a bunch of preservationists got together with developers and bought the place.
The central building, the old hotel, is now rental apartments. The outbuildings are being restored as single-family homes. The surrounding land and some of the buildings have been turned into townhouses.
The really interesting stuff, though, is the old dorms and classroom buildings, which are being rebuilt as luxury condos.
A couple of years ago, when we were still in the very early stages of looking at real estate, we seriously considered buying one of those condos. Specifically, we wanted the upstairs of the music hall -- I can't link to a floor plan or anything because it's been sold. In fact, it was already under contract when we first looked, which was a great disappointment to us. Still, we toured the place a couple of times, those parts that were open for visitors -- which wasn't much of it at the time, as construction was still very much ongoing.
The place had been a ruin, and needed a lot of renovation -- more than the developers realized, I think, as many of the condos, including the music hall suites, are running more than a year behind their original scheduled delivery dates. It was still in rough shape when we looked at it. Some of it was very cool, though; we got inside the chapel and the Aloha House and admired them.
The condos were expensive for what you got; yes, there were major tax breaks for historic properties, but the prices were still very high on a square footage basis, and the condo fees were ghastly. The location's good, but not ideal for us. So we decided not to buy there, but we were on their mailing list, in case the situation changed.
Then a year or so later we went back and checked out some of the new townhouses on the property. One floor plan was absolutely gorgeous, but didn't quite work for us; another had all the spaces we needed, but spread over four floors, which would mean a lot of climbing stairs. We decided to pass on those, but since we were in the area we took another look at the Seminary proper; progress was being made. The Aloha House was partly owner-occupied; the chapel was sold. All in all, though, the place was still something of a mess.
We got busy finding somewhere more suitable, and of course we eventually found it and moved, which kept us very busy, so we didn't think much about the Seminary.
But a few days ago we got an invitation to an open house on the evening of September 24th, and we said what the heck, why not?
So last night we headed up that way. And we figured we'd have dinner in the neighborhood; I'd gotten an e-mail from our Discover account listing a bunch of local restaurants they said would give us a $5.00 rebate if we ate there and paid with our Discover card. One of them is right near the Seminary.
So we went and drank the developer's booze and ate hors d'oeuvres and talked to a nice lady from the historic society that was responsible for putting together the redevelopment deal. We admired the Seminary ballroom, which is really very spiffy, and toured a couple of the finished condos. The place has made immense progress over the past year or so, and is turning out very nice indeed.
And we were informed that the condo we'd wanted in the music hall, originally scheduled for March 2008 delivery, still isn't ready, though they're scheduled to close next month. Jeez. That would have been a long, awkward wait.
So after we'd had our fill of admiring the architecture we headed out to dinner. We ordered, got our food, ate -- and discovered that the restaurant doesn't accept Discover.
Huh?
I mean, we found it by getting the address from a Discover e-mail; how can they not accept Discover?
So we paid with MasterCard and came home, and for the rest of the evening, every so often one or the other of us would say wonderingly, "We don't take Discover?"
I guess we won't be getting our $5.00 rebate, will we?