news-record.com

Instead of more apartments and businesses, the 1.8 acres along Old Battleground Road has been turned into a meadow.

A split-rail fence borders the property. New trees grow. A decorative, 18th-century cannon reproduction hints at what happened here many years ago.

The land, bought in November, is now part of the nearby Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Late last year, the park obtained the parcel for $455,000 and an adjacent 4.5 acre-tract for $525,000.

The money came from loans obtained by Guilford Battleground Co. and with administrative help from the Piedmont Land Conservancy. The two nonprofits helped the park stop potential nearby commercial projects. Developments already surround much of the park. The National Park Service will repay the nonprofits when Congress appropriates money.

Two houses have been demolished on the land and it's been landscaped to make it look as much like it did in 1781. That year British and Americans troops fought the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on 1,000 acres that includes the newly purchased land.

The acquisition of 4.5 acres last September and several purchases before 2008 are adding 15 acres to what was a 220-acre park. Park administrators hope to buy 15 more acres.

This total of 30 acres doesn't count a pending donation of the nearby 8-acre Tannenbaum Historic Park from the city, which is trying to trim its budget. The transfer to federal ownership may come this year once the red tape is cut.

Since it opened in the late 1980s on battlefield land that the Guilford Battleground Co. and the Tannenbaum Foundation saved from development, Tannenbaum park has portrayed life in Colonial America. That mission won't change.

"We have for so long talked of the battle itself but we haven't been telling the militia's story," says federal park Superintendent Chuck Cranfield, referring to everyday citizens who left plows to join American Gen. Nathanael Greene's professional soldiers at Guilford Courthouse.

The park's wish list includes buying Green Acres Lane and 15 houses along it. The short street runs east/west off Battleground Avenue, passes the rear entrance to Tannenbaum park and ends at the boundary of the federal park.

Four houses on Green Acres are bought and negotiations continue on another. The street would physically link Tannenbaum and the military park. It could be made a part of the tour road that circles Guilford Courthouse park. Visitors could walk or ride between the parks.

Cranfield and Guilford Battleground Co. President Frank Mascia believe future archaeological digs on the designated 30 acres will yield battle relics. Ground penetration radar already has shown an image that could be a long-rumored mass grave of British soldiers. If it is the grave, Cranfield says it would stay covered and unmarked to protect against relic hunters.

While driving around the park's borders, Mascia writes off as lost forever the battlefield's other 750 acres. Businesses, condominium and apartment projects cover the land, which also includes Forest Lawn Cemetery and Country Park. It would be all but impossible to return the land to the topography of 228 years ago. Besides, the cost likely would exceed that of the American Revolution itself.

The terrain of the 30 acres chosen for acquisition hasn't changed greatly and can be restored to a Colonial-era look.

Mascia and Cranfield say the 15 acres already bought contain all remaining large tracts that were ripe for development next or near the park. The 15 acres remaining consist of half-acre lots that would be hard to combine for a development project.

At last, "We have in effect stopped the threat of future commercial development," says Mascia, who is a retired CEO of United HealthCare of the Carolinas. He spends time in a ranger uniform volunteering in the park.

There's a chance the National Park Service may have to technically buy Tannenbaum Park from the city.

If so, a price has been agreed upon: one dollar.

"I would love to pay that dollar," Mascia says, "so I could say I bought that park."

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net