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Five months after historic Hope Lodge closed its doors due to budget cuts, the state is accepting bids from those who want to lease parcels of the Fort Washington property for farming and parking.
The state is taking bids until April 23 for two pieces of the property, a side parking lot and approximately 22.5 acres of farmland on the opposite side, a stretch that extends to the property line and about halfway around the back of the site where re-enactors stage Revolutionary War battles each fall.
The bidding process is standard procedure for state-owned properties, Kirk Wilson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, said in an interview Tuesday.
“We have no choice,” he said.
Bids on the farmland must be a minimum of $1,100 per year for a five-year period, the amount a previous farmer paid for the land, Wilson said.
Money from the leases will fund site maintenance, he said.
The connected gravel and paved parking lots on the right-hand side of the lodge, as viewed from Bethlehem Pike, are considered one unit for bidding purposes and are being advertised for a two-year lease.
The farmland can only be used for agricultural purposes, and the parking lots can only be used as such, the public notice states.
“We hope we will have the opportunity to have some discussion with whoever wins this bid,” Jack Gumbrecht, president of the Friends of Hope Lodge, said to a representative from the state during an on-site pre-bid information session Tuesday. “We, the Friends, would like to have a good relationship with anyone that’s here.”
At the request of the PHMC, the Friends of Hope Lodge began brainstorming additional uses for the site before it closed in November in hopes of attracting visitors and donors. The goal is to support long-term operations despite state budget difficulties.
Pennypack Farm and Education Center, which has a community supported agriculture program in Horsham, has expressed interest in expanding to the site, and Whitemarsh Township has expressed an interest in using the site for athletic fields, among other proposals, Gumbrecht said.
The Colonial mansion, the adjacent garden and immediately surrounding land are not up for bid. The PHMC will continue to maintain them, and insists they be used only in ways consistent with their history, PMHC representative Michael Bertheaud explained to those who attended Tuesday’s session.
So far, MaGerks Pub and Grille, Fort Washington, is the only party to submit a proposal for the parking lot as of Tuesday, Michael said. The plan includes using the space for valet parking Friday, Saturday and Sunday after Hope Lodge visitation hours, he said.
There doesn’t seem to be a problem with the restaurant’s proposal that would affect any future operations of the site, Gumbrecht said. As the proposal stands now, MaGerks would not use the lot during special events, such as the annual Whitemarsh Encampment in November, Michael said.
As for the farmland, Gumbrecht and volunteer Doug Heller, a Springfield Township commissioner, expressed a concern that auctioning the farmland to a private bidder would forfeit the opportunity to make Hope Lodge more of a community site, which they envision could ultimately bring in more revenue as well.
During a forum in January that sought public opinion for the future of Hope Lodge, a majority said they wanted community-supported agriculture on the property.
Chris Dooley, executive director of the National Sportsman Foundation of Pennsylvania, said if he wins the bid for the farmland he would like to designate a portion for CSA, which could hypothetically bring in 200 families next spring.
The nonprofit organization works with disabled veterans and could offer them an hourly wage to help out on the farm, Dooley said. He predicted many of them would be history buffs and interested in volunteering for the site.
He would also consider a profit-sharing agreement with the Friends of Hope Lodge to run the site, he said.
While bidders were not required to attend, Dooley was the only declared bidder at the session, which was attended mostly by Hope Lodge volunteers.
The Friends of Hope Lodge will decide this week whether it will bid on the farmland, Gumbrecht said. The Friends can afford the minimum lease should it submit a bid, he said.
For now, volunteers are concentrating on operations, which include reaching an agreement with the state to reopen the site as soon as possible.
The PHMC is working on such agreements with other historic properties, many of which have been completed, Wilson said. But with budget cuts that laid off half of the 200 employees of the PHMC’s Bureau of Historic Preservation, fewer employees are available to do this work, Wilson said.
Visit www.ushistory.org/Hope for updates on Hope Lodge.
