More than 100 acres of parkland acquired

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by Kristen Milton
Staff Writer

The Montgomery County Planning Board voted unanimously Thursday to acquire more than 100 acres in the Beallsville area, including a 94-year-old general store.

"It's a property we've been hoping to protect from a historical perspective for many years," land acquisition specialist Bill Gries said of the 26 acres at the corner of routes 28 and 109 that include the Darby General Store. The land, which also includes an adjacent house, will be purchased from the estate of Harry Dunbar Darby.

On Thursday Gries said the purchase was "an important acquisition" at "a very fair price." The price had been discussed with the board in a closed session.

The Darby store closed in 1958 and its porch was damaged by a tractor-trailer in the 1980s and had to be pulled down. Gries said there were no immediate plans for the property although he thought it might someday be reopened as a store.

About 81 acres was also purchased adjacent to the Woodstock Equestrian Center currently being built along both sides of Route 28 just north of Beallsville. The land is being purchased from the Stewart, Bravo, Greenberg Partnership. In 1999 Hermen Greenberg donated about half of the land that has become the approximately 772-acre horse park. The board spent $350,000 to buy 35 acres from the Greenbergs shortly afterward.

Gries said the current acreage was being purchased at "a price that is less than half of its fair market value." The front portions of the three lots will be sold "to try and recapture our investment," he said. According to a February planning staff memo, about 50 acres of the land will be incorporated into the park.

The purchase will need to be approved by the Montgomery County Council as well.