BLYTHEWOOD – Monday night was not the charm for Matthew Graham. It was the third time in three months he had come before Blythewood’s Board of Architectural Review (BAR) asking for relief in his quest to renovate, move, or demolish the historic former Wilson Store. And it was the third time he was turned down by the board. The store, a Class II historic property, sits on less than a quarter acre parcel at the intersection of Langford Road and Main Street.
Graham purchased the building in December, 2025 for $550,000 and said he planned to renovate it for use as a store front for his Palmetto Renovations business.
“We bought this building with the intention to renovate it from the floor to the roof and then the exterior,” Graham told the board. “That what we budgeted for.”
He said that shortly after closing on the building, he discovered a crawl space under the back third of the building that he did not know was there because it was hidden by a wall with no access door.
“I thought it was the outside wall,” Graham told the board. “It’s difficult to judge dimensions of a large space when you’re crawling around in a 1-1/2 foot tall crawl space.”
Graham said he found a small hole in the wall between the main crawl space and the back third of the building. He said that’s when he discovered that the foundation under the back third of the building was so unstable as to potentially make the building unsafe.
Graham said his options at that point were to repair the unstable section of the foundation at a cost of approximately $100,000; move the building at a cost of $900,000, or demolish the building at an estimated cost of $25,000.
“I can’t afford the first two options,” Graham later told the board.
On Jan. 7, 2026, Graham applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) from the BAR to demolish the building in Blythewood. The Town’s ordinance requires approval of a COA before a historic building can be demolished.
The board heard Graham’s arguments for the COA on Feb. 19, 2026, but voted to deny his request. On March 6, the BAR filed a lawsuit against Graham, asking the Court for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to keep Graham from demolishing the building before the BAR issues a ruling on the issue. Adding interest to an already long, convoluted meeting, BAR Chair Paul Moscotti denied that a motion for a restraining order is a lawsuit.
Graham then asked the BAR to hear his appeal as a substantial hardship case – as permitted by town ordinance – in regard to demolishing the building. That meeting was set for March 16, 2026.
At that meeting, the board voted to adopt six pages of new rules of procedure just minutes before Graham was to present his case to the board. Moscotti also called for amending the agenda to add an executive session without following proper legal guidelines as well as not explaining – as required by law – what the board would be discussing in the closed-door session. When asked by The Voice to reveal what the board would be discussing, Moscotti first ignored the request, then said, “…whatever we’ve been talking about.”
The almost two-hour meeting ended with Moscotti asking for third party documents regarding the crawl space inspection that Graham didn’t have.
Following the executive session, the board voted against Graham’s request to demolish the building but extended the substantial hardship case request until the April meeting so Graham could bring the additional documents requested by Moscotti.
Prior to Monday night’s meeting, the Town’s Building and Zoning Analyst Kirk Wilson told The Voice that Graham had submitted all the required paperwork for the continued substantial hardship case hearing.
During the April 20 meeting, held Monday night, Moscotti again skipped over the state’s legal requirement for amending the agenda to add an executive meeting and again failed to disclose to the public why the board was going into executive session, as required by law.
Following the executive session Monday night, the board voted unanimously – without explanation – to deny any form of relief to Graham in his quest to demolish the building.
Moscati also refused to answer any questions from the media about the board’s decision.
Graham told The Voice that he plans to file an appeal against the BAR in circuit court later this week.