A nonprofit that has spent four decades restoring a Quaker mill village along the Baltimore-Harford county line says a new Maryland Department of Natural Resources policy could gut the funding and security that keeps the historic site standing. The Friends of Jerusalem Mill Village holds a $1-a-year, 20-year lease on the property inside Gunpowder Falls State Park, but DNR now wants to change the terms so the group can no longer sublease two buildings it has rented out for years.
According to WMAR-2 News, the two subleased properties bring in $21,000 a year from volunteer tenants who also provide enhanced security and help raise money for preservation. Rich Albright, the curator and vice president of the Friends of Jerusalem Mill Village, said one of those on-site residents effectively serves as the village's after-hours caretaker and security presence. Albright told the station the tenants provide around-the-clock protection for a site he calls irreplaceable, noting the village has no equivalent anywhere else in the country.
Jerusalem Mill Village was founded by Quakers in the 1700s and is a registered historic site, with a gristmill that ground wheat into flour from 1772 until its last miller died in 1961, The Baltimore Banner reports. Since 1985, the Friends group has worked to restore the old mill town, and Albright estimates the nonprofit now spends roughly $168,000 a year, mostly on preservation and maintenance. The organization also received $250,000 in restricted state funding back in 2019 to renovate a stone bank barn on the property, the same outlet notes.
Event Revenue And Resident Caretakers On The Line
Rebecca Weber, a member of the Friends group, served as resident museum director and organized fundraising events at the Jerusalem Mansion while living at the museum until she recently moved out, per the station's report. Those events generated $130,000 over the last four years, money Albright says helps cover the group's preservation costs. While living on site, Weber also acted as the village's caretaker, watching for leaks, flooding and other maintenance issues, according to the same account.
Weber told reporters the state should do its job and leave the nonprofit alone, a sentiment that underscores how personally the group has taken DNR's proposed change. The Friends group argues that losing sublease revenue will shrink the funds available for ongoing restoration work, and supporters say the policy threatens not just upkeep but the concerts and public events that have become part of the village's identity, as The Baltimore Sun reported.
DNR Frames Change As Statewide Housing Policy
DNR has characterized the move as a statewide policy decision in the public interest rather than a targeted action against the Kingsville nonprofit, applying the same standard to Gunpowder Falls State Park that it says it has applied elsewhere. The Sun reported earlier that the department describes the change simply as an update to a state-owned housing policy. DNR assistant secretary Paul Peditto has said the agency has amended lease agreements with Friends groups in more than a dozen instances, framing Jerusalem Mill as one case among many rather than an isolated dispute.
Eric Luedtke, director of capital projects at DNR, said the department is committed to preserving the historic village and keeping it available to the public, adding that protecting the site is part of the agency's core mission. DNR maintains it already provides security at the park through its own staff, park rangers and the Natural Resources Police, its own law enforcement arm, rather than relying on subleased tenants.
Town Hall Set For Kingsville Community
The Friends of Jerusalem Mill is hosting a town hall meeting about the future of the mill village Thursday at 7 p.m. at Mountain Christian Church, with a DNR representative expected to attend. The meeting gives both sides a chance to make their case directly to the Kingsville community that has rallied around the site, as the dispute over subleasing authority continues to play out between the nonprofit and the state agency that owns the land.
