Modjeska Museum, Yes; Park, No

* Regarding the story “Foes React to Modjeska Home Plan” (April 9): While it is a generally well-balanced account of the Planning Commission hearing, it does contain a couple of comments that I believe are important to correct.

Mention is made of 60 visitors and 30 visitors, and one is left with the impression that this is the total per day, which is hardly the case. County plans call for 60 people at a time to go on (at least three) two-hour tours of the house and grounds between the hours of 10 and 4. This means a minimum total of 180 visitors per day, or more if the groups overlap, which it appears they will. With a five-day operating week that includes both Saturday and Sunday, current plans thus call for a total of more than 50,000 visitors per year, all of whom must travel over the small community’s one-lane road to reach their goal.

Of some concern to residents is the stated intent to target schools as heavy contributors to the tour population. This will produce situations with children on the site, with all the quiet and dignity that youngsters exhibit in groups outdoors--namely, running through the open field with shrieks of delight, which are one of life’s most beautiful sounds--unless you happen to live in a house just above the grounds and get to listen to them for more than 1,500 hours a year, including weekends!

It is this scenario that concerns people who live in this quiet, secluded community, some having been here for more than 50 years. The objections being raised are not the grumblings of elitists saying, “Keep out of my front yard” (although the total lack of public parking renders that a legitimate concern), rather they are the pleas of people to whom county planners have given token attention and few satisfactory answers.

To paraphrase one of the people quoted: The house there is pretty much just a house, albeit of quaint design. What makes the place what it is, is the setting. That’s why the house was built there. Destroy that ambience, and all you have left is a tour of an old house--something that continues to elude both the county and some historical groups.

This community will not stand by and be sacrificed to the ill-conceived idea of making the whole area into a “park.” Modjeska Home museum, yes, and visitors welcome. Modjeska Home park, no way.

ROBERT C. HUNT

Modjeska Canyon