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New Mark Commons
Inventory No.:
M: 26-40
Date Listed:
8/1/2017
Location:
Roughly bounded by Maryland Avenue, Argyle Street, Monroe Street, Tower Oaks, and I-270, Rockville, Montgomery County
Category:
District
Period/Date of Construction:
1967-1973
Architect/Builder:
Keyes, Lethbridge & Congdon, Architects
Edmund J. Bennett, builder
Boundary Description:
The property, approximately 65 acres, encompasses the area within New Mark Commons whose development was carried out during the period of collaboration between Bennett and KLC.
Resources:
385 (272 contributing, 113 non-contributing)
Related Multiple Property Record:
Subdivisons Built by Edmund Bennett and Designed by Keyes, Lethbridge & Condon in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1956-1973
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Description:
New Mark Commons, located in West Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, is a planned community of detached houses and townhouses designed by Keyes, Lethbridge & Congdon, and developed by Edmund J. Bennett between 1967 and 1973. New Mark Commons represents the culmination of Bennett’s extensive career in community building in the suburban Washington, DC region. Bennett was influenced by the New Towns movement, incorporating open space and providing commercial and recreational amenities including a lake. Buildings share a human scale and common design elements. Curvilinear streets link the community’s cul-de-sacs, and pedestrian and bicycle paths meander among mature trees. New Mark Commons was promoted as “A Twentieth Century Village that’s one foot in the future and a step back to a better time.” An advertisement established a parallel between its proposed “village green” and those built in Colonial New England. Bennett also wanted “to design all of the elements to human scale, to place recreational and commercial facilities within easy reach of the residents in the manner of the best examples of new town planning in Scandinavia.” Most of the streets were named after new towns in England (Welwyn Way led to Letchworth, Welwyn, and Stevenage Circles; Cumbernauld and Harlow Courts), Sweden (Vallingby Circle, Farsta Court), Finland (Tapiola Court), Canada (Don Mills Court), and the United States (Radburn Court). The name Watchwater Way relates to the street’s visual connection to the lake. The five basic models of detached housing originally offered at New Mark Commons formed the Mark 70 series. This name derived from the assumption, stated in advertisements, that “may design features and appointments presage those you’ll find in homes of the 1970s. Ranging from 2,644 to 3,648 square feet, the model houses were intended for lots averaging 11,000 square feet. Differences from houses designed and built by the same team between 1962 and 1967 at Carderock Springs were notable. Panelization methods for the facades had been abandoned. On the lower floor of the downhill models, fluted concrete made of light gray aggregate had been substituted for brick. As had already been the case for the very last houses built at Carderock Springs, thicker laths in reddish wood replaced metal rods on balcony railings. Roofs continued to be covered with cedar shingles, but the type of hand split shakes found at Carderock Springs came as a more expensive option. In the townhouse clusters, architectural unity was conferred by the uniform 72-foot lot length and identical roof slopes; individuality by variations in unit width, massing (through setbacks between units and recesses in individual units), openings (projecting bow windows, arched entries in later units), and wall finishes (contrasts between brick, dark cedar shakes, and white window and door trim became increasingly complex as construction progressed).
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Significance:
New Mark Commons is historically and architecturally significant as an example of a type of residential development which resulted from the collaborative efforts of builder Edmund J. Bennett and architects Keyes, Lethbridge & Congdon in the suburbs of Washington, DC. New Mark Commons represents a comprehensive site plan, innovative in its time, combining clustered and free-standing houses within a rolling, wooded landscape. The Bennett/KLC collaboration received substantial recognition in the popular and professional press in its day, as outstanding exponents of “Situated Modernism.” This recognition enables New Mark Commons, which was developed between 1967 and 1973, to meet the standards of exceptional significance for properties which have achieved significance within the past fifty years. The district meets the Registration Requirements specified in the National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Subdivisions Built by Edmund Bennett and Designed by Keyes, Lethbridge & Congdon in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1956-1973,” which was accepted by the National Register in 2008. The period of significance, 1967-1973, begins with the construction date of the first houses in the district, and ends when Edmund J. Bennett relinquished control of the New Mark Commons Homes Association, Inc. The district retains a high degree of integrity. Landscape and street patterns remain fully intact, and over 93% of the buildings in the district contribute to its significance. The periods of significance, 1967-1973, begins with the construction date of the first houses in the district, and ends when Edmund J. Bennett relinquished control of the New Mark Commons Homes Association, Inc.
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