Published: February 15, 2008 09:49 pm         

Economic, community development not all about industry, tourism

The Stone Cottage of Kelly Moran and Steve Wade in Rawlings once again graces the pages of a national magazine.

The Provence, France-inspired cottage first appeared in the summer 2007 issue of Cottages and Bungalows, published by the Action Pursuit Group of Orange, Calif.

In addition to the article on the cottage, its materials and construction, the magazine also featured an article on Cumberland and its renaissance of art, music, architecture and culture.

The most recent article has appeared in the 2008 annual buyers’ directory of Timber Homes Illustrated and includes 11 full-color photographs as well as the story of the cottage and its construction.

The cottage is one of three homes showcased in the magazine — the other two are in Ohio and South Carolina — with the articles targeting each as beginning with a dream by their owners and how they accomplished those dreams.

Kelly, a landscape designer, got a taste of the building trade as she and her husband worked meticulously to achieve their goal for their French stone cottage. Begun in 2004, the cottage was completed in 2006.

She has since obtained her Maryland builders license, according to the article, and has some serious plans for 30 of the remaining lots at Fore Sisters by creating 15 larger lots and building 15 stone and timber frame homes of about 2,500 feet or smaller.

Recently she was in Cumberland and called to offer me a chance to read about the cottage in the magazine. She said she had been visiting with Ed Mullaney, Cumberland downtown manager, who had been talking to her about some of the available properties in downtown.

I could tell that she was interested in the blank canvasses that some of those properties might offer for her exceptional talent.

As more and more people, like Kelly, discover downtown Cumberland as a place to live and work, the more growth the city will see in other areas.

Architecture and design are what makes a place, whether it be a home, a business, a street or a town, unique.

For example, what do you see in your mind’s eye when you think of San Francisco.

Is it Lombard Street? Lombard is known as a crooked street that zigzags its way down one of the city’s famous hillsides, flanked by turn of the century homes (the last century and the one before) and flowers of each season.

Or perhaps you envision the Seven Sisters, colorful Victorian houses perched on another hillside that is another of the city’s most famous landmarks.

Head to the southwest and the colors and period change. Whenever I think of Albuquerque, N.M., I see the desert pinks and azures of the sky in adobe structures that cluster the landscape. Both modern and historic structures are found blending into the desert as if they grew there.

And when I think of Cumberland I see the church spires that identify the city’s skyline by day or lighted at night.

Economic development is what it is all about for these cities and others, by making the most of what they have in terms of history, architecture and talent. It’s not all industry or tourism. It is a combination of entrepreneurship and the recognition that there is value in all of the above.

Contact Mona Ridder at mridder@times-news.com.