Norton Urges NPS to Reactivate the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House Commission, Meet with Community, and Rehabilitate the Site

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today asked the National Park Service (NPS) to reactivate the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site’s (Council House) Advisory Commission, and to meet with the relevant community groups and stakeholders to update them on plans to assess and rehabilitate the site and to get their advice and counsel. NPS has temporarily moved archives from the Council House to an NPS facility in Maryland while NPS works to address safety and other risks on the property. The 1991 law that authorized the Council House calls for a 15-member commission. However, the commission has fallen by the wayside and is currently nonexistent.

Norton, in her letter, wrote, “This Commission plays a vital part in ensuring that the Council House is preserved and that the general management plan is implemented. As I understand it, the moving of the archives is temporary in order to conduct the Historic Structures Assessment Report (HSAR) for the Carriage House. The community should be informed of the details.”

The full text of Norton’s letter follows.

March 10, 2014

Dear Deputy Superintendent Noojibail:

My staff has been in touch with you about the National Park Service’s (NPS) plan to temporarily move the archives from the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site (Council House) to NPS’s Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland, while it works to address deficiencies on the property, including flooding, fire and pest infestation risks at the Carriage House. I write now to ask NPS to reactivate the Council House’s Advisory Commission (Commission) as outlined in legislation (P.L. 102-211) that established the Council House as a National Historic Site, and to have a meeting with the stakeholders and relevant community groups as soon as possible to inform them of NPS’s plans to rehabilitate the site, to reactivate the Commission and to get their advice and counsel.

As you know, the authorizing legislation calls for a 15-member commission appointed by the Secretary based on recommendations from various experts and organizations, including the National Council of Negro Women, the Bethune Museum and Archives, members with expertise in the history of African American women, and the general public. This Commission plays a vital part in ensuring that the Council House is preserved and that the general management plan is implemented. As I understand it, the moving of the archives is temporary in order to conduct the Historic Structures Assessment Report (HSAR) for the Carriage House. The community should be informed of the details.

I also ask NPS to work expeditiously to rectify the deficiencies on the property once the HSAR is complete. I understand that the HSAR is expected to be complete by the end of fiscal year 2014. I ask that you inform my office of the outcome of the report and the timeline for rehabilitating the site.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Published: March 10, 2014