Concern Over Lincoln Cottage Plan
By Deborah Fitts
June 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The serenity of Lincoln Cottage, President Abraham Lincoln’s summer retreat in the nation’s capital, could be severely impacted by plans for major development of the surrounding Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH).
Administrators of the independent federal agency, commonly referred to as the Old Soldiers’ Home, say they need to develop their 272-acre campus to help support the more than 1,000 veterans in their care. Plans call for turning more than half the property to an array of uses that could include condominiums, a hotel, shops and office buildings.
The proposal has raised an outcry in this part of northwest Washington, where residents prize their quiet neighborhoods. Plans for buildings as much as 130 feet in height are prompting fears that the stunning views of the capital enjoyed by Lincoln may be permanently obscured.
The home’s master plan has made things awkward for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Trust is engaged in a $12.5 million restoration of the Lincoln Cottage, which is owned by the home.
Lacking money to fix up the deteriorating building, the home approached the Trust in 1999 and a cooperative agreement was hatched. The cottage, plus 2.3 acres, has since been designated the President Lincoln and Soldiers’ Home National Monument.
“It’s a delicate subject for us,” said Sophia Lynn, the Trust’s project manager for the cottage. Last July the Trust celebrated completion of a $2 million restoration of the building’s exterior.
The final goal, completion of the project and opening the cottage to the public, is scheduled for Sept. 22, 2007, the 145th anniversary of the day Lincoln announced the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
In a lengthy letter to the National Capital Planning Commission, the Trust declined to support the home’s master plan of development, saying it “does not adequately protect the historic character” of the home’s sprawling facilities or the cottage.
The Trust expressed sympathy for the home’s efforts to generate revenue, “provided that the uses are compatible with the historic character of the AFRH campus.”
“The National Trust is concerned that the level of development proposed at AFRH is too great to minimize adverse effects,” the Trust letter stated. “We are particularly concerned about the need to protect the extraordinary views from the National Monument to the rest of Washington — views that were enjoyed by President Lincoln.”
The Trust letter continued, “Currently the proposed volume of almost 9 million gross square feet, with maximum building heights of 130 feet in some locations, would make it impossible to avoid or minimize adverse impacts on the National Monument.”
The “country cottage” was actually a sizable manor house when it was built in 1842-43 by banker George Washington Riggs on a height of land outside the city. In 1851 the federal government purchased the house and 500 acres for the first national soldiers’ home.
During Lincoln’s presidency his family moved out of Washington’s heat to the breezy hilltop every June to November in 1862-64. Lincoln traveled the three miles daily to and from the White House by horse or carriage.
In January the city’s Historic Preservation Review Board objected that the home’s development proposal would have a negative impact. And at a hearing in February the National Capital Planning Commission declined to approve the home’s master plan, citing the intense development proposed around the cottage and harm to the viewshed.
Sheila Abarr, spokesman for the Armed Forces Retirement Home, said no changes have yet been made to the original proposal, and there is “no time frame” for a next step.
Administrators at the home said a trust fund is running low on money. The home receives no taxpayer support, but gets 50-cent weekly paycheck deductions from enlisted armed forces personnel.
Officials at the home are concerned about rising health costs and a likely future influx of veterans now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans at the home each contribute an average $800 a month, nowhere near meeting the annual cost of $31,000 to $41,000 per resident.
