Montgomery County officials Thursday night will ask a City of Rockville historic commission for permission to move Rockville’s Confederate soldier statue.
Based on an analysis released last week of public comments about possible relocation sites, moving it to a Silver Spring park likely won’t be an option.
Of the almost 250 comments the Montgomery County Council received since publicizing five possible new locations last month, 85 specifically objected to locating the statue in Jesup Blair Local Park in Silver Spring. The county Planning Board sent a letter suggesting eliminating the park from consideration.
Four people supported moving it there. Seventy-seven people said the statue shouldn’t be moved at all.
The suggestion of Jesup Blair Local Park, named for a member of the family credited with founding Silver Spring, drew quick and sharp criticism from Silver Spring residents—many who said the statue honoring Confederate war veterans would be insulting to area residents.
Council member Tom Hucker, who represents Silver Spring, said the county shouldn’t even pay for the statue’s removal or relocation and should consider selling it to a museum or collector.
The county is applying for permission to remove the statue from near Rockville’s Red Brick courthouse in a hearing set for 7:45 p.m. Thursday in front of Rockville’s Historic District Commission. Staff for the commission recommended allowing the county to move the statue.
County Executive Ike Leggett said he would seek to move the statue after the racially-motivated murder of nine people at a historic black church in June in South Carolina.
Other new sites for the statue suggested by a group of local historians, representatives from the black community and government officials include the Beall-Dawson Historical Park in Rockville, Darnestown Square Heritage Park in Darnestown, Calithea Farm Special Park in Potomac and the Edgehill Farm in Gaithersburg, a private farm owned by descendants of Confederate soldiers.
Of the 250 comments submitted to the council, 68 people or groups supported moving the statue to the Beall-Dawson Historical Park and another 20 suggested adding it to a museum, without specifying which museum.
Twenty-two supported giving it to Edgehill Farm or giving it back to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which erected the statue in 1913.
The Confederate soldier statue in Rockville. Credit: Andrew Metcalf
Thirty-six people said the statue should be destroyed or put in storage, rather than moved to another location. Twenty-four people said the statue should be moved out of the county or that it shouldn’t be located in a county park.
Historical groups were split between moving it to Beall-Dawson Historical Park and keeping it where it is. Half of the members of Montgomery Preservation’s board supported Beall-Dawson while the other half supported no move at all.
Most of the comments received by Rockville’s Historic District Commission, which were separate from the comments received by the County Council, asked for the group to deny the county’s application to move it.
“The statue honors the southern state soldiers (which included Maryland) in the war between the states. They deserve to be honered [sic] today as much as ever,” Jerry Van Winter wrote. “To remove the statue because of a current event makes no sense.”
“What was built in Rockville should stay in Rockville,” wrote Susan Soderberg, a local historian.
