Why Firefighters Burned Down an Old Building on the National Zoo’s Science Campus

When faced with the challenge of an aging facility, staff at the Zoo’s science campus found a creative solution to its closure.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia, not far from the hay fields that feed the Zoo’s animal herds, stood a weathered old home.

Long before the biologists arrived, the house known as 175 Marvin Lane housed U.S. Army personnel when the campus served as a facility for breeding military horses. After more than a century of shifting roles and gradual decay, the building met an unusual end this spring: it was deliberately set ablaze.

When faced with the challenge of an aging facility, staff worked to find a creative solution to its closure — one that offers a powerful reflection on the Smithsonian’s commitment to building relationships and stewarding resources responsibly.

From Army Outpost to Research Campus

The house at 175 Marvin Lane was first built in the 1910s, said Mike Beglinger, director of facility operations at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. 

It belonged to a time when the rolling Virginia landscape functioned as the U.S. Army Remount Depot, before the military became fully mechanized. The property entered its current era in 1975, when Smithsonian scientists searching for more space to perform conservation research bought the 3,200-acre site and named it the Conservation Research Center, now the Conservation Biology Institute. Over time, many of the depot’s former buildings found new life as barns, offices and living quarters, including 175 Marvin Lane.

In recent years, the house on Marvin Lane was one of several buildings used as short-term lodging for scientists visiting the world-class research campus. But after sitting vacant for an extended period, a routine inspection in 2024 revealed an impending disaster: termites had hollowed out the walls and roof of the structure, making the house unsafe to occupy.

Repair estimates climbed upwards of $400,000. 

“When we looked at how often this property was used and compared it to the availability of other housing on campus, we realized it just wasn’t financially a good idea to sink our resources into a major restoration,” explained Beglinger.

Smithsonian historians also confirmed that the structure held no significant architectural value after renovations in the 1990s had almost completely transformed it. After multiple discussions between Smithsonian engineers, local officials and maintenance teams, a consensus was reached: demolition was unavoidable.

But those costs, too, came with a hefty price tag: about $150,000. 

“And at that point, we realized we had a unique alternative,” said Beglinger.

A Sustainable Solution

To the average National Zoo visitor, the SCBI campus is the place where scientists and animal care staff work with rare species like the cheetah, Przewalski’s horse and whooping crane. But the 3,200-acre property is also a living landscape — part working farmland, part managed forest, and part ecological laboratory. More than 200 acres are devoted to growing grasses that feed animals in the Zoo’s care, including its Asian elephants.

At SCBI, sustainability is a guiding philosophy as well as a practical necessity, said Beglinger. Producing and storing hay on-site helps offset rising costs associated with feeding animals. The short haul between campuses also reduces the Zoo’s environmental impact, aligning daily operations with a conservation mission.

The aging house, perched between natural forest and open hay field, no longer fit that vision of sustainability, said Beglinger. Removing it offered a chance for management to reduce the Smithsonian’s physical footprint while freeing up resources for higher-priority needs.

Early in 2026, SCBI officials reached out to the Chester Gap Volunteer Fire Department, longstanding partners in campus fire management. The two groups landed on an arrangement that would benefit them both: a controlled burn, conducted by the fire team, would serve as the building’s demolition. Fire team members would practice training exercises while ensuring that the building was completely destroyed afterwards.

Burn With a Purpose

On a sunny morning in early May, firefighters gathered at the site. Like many fire departments across the country, the Chester Gap team is mainly volunteer-run; part of the roughly 60 percent of U.S. fire services staffed by volunteers. For new members of the fire department, the exercise served as a rare opportunity to train inside a real building before the structure was set ablaze.

“This is a great training opportunity for them to do a live burn,” said Chester Gap fire chief Todd Brown. “They’ve been in [firefighting] classes since September, but the burn building they trained on isn’t a real house; it’s a cinder-block building. This gives them experience navigating the layout of a real house.”

It also gave the new firefighters the opportunity to navigate different scenarios they might encounter on a real call. The company serves three rural counties in northwestern Virginia, where limited access to water supplies and wide-spanning coverage areas present unique challenges for fire crews to overcome. 

After several hours of drills, the blaze began.  As the structure burned, crews monitored conditions closely, ensuring both safety and a complete demolition.

Returning to the Land

Now, the land where the house once stood is open ground.

Once the cleanup is officially complete, the forest-adjacent property will stay vacant and be allowed to revert to a natural state, said Sarah Billington, facilities planning and operation manager at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. 

“It’s almost a luxury that we got to do something beneficial for the land and the community at the same time,” said Billington.

Meanwhile, funding that would have been set aside to restore the house will instead go towards the upkeep of SCBI’s animal care buildings, research facilities and other critical spaces, said Beglinger.

“This is just another form of sustainability in conservation. It’s part of what it takes to live our mission,” he said.

For over a century, the property at 175 Marvin Lane witnessed the changes of multiple eras of federal use. Now, nature will determine the next chapter.

Mike Bock | Read More

Mike Bock is a web content writer for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, where he focuses on animal care, conservation science and research.