Historic Land Sale: Jesuits To Sell Property After 400 Years

The five properties in line to be purchased have some of the richest bird and wildlife habitat in Maryland and more than 19 miles of shoreline along the Potomac River, officials said. One tract, 4,800 acres in Worcester County, is the largest privately owned forest in the state, according to Nat Williams, Maryland director of the Nature Conservancy, which helped negotiate the deal.

Four other tracts of woodlands, fields and wetlands in Cecil, Charles and St. Mary's counties have been owned since the early 1600s by the Roman Catholic Jesuit order.

Their purchase was arranged with the help of the Conservation Fund, another national land preservation group. The fund's Pat Noonan said the land deals represent "a once and forever opportunity." If approved by the Board of Public Works, the five tracts would double the amount of land acquired by the state for preservation since O'Malley took office nearly two years ago. He campaigned on a pledge to revive the state's land conservation efforts.

In announcing the deals, O'Malley acknowledged that the state and nation are struggling economically, and news leaked yesterday that he had decided to furlough state employees to close a budget gap.

But O'Malley said it was important to seize opportunities like this. Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin noted that the funds for the land come mainly from taxes paid on property sales that are earmarked by law for open-space preservation. About $5 million of the purchase will be financed with federal transportation funds, he said. Some recent land preservation deals have proven controversial, with critics saying the state had agreed to pay more than the property was worth. Griffin said the prices for the five properties were based on independent real estate appraisals.

The Worcester tract is going for about $3,000 per acre, while the four Jesuit properties - three of them with waterfront - would cost about $12,000 per acre.

All five tracts score highly on an environmental rating system that his department has developed, Griffin said. The Worcester tract, surrounded by about 10,000 preserved acres, is home to a wide variety of forest-dwelling birds, as well as those that spend their winters in Central and South America, such as the Baltimore oriole. The other tracts combine natural value with historical and economic significance. In Cecil, there are about 975 acres of forest and meadows. In Charles, 1,700 acres on Port Tobacco Creek may help buffer the Army's Blossom Point proving ground from encroaching development.

And in St. Mary's, 985 acres on St. Inigoes peninsula would shelter the Navy's Webster airfield from development, while another 776 acres on Newtowne Neck was the site of one of the nation's first universities,

a forerunner to Georgetown University founded by the Jesuits in 1677.

Link (here)

More on the Jesuit presence in the area.

Archaeologists completed surveying the Webster Field Annex in late 1996. Webster Field was part of a 17th century Jesuit plantation and one of the fields surveyed is believed to contain a Jesuit chapel and manor house built in the early 1700s. In December 1996, archaeologists invited past residents of Webster Field back to the property to share with them archaeological findings.

Link (here)

The National Bureau of Standards leased 2,000 acres of land from The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen of Maryland beginning 01 July 1941. Although the Bureau of Standards is a non-DOD agency, the property was leased for defense purposes. The site was originally called the Blossom Point Proving Ground and is located at Cedar Point Neck in Charles County, 10 miles south of La Plata, Maryland. In 1953, accountability for the property was transferred to the Department of Defense.

Link (here)

Photo is of St. Inigoes Peninsula and Webster Airfield