SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU C5
lingered to examine display cases
holding glass bottles, rivets and
buttons, a wooden toothbrush
and a china doll from the Victo-
rian era — all of which were
discovered this year during an
archaeological excavation at the
site.
Parks officials said Saturday
that they hope the store will
return to its roots as a community
hub, while also educating the
public about the county’s deep
well of history.
“This place is really legendary,”
said Vivian Eicke, a parks volun-
teer. “It’s nice to see it all come
back for a new generation to
come and appreciate.”
[email protected]Built in 1901, the general store
once served as a town post office
and gas station. Montgomery
Parks bought the store and sur-
rounding land in 1975.
When the Pooles announced
their retirement and the store
closed in 2010, residents were
devastated. On Saturday, several
reminisced.
“I used to come out here with
my fishing camp and get one of
Mrs. Poole’s liver and onion sand-
wiches and nice cold Coke — and
she always gave us the bait for
free,” said Glenn Cumings, a re-
tired naturalist who grew up in
the area.
As they walked around, exam-
ining the old and new, visitorsBY MARISSA J. LANGFor nearly a decade, Montgom-
ery County’s longest-running
general store has sat quiet and
empty, its whitewashed shelves
bare, the smell of bean stew and
liver sandwiches gone with the
family that served this communi-
ty for generations.
But the 118-year-old store will
soon be granted a new life.
After a year of work and
$1 million in historic renovations,
plus an accidental archaeological
discovery, county officials are
searching for a tenant to occupy
one of the county’s most historic
buildings, known for years as
Poole’s General Store.
Jo Ann Clements carefully
watched the construction from
her office next door. Her parents,
Raymond and Billie Poole, ran
the store from 1965 until it closed
in 2010. As a child, she would curl
up on the front counter and nap.
As an adult, she served food to
hungry cyclists and kept track of
a pile of invoices the Pooles uti-
lized to keep a running bill for
regular customers.
Now, Clements works at the
feed store across the parking lot.
She watched as crews ripped out
the floorboards, bowed and worn
from years of customer feet tread-
ing atop the dark wood. She saw
them build a kitchen and restore
the grooved ceiling. She even
witnessed the moment when
workers stumbled across the bur-
ied remains of a mill that archae-
ologists estimate is about
275 years old.
But she has grown tired of
being on the outside looking in.
Clements longs for a day when
she might be able to return and
run the store, with her sister,
Marilyn, at her side.
“We grew up in there; our
school bus used to pick us up and
drop us off right there out front,”
Clements said, gesturing to old
road that runs past the shop in
Seneca. “For us to get back in
there and run it as it is? That
would be great.”
On Saturday, the general store,
now known as the Seneca Store,
was open to the public for the
first time in nearly a decade for a
ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted
by Montgomery Parks. Dozens of
curious visitors milled about the
store, which was decked out with
signs and placards explaining the
history of the site, as Frank Cassel
entertained with his banjo.
The store is not visible from
the main road. It is tucked into a
wooded area surrounded by park-
land. Still, longtime residents
said, the store has always been at
the center of the community.
Senate could alter the balance of
power in national politics.
Gary Wilson, a lifelong Demo-
crat from Gaithersburg, scoffed
at the idea of voting for the
governor over Van Hollen in a
potential race.
“I’m a Democrat. I don’t vote
for Republicans,” he said, though
he conceded that he did vote for
Ronald Reagan decades ago. “I
don’t care what Hogan does — I
vote for the Democrat.”
Wilson, 64, said that party
loyalty aside, he also respects
Van Hollen, who represented the
congressional district where Wil-
son lives before running for Sen-
ate. Wilson described Van Hollen
as a rare breed of elected official
who is both “very political and
very ethical.”
Hogan still has three years
remaining in his term and has
not p ublicly said w hat he i ntends
to do after leaving office. In
addition to two political groups
he formed to raise millions to
advance his agenda in the state,
Hogan also has a political action
committee called An America
United. That group is billed as a
way to “break partisan gridlock”
nationally and bring “all Ameri-
cans” t ogether.
For now, the poll finds 61
percent of registered voters in
Maryland say Hogan has accom-
plished “a lot” or “a fair amount”
during his tenure.
That percentage is significant-
ly higher than the governor’s two
most recent predecessors; fewer
than half said the same about
Martin O’Malley (D) and Robert
L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) as favorably
during their respective second
terms.
This Post-U. Md. poll was
conducted Oct. 9 -14 among a
random sample of 860 Maryland
adults, 60 percent reached on
cellphones and 40 percent on
landlines. The margin of sam-
pling error is plus or minus 4.5
percentage points for both the
overall sample and the sample of
819 registered voters.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Emily Guskin contributed to this
report.Last year, Hogan told The
Washington Post he is not inter-
ested i n being one of hundreds o f
lawmakers in Congress. At the
same time, he has continued to
raise his national p rofile through
his work as chairman of the
National Governors Association
and has increasingly weighed in
through national media on mat-
ters in Washington.
Last week, he joined a minori-
ty of Republicans in backing the
impeachment inquiry into
Trump, saying “I don’t see any
other way to get to the facts.”
Hogan’s support among regis-
tered Republicans now stands at
80 percent, down from over 90
percent in mid-2018, the poll
finds. The dip follows his flirta-
tion with a primary challenge to
Trump and more o utspoken criti-
cism about polarization in Wash-
ington.
That’s why Les Solomon, a
Trump-supporting conservative
who grew up in Baltimore Coun-
ty, said she has soured on Hogan.
Solomon, a retired small-busi-
ness owner, said she was a
strong backer of Hogan when he
created the advocacy group
“Change Maryland,” which fu-
eled his underdog gubernatorial
campaign in 2014. She has sup-
ported some of his decisions,
like lowering tolls on the Bay
Bridge.
But Solomon said Hogan’s re-
peated criticisms of Trump, in-
cluding most recently his sup-
port for launching an impeach-
ment inquiry, have disappointed
her.
“I hate it,” s aid Solomon, 67, of
Owings Mills. “ I am really m ad at
him. But I would always choose a
Republican over a Democrat.”
Hanmer, the political scien-
tist, said party loyalty might
affect any real-life matchup once
Democratic voters consider
sending a Republican to the U. S.Post and the University of Mary-
land’s Center for Democracy and
Civic Engagement, found that
Maryland adults back Hogan
over Van Hollen, 51 percent to 41
percent. Among registered vot-
ers, Hogan tops Van Hollen by an
eight-point margin.
“It’s really a measure of popu-
larity,” said Michael Hanmer, a
government and politics profes-
sor at the University of Mary-
land. “Hogan’s approval is still
high, even among Democrats....
He’s been in the news more...
than Van Hollen. He’s on people’s
minds more; they’re seeing him
more.”
Maryland has not elected a
Republican senator since
Charles McCurdy “Mac” Mathias
Jr., who retired in 1987. The state
has r eliably backed Democrats in
national presidential elections
since Bill Clinton was elected in
1992.
Ye t Catherine Smith, a Demo-
crat who lives in Capitol Heights,
said she would opt for Hogan
over Van Hollen in a potential
matchup because she admires
Hogan’s job performance, espe-
cially how he battled cancer
while in office during his first
term.
“Sometimes you can’t go with
your party just because it is your
party,” s aid Smith, 68, who r uns a
small day-care business. “Right
now, Chris Van Hollen hasn’t
impressed me all that much. To
get my vote, you have to do a
little bit more.”
Smith said she liked that Ho-
gan has vocally criticized Presi-
dent Trump and wishes the gov-
ernor would have challenged
him in the 2020 primary —
although she said she wasn’t yet
sure that Hogan would have had
her vote in the presidential gen-
eral election.
POLL FROM C1
Slight majority of Md.
adults say they’d vote for
Hogan in Senate race
MARYLAND
After a renovation and archaeological find, general store gains new energy
PHOTOS BY CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST
A ribbon-cutting ceremony draws visitors to the Seneca Store in Montgomery County over the weekend. The historic structure, formerly known as Poole’s General Store, is
newly renovated and seeking a tenant. Below are items found when workers came across the buried remains of a mill that archaeologists estimate is about 275 years old.Hogan has majority approval from Marylanders across party linesQ: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Larry Hogan is handling his job
as governor of Maryland? (Percent saying “approve”)Source: Oct. 9-14, 2019, Washington Post-U. Md. poll of 860 Maryland residents with a
margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points. Error margin larger among subgroups.Registered DemocratsRegistered independentsRegistered RepublicansMaryland adults0 20 40 60 806 60718064%In hypothetical Senate matchup, Hogan edges Van HollenQ: I know it is a long way off, but if the 2022 election for U.S. Senate in
Maryland were being held today and the candidates were Chris Van Hollen,
the Democrat, and Larry Hogan, the Republican, for whom would you vote?Van HollenHoganVan HollenHoganVan HollenHoganVan HollenHogan0 20 40 60 804151%33536230393Maryland adultsAmong registered independentsAmong registered DemocratsAmong registered RepublicansNote: “Other,” “neither,” “would not vote” and “no opinion” not shown.Washington Post-U. Md. pollBY MARTIN WEILThe American front porch has
long been a symbol of relaxation,
sociability and watching the w orld
go by. It has also become a kind of
platform for commerce and, as an
unintended result, a target for
thievery.
In an age of online ordering, a
cascade of packages pours daily
onto American homes, and often
onto their porches. That h as made
packages vulnerable to thieves, as
was highlighted last week in
Washington w hen police reported
an arrest in nine incidents of tak-
ing packages from p orches.
All occurred in Northwest in
the Petworth and Park View areas.
The first, according to police,
came June 4, in the 3300 block of
Sherman Avenue. Later t hefts, p o-
lice said, occurred in t he 400 block
of Kenyon Street NW, the 300
block of U pshur S treet a nd the 700
block o f Varnum Street.
Thefts also occurred in the 300
block of Allison Street, the 700
block of Varnum Street for a sec-
ond time, the 200 block of Rock
Creek Church Road and the 4600
block o f Eighth Street N W.
The last of the nine, according
to police, was Sept. 18, in the 500
block o f Irving Street N W.
In each case, police said, some-
one took a package or packages
“from t he victim’s f ront porch then
fled.”
Police said Tyrone Edmonson,
46, who had no fixed address, was
arrested Thursday and charged
with nine c ounts o f second-degree
theft.
Authorities a dvise having pack-
ages delivered to a neighbor who
will be home w hen they arrive.
[email protected]THE DISTRICTPolice
arrest man
in 9 thefts
on porches