New owner to restore Bacon Hall in Sparks

Gunpowder Tea The county's Landmarks Preservation Commission added the Bacon Hallproperty in Sparks to its preliminary landmarks list May 8. Theproperty includes about 200 acres along Cedar Grove Road and astone house built in the late 1700s. The house and a two-story stone barn appear to have been recordedon the tax list in 1798, according to materials submitted with thenomination. Trey Kelsey, of Greenwich, Conn., said he bought the property atauction last summer, restoring a family connection that dated tothe early 1900s. His mother, Elise Gillet Boyce Kelsey, establishedthe Bacon Hall Equestrian Center in the 1960s, then sold Bacon Hallto Melvin Duckett in 1993. Before the sale, the county's Department of Recreation and Parksconsidered buying Bacon Hall for use as an equestrian center, parkand recreation center, according to Patricia Bentz, executivedirector of the Baltimore County Historical Trust. As soon asDuckett bought the property, he tried to have the main house razed,but the demolition permit was suspended by the county's Office ofPlanning, Bentz said. "The place was pretty degraded," he said. "No power, broken pipes,ceilings down, broken windows, fences down. We're excited about thechallenge." A federal judge sentenced a Monkton man to 27 months in prison andordered him to pay $555,000 to victims of a mail-fraud scheme inwhich he sold school yearbooks at full price while concealing deepdiscounts he had received from the publisher. Joseph M. Wenzl, 41, carried out the scheme from May 2000 throughJanuary 2003, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore.His victims included George Washington and Howard universities inWashington; public and private schools in Washington and PrinceGeorge's County, and the Midshipmen Welfare Fund at the NavalAcademy in Annapolis, from which he fraudulently pocketed $62,000on a $268,000 yearbook bill, according to the prosecutor. As they have since Jerome Murphy started the tribute in 1976,visitors will see photos, maps, schedules and memorabilia, as wellas hear recollections of the "Ma & Pa," as the railroad was known. From 1901 to 1958, the Ma & Pa traced a 77-mile arc betweenBaltimore and York, Pa. Its 27 stops included Glen Arm, Long Greenand Baldwin, and its North County cargo, milk, earned it a secondnickname: the Milky Way.