A Japanese pagoda, Corinthian columns, an abandoned castle and eclectic sorority homes decorate the National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, Maryland. Walking through the largest historical district in Montgomery County takes you back to 1867, where a luxurious hotel was once built. It has transformed throughout the years into a women’s college with its themed, eight-sorority homes, and grand female statues scattered around the site. Today, part of the college has been restored into community homes, while others lay abandoned, covered in crawling vines and weathered walls. The statues still stand, engulfed by the overgrown landscape, an eerie yet majestic scene.

A grand female statue is one of many that decorate the landscape of the transforming National Park Seminary Historic District in Forest Glen, Maryland. The stone sculpture marks the year 1867, when the building pictured in the background served as a luxurious hotel. After the resort went out of business, it was repurposed into an all women’s college, then a U.S. military hospital, and now stands as an abandoned historical landmark. (October 20, 2019) (JOUR604/Jelena Dakovic).
The abandoned, ochre-colored building, whose weathered surface is covered with crawling vines and whose windows are barricaded with wooden planks, used to stand as a luxurious hotel, named “Ye Forest Inn”, in 1867. (Forest Glen, Md., October 20, 2019) (JOUR604/Jelena Dakovic).
A construction worker holds down a tall ladder for his coworker above, painting the building’s surface (outside of pictured frame). The historic buildings within the National Park Seminary district have been preserved by the “Save Our Seminary” non-profit organization for the past 30 years. Until this day, buildings are being restored into community homes. (Forest Glen, Md., October 20, 2019) (JOUR604/Jelena Dakovic).
Joe Calalang poses with his dog Einstein by two lion statues, which used to be a part of the women’s college campus at the National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, Maryland. Today, the campus serves as condominiums and apartment homes. (October 20, 2019) (JOUR604/Jelena Dakovic).
A Japanese pagoda, originality built as a sorority house, now serves as a single-family home in the National Park Seminary Historic District in Forest Glen, Maryland. The building is framed through a glass-stained door from another single-family home across the street. (October, 20, 2019) (JOUR604/Jelena Dakovic).