State lease amendment threatens Jerusalem Mill preservation, volunteers say

Since 1985, the Friends of Jerusalem Mill has worked to restore the old Quaker mill town to its 18th- and 19th-century self.

The group petitioned the state to restore the village’s gristmill, which ground wheat into flour from 1772 until the last miller died in 1961. It also led funding for the renovation of other buildings in the historic village of Jerusalem Mill, located in Gunpowder Falls State Park on the border between Baltimore and Harford counties.

“We give people an opportunity to really step back in time,” said Rich Albright, the Friends of Jerusalem Mill’s vice president and curator. “If we don’t preserve [the village] or restore it to what it looked like, then it’s all pretend.”

But Albright and members of the Friends of Jerusalem Mill say the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is threatening their work. The department wants to amend its 20-year lease as part of efforts to formalize procurement processes and create a centralized approval system for who occupies public lands and buildings.

Over the past 40 years, the volunteer-run nonprofit has restored the miller’s house, the mansion, the general store, the blacksmith shop and one of Maryland’s last operational covered bridges. On weekend afternoons year-round, the organization’s volunteers dress in period attire and demonstrate to visitors what life was like during that early industrial era.

Part of the amendment would end the Friends of Jerusalem Mill’s authority to sublease parts of the buildings in the village to private tenants, which they say would affect their ability to raise enough funds to continue their work. Albright estimates the group spends $168,000 a year, mostly on preservation efforts and maintenance. The nonprofit’s annual income comes from tickets to programs and events held in the village, and donations from private donors and foundations.

The Friends also received money from Harford County and $250,000 in restricted funding from the state in 2019 to renovate a stone bank barn.

Albright said the new agreement would also shift operations and maintenance responsibilities to the Department of Natural Resources, which he believes would hurt the village’s “historic integrity.”

“If they’re not gonna share our philosophy on the importance of preserving this village, then we can’t be a part of it,” he said. “It’s too difficult to watch 40 years of work being eroded.”

The agency said it was amending lease agreements with Friends groups across Maryland state parks as part of its efforts.

“They are not being targeted. They’re not being isolated,” said Paul Peditto, DNR’s assistant secretary of land resources. “This is something we’ve done in more than a dozen instances.”

Peditto said the department’s push for tighter oversight stems from the way parks were managed in the past. He pointed to Michael J. Browning, the longtime manager of Gunpowder Falls State Park, as the “ultimate catalyst for change.”

For 30 years, Browning ran the park like his personal kingdom, according to a 2022 investigation by The Banner. That year, he was indicted by a grand jury on charges he raped and sexually assaulted two women who used to work for him, and he was convicted of a fourth-degree sexual offense.

“That was the most extreme example of a misuse of a state asset,” Peditto said. " Our job is first to make our places right, clean, safe, user-friendly, accessible and operable.”

The DNR is installing an electric vehicle charging station in the village and converting a building listed in the National Register of Historic Places into administrative offices, and it is considering a plan to build a mountain bike course in nearby trails.

Some local officials said they worry the lease changes will jeopardize decades of preservation work.

“Anyone who remembers Kingsville, 30 or 40 years ago, realizes what a sad shape that mill was in,” said Baltimore County Council member David Marks, who remembers being driven by the dilapidated mill as a child.

Last month, Marks introduced a resolution calling on DNR officials to “seriously and candidly engage” with the Friends of Jerusalem Mill on the village’s future preservation and management.

Rebecca Weber, 57, a Friends of Jerusalem Mill board member and volunteer who subleased one of the village houses, said she did more than just pay below-market-rate rent. She served as the village’s caretaker, monitoring leaks, flooding or other issues in the aging buildings.

The $12,000 she paid annually in rent and the money — up to $20,000 a year — she raised by hosting multiple monthly events in the house went back into preserving the village, she said.

Weber moved out of the house months ago. She canceled the rest of this year’s fundraising events she once organized in the house, including high tea, lectures and Christmas caroling. She says she feels “unmotivated” to continue the work.

“If it wasn’t for this organization, most of these buildings would be gone,” Weber said. “ We’ve got this incredible team of talented people putting all of their energy into this project. To have this kind of rug pulled out from under you? It’s demoralizing.”

Peditto insisted the new agreement would not prevent the Friends of Jerusalem Mill from organizing events or fundraising. But Albright said the shift was tantamount to returning Jerusalem Mill to the state it was before 1985, when the Department of Natural Resources did not have the funding or capacity to maintain the village.

He said the Maryland Park Service has other areas where it can add a mountain bike course and expand its administrative presence without destroying the historical integrity of the village.

“I understand they don’t have the money, but then why take this away from us?” he said.