From the TODAY Show, June 17, 1999

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Katie Couric discussed the National Trust's annual list of the eleven most endangered historic sites in America. At the top of the list are: 3. Treasure Island Immigration Buildings in San Francisco Bay, decaying from neglect; 2. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, threatened by urban sprawl; and 1. the Corner of Main and Main - national chain drugstore developments in historic town centers.

Katie Couric: "Talking about urban sprawl, the Corner of Main and Main. Explain that situation and why it tops your list."

Richard Moe: "Well, that's a good news, bad news story. The good news is that people are coming back to Main Street and the drug store chains are following them, and this will help revitalize many of these deteriorated downtowns. The bad news is that they're targeting the corner of Main and Main and if there happens to be an historic building there, they're inclined to tear it down. And this destroys the historic character of downtown, all over."

Katie Couric: "We're looking at video..."

Richard Moe: "We are looking at video of Rockland, Massachusetts: two wonderful Victorian houses which are threatened by a Walgreens store which is just totally inexcusable and inappropriate. And this is happening in many communities. Walgreens alone is adding 3,000 stores in the next 10 years."

Katie Couric: "So in your view they are 'paving paradise to put up a parking lot.'"

Richard Moe: "Absolutely. They put up these formulaic cinder block stores that have no character, that are surrounded by asphalt; drive-thru facilities."

Katie Couric: "So you're urging communities to find the proper balance; you're not saying stop all development. You're just saying..."

Richard Moe: "That's right. We want them to come downtown, but work with communities, adapt themselves to these existing buildings. You know, Banana Republic and Starbucks and other chains do that. They work with communities, they work with existing buildings. The drug store chains could do the same thing."

Katie Couric: "All right. Well: Dick Moe; President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Thanks so much for coming by."

Richard Moe: "Thank you Katie."

Katie Couric: "Nice to see you. And we'll be back with more of TODAY."

WASHINGTON - Drugstore chains are tearing down historic landmarks as they target centers of small towns for new stores, the National Trust for Historic Preservation said yesterday.

Topping the organization's annual list of the 11 most endangered sites in the United States was what the group generically called "the Corner of Main and Main-Nationwide." Thousands of buildings may be involved, said Richard Moe, the trust's president.

"While promising discussions are under way with CVS and Rite Aid, unless executives of all chain drugstores make a commitment to adapt their shortsighted strategies, America's Main Streets could be turned into cut-rate versions of suburban strip malls," the trust said in a statement.

"Walgreen's alone is planning to double its stores to 6,000 in the next 10 years," Moe said at a news conference. "They're savvy retailers and they look for the busiest spot - that's often where the town's oldest buildings are."

Moe said the trust is trying to persuade the chains to restore old structures instead of destroying them.

Walgreen's is in court trying to replace two houses in Rockland, Mass., built in 1840 and 1874, with a 15,000-square-foot store and parking for 56 cars, Moe said. Both homes are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Michael Polzin, a Walgreen's spokesman, said his firm targets intersections, not historic buildings. Sometimes the buildings are too small for the company's plans, he said.

'We try to redo old buildings, but it has to make economic sense,' Polzin said.

Walgreen executives met with the preservationists in April, but no other meeting has been scheduled, he said.

The 10 other sites on the trust's list include the auditorium of Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, that state's oldest school; Traveller's Rest, a campsite of the Lewis and Clark expedition in Lolo, Mont., andcountry estates on River Road in Louisville, Ky.

ROCKLAND -- Two historic houses in Rockland that the Walgreen chain wants to tear down to build a drugstore have become the poster-child for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The intersection of Union and Market streets and similar street corners in cities and towns across the nation top the National Trust's annual list of the most endangered sites in the country. The proposed Walgreen's site in Rockland is one of many in what the National Trust generically calls "the Corner of Main and Main.''

Walgreen's is in court trying to replace two Union Street houses built in the 1800s with a 14,000-square-foot store and 70 parking spaces. Both homes are on the National Register of Historic Places. The plan also calls for demolishing a house on Market Street.

Rockland and part of a now demolished historic site in Nashville, Tenn., will be featured at 10 p.m. Thursday in a one-hour television special called "America's Most Endangered'' on the History Channel.

Producers of the show were in Rockland Monday morning conducting interviews on the site with two residents opposed to the project, Peter Dow and John Burrows, both of Union Street. The two answered questions from National Trust President Richard Moe, who was at a news conference in Washington.

"We're concerned about the impact of this development on the district itself, since it's a residential area,'' said Dow, whose 1854 Italian-style Victorian home sits next to the site of the proposed drugstore. Dow also is a member of the town's historic commission.

Dow said he's also a father with a young baby and wife who chose to buy and restore the house so he could raise a family. He said living a few feet from a busy parking lot isn't what he envisioned when he bought the house 2 1/2 years ago.

The site is known as Lane's Corner, named after the family that was at the heart of the shoemaking and leather industries for which the town was once noted.

Dow said the Lane family built their homestead, now the Tiffany Rest home, in 1840 at 5 Union Street and one of the two homes that would be demolished if the drugstore is built. The family built the second house at 21 Union St. in 1874, the same year Rockland was founded. The family also built several other nearby houses.

Burrows said the opponents of the drugstore are not opposed to Walgreen's. "It's just the site,'' he said. "Our hope is that they will find another location more suitable.''

Linda May Ellis, who lives four houses up from the proposed Walgreen's fears a domino effect if the drugstore gets its way. She and many other residents say a drugstore would lower property values.

"If (Walgreen's) tears down two houses, what's next? The owner of the next house up will sell his home, and it will happen all the way up the street until all the houses are gone,'' said Ellis, who lives at 65 Union St. She and her son are the third and fourth generation of her family to live in the house.

Moe, the National Trust president, said the situation in Rockland is being repeated all over the country. He referred to it as the drugstore invasion.

In Weymouth, neighbors are fighting Osco Drug's plans to demolish seven houses in Central Square, which was placed on the national historic register in 1992, to put up a 13,650-square-foot store on 1 1/2 acres.

In Marshfield, Osco agreed in 1997to pay $10,000 to move the 1835 house of the town's first historian to a new location.

This is the 11th year the National Trust has released an endangered list. Moe said that of the 102 sites that have appeared on the list since 1998 not one has been lost. This year's list contains 11 sites.

"Walgreen's alone is planning to double its stores to 6,000 in the next 10 years,'' Moe said."They're savvy retailers, and they look for the busiest spot. That's often where the town's oldest buildings are.''

Michael Polzin, a Walgreen's spokesman, said his firm targets intersections, not historic buildings. Sometimes the buildings are too small for the company's planned megasites, he said.

"We try to redo old buildings, but it has to make economic sense,'' he said.

The 10 other sites on the trust's list include the auditorium of Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, that state's oldest school; Traveler's Rest, a campsite of the Lewis and Clark expedition in Lolo, Mont., and country estates on River Road in Louisville, Ky.

The trust says that among the sites it has saved it began its campaigns in 1988 is Washington's 180-year-old Congressional Cemetery, where Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, composer John Philip Sousa and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover are buried.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.

Copyright 1999 The Patriot Ledger

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