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Last Issue:
Tuesday,
December
18
2007
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Preserving the Past to Help the Future
Published on 07-Mar-05
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Photo courtesy of the Hyattsville Preservation Association.
Lustine Property on Route 1.
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They may not look like much to the average passer by, but the Lustine properties on Route 1 south of the campus represent important eras in American architecture and Hyattsville history. Isabelle Gournay, associate professor of architecture, is hoping to keep the buildings from being demolished.
Gournay, who lives in nearby University Park, took notice of the buildings some time ago. She says that when Philip Lustine, who moved his Chevrolet dealership from southeast Washington, D.C. to Hyattsville in 1926, opened Lustine-Nicholson Motor Company's new showroom in 1950, it featured a double-curved facade that made it the most modern-looking commercial building in the county. Its Collision Center was the biggest.
"This is a really spectacular building," says Gournay, speaking of the showroom. "It could be used for either a restaurant or a gallery. If they tear it down, whatever else that would be built instead would not be as exciting. It's been a little vandalized, but the materials are very high quality. It was state of the art when it was built."
The dealership also helped shape Route 1's transformation into a transportation corridor. Cars were built in Hyattsville as early as 1908, and sold a few years later in converted stables. Dealerships began to spring up. A few of those buildings survived but were changed beyond recognition. In the southern end of College Park, a 1948 dealership has become Laundry World and another is ZIPS Dry Cleaners.
Gournay is working with the Hyattsville Preservation Association (HPA) to save the Lustine showroom and service center buildings from a Virginia developer that has proposed to replace the showroom with townhomes, condominiums and ground-floor retail and community space topped by residential units. The HPA welcomes the improvements, but would like the historic buildings worked into any plans.
"It could only bring vitality to Hyattsville and College Park," says Gournay, something Lustine did when he located his business in the area. He was a well-respected businessman, a fundraiser and a vital part of the community, says Gournay, who has done substantial research as part of the Modern Movement in Maryland project co-led by American Studies professor Mary Corbin Sies.
"They may not want to keep the whole thing, but the property has huge potential," says Gournay. "When I first moved here, there was a deli that served good wine&For those of us not as young [as the college set], it would be nice to have our places to go. Adaptive reuse is a viable economical and aesthetic option."
It also an option being practiced by the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation's dean, Garth Rockcastle, who is turning a commercial building opposite the county courthouse in Hyattsville into studio/work/living space. Gournay says as Hyattsville gentrifies, it is important to preserve some of its history. The Lustine showroom is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She would like those with photos or other materials relating to the dealership to submit them for the project. She is also interested in oral histories.
To help, contact Gournay at gournay@umd.edu or 301.405.6304. For more information about the project or the Hyattsville Preservation Association, visit www.preservehyattsville.org. Click on the "History" link, then click on "Hyattsville Then and Now."
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