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Brief History of the Blandair Foundation
The Blandair Foundation originally was
incorporated in the State of The original purpose of the Foundation was
that of acquiring Blandair Farm to preserve and protect it in perpetuity as
indicated by its late owner, Elizabeth C. Smith. The method of acquisition
was left open, ranging from obtaining the farm as a gift from relatives of
Elizabeth Smith to raising money to purchase the farm to filing suit against
the title of the farm. A more detailed purpose has evolved, as seen in the
Purposes of the Blandair Foundation. The creation of the Foundation originated
in the course of the efforts of friends of Elizabeth C. Smith to see her
dream realized. For 40 years, Miss Smith had declined offers to sell the farm
for development or for use as an active recreational park. She declared that
she wanted it to be preserved in perpetuity as open space for the benefit of
the public. To accomplish that goal, she had decided to establish her own
non-profit foundation to which she would give the farm, and she would give
the foundation her personal fortune as an endowment. On Friday, February 14, 1997,
one of Elizabeth Smith's attorneys delivered documents to her by which the
farm would be thus preserved. After a final reading of the documents that
evening, Miss Smith declared them satisfactory, and she stated that on
Monday, February 17 she would arrange for the signing by contacting her
attorneys, a notary public, and witnesses. The signing was to have been on
February 17 or 18. However, on Saturday afternoon, February 15, Elizabeth
Smith suffered a stroke, and she died in the early morning of February 16.
The signing never took place. Upon learning of Elizabeth Smith's death,
Byron C. Hall, Jr., her friend of nearly 30 years who was named as a trustee
to the foundation she was to create, began to investigate ways of saving her
dream. The first thing he learned was that, of the three named trustees, he
was the only one who had both the knowledge of her plans and the freedom to
act in order to save them. Mr. Hall first investigated the
possibility of filing the unsigned documents for probate. All the attorneys
consulted stated that without her signature, the documents had no legal
force, and they knew of no legal remedy in this case. Mr. Hall learned later
the assessment made by these distinguished attorneys was incomplete. Mr. Hall then tried to negotiate with the
relatives who inherited Blandair Farm, but they had no interest in preserving
the farm as open space. After the non-responsive attitude of the relatives,
the idea occurred to Mr. Hall that a foundation could be created to acquire
Blandair Farm. He, another friend of Elizabeth Smith, and another interested
person agreed to organize the Foundation and to serve as its first Directors.
The Foundation was named in honor of Elizabeth C. Smith. In late December, 1997, Mr. Hall contacted
Douglas G. Worrall, a From June, 1998 through December, 1999,
most of the Foundation's work was done on behalf of the suit. In the spring
of 1999, the Foundation finally obtained a copy of the documents that Miss
Smith had found to her satisfaction. It was then the Directors learned that
she named the Foundation as the Blandair Foundation, and they changed the name
to comply with her wishes. In addition, they could see many specific ideas
she had about the Foundation, and they then incorporated them into the
by-laws. From its inception, the Foundation has
made and maintained many contacts in the fields of land preservation,
historical building preservation, wildlife preservation, horse rescue, and
organic farming. In 1999, the Foundation strengthened its
Board of Directors. In January, 2000, the Directors began to
give more thought to the organization of the Foundation, since the
preparation of the legal case was complete. This resulted in the
authorization of the In 2000, the Blandair Foundation formed a
Division of Wildlife Research and Land Management, appointing Dr. Aelred Geis
as its director. Dr. Geis began working on research for the Blandair
Foundation at his 20-acre site in In October of 2001, the Maryland Court of
Appeals dashed the last hope of the Blandair Foundation for implementing Miss
Smith's wishes through the courts. The county took full title to Blandair and
the relatives were awarded all the money. In April of 2002, the Blandair Foundation
made a presentation (Appendix A18) to the
Blandair Planning Committee. The committee completed its work in August of
2003 and submitted its report. It will be two or three years before the
county will be ready to consider formal proposals for partnerships in
managing Blandair. In the meantime, the Blandair Foundation plans to form
partnerships and build a track record to put itself in position to make a
credible partnership proposal. In December of 2003, the Board of
Directors amended the by-laws of the Blandair Foundation to be consistent
with the reality of |
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reserved.
Please call (888) 845-8974 for more information.
You may also e-mail Byron Hall, Chairman of
the Foundation.