Mothball and Secure Uninhabited Historic Adams Buildings

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park » Mothball and Secure Uninhabited Historic Adams Buildings » Document List

The National Park Service, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal NHP, will undertake measures to mothball the Adams Buildings, Washington County, MD. All buildings are listed on the List of Classified Structures and the National Register of Historic Places, and represent the agrarian culture of the lands adjacent to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal during its operational period.

The park will take measures to provide weather-tight, adequately ventilated and secure the Adams House, Barn, and Cabin from unauthorized entry. These are buildings that are managed as stabilized, but uninhabited, structures. The work will correct improper or non-existent interior ventilation, pest infestations conditions, open chimneys, loose bricks, open masonry joints, rooted wood siding and trim, unsecured openings, and water intrusion problems.

Mothballing measures will include;

Vegetation removal

Securing windows and doors

Proper ventilation

Periodic housekeeping and inspections for rodents and other animals

Minor repairs, in kind of deteriorated features

Minor painting to seal exterior surfaces against rain/snow penetration.

All work will meet NPS Preservation Brief #31 Mothballing Historic Structures, based on the Secretary of Interior Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

The park's Interdisciplinary Team reviewed the project for impacts to natural and cultural resources. The project does not pose any serious or long-term effects to the environmental, historical, cultural, archeological, or visual resources. It meets categorical exclusion #C.4 – Routine maintenance and repairs to cultural resources sites, structures, utilities, and grounds if the action falls under an approved Historic Structures Preservation Guide or Cyclic Maintenance Guide, or if the action would not adversely affect the cultural resource.

The project also meets the National Historic Preservation Act/Section 106 Programmatic Agreement, Streamlined Review Process #1 – Preservation Maintenance and Repair of Historic Properties.


Contact Information

For further information regarding this project, please contact the Chief of Maintenance, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal NHP, 1850 Dual Highway, Suite 100, Hagerstown, MD 21740.