09/29/2026
A Response from Inside Jerusalem Mill
(Below my response you will find a link to an open letter from the DNR, although it was never sent to our organization)
DNR says it is committed to preserving Jerusalem Mill. I believe the community deserves to understand what that commitment looks like from inside the historic buildings.
I lived in Lee Mansion for four years while helping restore it, care for it, interpret its history, and prepare it to be opened to the public. I did not simply occupy a state-owned house. I helped bring a neglected historic building back to life.
I have touched virtually every room in that house. I helped create the Lee Gallery, develop exhibitions, welcome visitors, coordinate events, and make the mansion part of the public experience at Jerusalem Mill. I did this as part of the volunteer preservation effort that DNR itself has publicly recognized for decades. DNR’s own website describes the Friends of Jerusalem Mill as a volunteer organization dedicated to restoring, preserving, and interpreting the village, and specifically credits the Friends with restoring multiple historic buildings.
So when DNR says it is simply eliminating “private, non-operational residential subleases,” it is important to recognize what that means in practice.
It means removing a long-standing mechanism that helped put responsible people in historic buildings—people who were physically present, invested in the property, helped protect it, and contributed to its preservation.
And it raises a fundamental question:
If historic preservation is truly the priority, why remove a preservation model that has put people on the ground caring for these buildings?
DNR describes the change as a matter of safety and oversight. Safety and accountability are legitimate concerns. But those concerns should lead to better oversight—not automatically to eliminating the very people who have provided eyes, hands, labor, interpretation, and stewardship.
Jerusalem Mill is not simply a collection of state-owned buildings. It is a historic village. Its preservation depends on people.
The State’s own website calls the Friends of Jerusalem Mill an organized group dedicated to restoring, preserving and interpreting the village. (Maryland Department of Natural Resources) DNR also describes Jerusalem Mill as a National Register historic site whose buildings host living-history programs and public events.
That history did not happen because of a policy document. It happened because people cared enough to show up.
I am one of those people.
I am also someone who now finds herself in limbo about whether I will be allowed to return to the very house I helped restore and make accessible to the public. My belongings and artwork remain inside. I continue to come to the property because I care about the building and its contents.
That is a very different experience from the reassuring picture painted in DNR’s open letter.
DNR says it “deeply values” the contributions of the Friends of Jerusalem Mill. I would ask the Department to demonstrate that value by working with the people who have spent decades preserving this place—not by making decisions that remove their ability to participate in the stewardship model that helped make Jerusalem Mill what it is today.
Preservation is not merely keeping a building standing.
Preservation is keeping the people, knowledge, labor, history and community connection around that building alive.
That is what is at stake at Jerusalem Mill.
Rebecca Weber
An Open Letter to the Kingsville Community: DNR Is Committed to Preserving the Historic Jerusalem Mill Village September 25, 2026 To the residents of Kingsville and surrounding communities, The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Park Service are committed to the historic prese...
