And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Back in January I wrote that the collapsed wall in Parking Lot C in Ellicott City would be repaired sometime in the spring.

I was only off by a year.

The wall below Dohony Hall, part of St. Paul’s Church, collapsed in the aftermath of the Tropical Storm Lee that hit Ellicott City two years ago. Since then the hill has been temporarily stabilized with rocks and jersey walls until a more permanent solution could be devised. The job is further complicated by the precarious position of the 18^th century stone building hanging on the edge of the collapse.

According to this story by Brandi Jefferson in Patch, "the county is negotiating with St. Paul’s Church on a plan that would ensure the safety of the Dohony Hall building, which sits a few feet from the area where the ground gave in during Tropical Storm Lee last September.”

The bottom line is that the parking spaces where six cars were once buried under the rocks will be gone forever. The new wall will extend out into the parking lot further than the old wall.

As a side note, during the trail derailment cleanup last month, this location was Ellicott City’s own version of television hill. It seemed like every media outlet in the region had a satellite truck in St. Paul’s parking lot and a camera crew on the hill.

This isn’t the only wall getting replaced either. The train derailment also took down an old stone wall in Parking Lot D. It’s likely that this wall replacement will also take away some parking spaces.

A third wall is on the county’s radar too. The stone wall behind the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company in Parking Lot E hasn’t collapsed yet but from the looks of things, it could only be a matter of time.

All of this could take some time. Replacing old stone walls in the historic district is a bit of a process