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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/01/1996 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1996 -- 6:45 P.M. COLLEGE STATION CONFERENCE CENTER 1300 GEORGE BUSH DRIVE HISTORIC COMMITTEE Bill Lancaster, Chairman Sharon Menn Carol Wagner Dennis MEMBERS PRESENT: Maloney Mary Jane Hirsch Gary Halter Deborah Jasek Aaron Ffrench, Old Main Society Liaison Bill Fox, Council Liaison MEMBERS ABSENT: Steven Smith STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent; Pamela Einkauf, Senior Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: Patricia Cleere, 500 Ayrshire I. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 6:46 p.m. by Bill Lancaster, Chairman, following the George Bush Library Collection tour. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES; Bill L. asked if there were any changes to the April, 1996 minutes. There were no changes, and the minutes were approved as written. 3. HEAR VISITORS: Patricia Cleere, was present to submit her application for a College Station Historic Home Plaque for her home located at 500 Ayrshire, as discussed below. 4. REVIEW OF APPLICATION FOR CITY HISTORIC HOME PLAQUE: The application for a historic home plaque from Russell and Randy Merrill at 900 Hereford was reviewed. Bill L. stated that it was the old Luther Jones house. Dennis said the Merrill's were doing a lot of work on the home. Gary made a motion to approve the application, stating that Luther Jones had served on the first College Station City Council. Dennis said that Luther Jones was a very good man. The motion was approved, and 900 Hereford became College Station Historic Home #31. David added that Randy Merrill was going to propose that Fairview Park, which is around the corner from the house, be renamed Luther )ones Park. David said the HPC might want to give her a letter showing support of the idea. Deborah asked where Fairview Park was. David said it was at the comer of Fairview and Park Place and it was where the girls' softball teams played. Bill L. asked if the park touched Wayne Smith Park. Dennis said no, it was just across the street from it, adding that it would be nice if the decorative period lights could eventually be installed there also. Deborah said she was concerned because Mrs. Merrill said in her application that Luther Jones had donated the land for the park to the Kiwanis for Little League to play on. Deborah said she believed that part of that land, at one time, had been the athletic fields for Lincoln School. Gary said no, that until Southwood Athletic Park was built, Fairview Park was where most of the Little League games took place. Deborah said that there had been a football field out there. Bill L. agreed, but stated that it had been further south. Deborah said that the land originally donated for the football field had been five acres, Historic Preservation Committee Page 4 and she wanted the HPC to be sure who donated what to who, before it supported the idea of the name change. Gary added that Luther Jones had been instrumental in starting the Community House on Holleman, and that he was one of the founders of the Community Savings and Loan. Bill L. stated that Luther Jones had inherited most of his money from his father, Goodrich Jones from Waco, who had been quite wealthy. Patricia Cleere submitted an application for approval for an historic home plaque for her home at 500 Ayrshire. Gary asked who built the house, and Ms. Cleere said that Ernest Langford was the architect and construction superintendent who built the house for Edgar McFadden. Dennis said he had wanted to buy the house himself in 1981. Ms. Cleere said she bought it in May, 1979, and that it was the original asbestos siding on the house. She stated that she had copies of the original architectural drawings of the house. Gary moved to approve the application and Deborah seconded. The application was approved, and 500 Ayrshire became College Station Historic Home #32. Ms. Cleere told the HPC that she had gotten a lot of information from the Cushing Memorial Library, but that there was no plat filed at the courthouse for the house. Bill L. asked if the house was in the College Park Subdivision, and she said it was. He told her he had the original title abstract for the Southside and Belton and it was in that. He asked her if she'd seen it, and she said no. He said he could get copies for her. She said she couldn't find where the original owner had deeded it to Southside. Bill L. said they began selling to other people in 1921. Gary asked if that was Floyd Clark. Bill L. said yes, it was, and four others -- his father being one of them. He added that Mary Jack Fugate, Ed Hrdlicka's daughter, had told him at one time that the "Veazey house" which is now on that lot, sits in the same spot where her house used to be. Ms. Cleere asked if it had been a farmhouse. Bill L. said he assumed so, and that he wished there were pictures of it. He said that all of that land - 83 acres, had been bought from Mrs. Fugate's mother and her mother's brother, Schwartz and Hrdlicka. Bill L. said all that was in the abstract he had. The plats themselves were used and passed out as part of the selling technique. He told Ms. Cleere that if he forgot to get her a copy of one of those, for her to call him. Ms. Cleere thanked the HPC, and David said he would call her to set a time when the mayor could present her with her plaque. 5. OTHER COMMITTEE CONCERNS: David said that he had included an "Items of Interest" sheet in the packets to bring the HPC up-to -date on what was happening. He reminded the members of the Mayor Ringer Retirement Party on the May 17, 1996, and said the whole community was invited. Bill L. asked if anything would be going on during the summer that the HPC needed to be aware of. David stated that he would be working on a continuation of the Southside Special Event Sign Project. The signs were set to be ordered within the next month or so and would be installed shortly thereafter. He said they may even be up by the time the HPC met again in September. As far as the lighting situation, he said he was still trying to figure out which light poles would be ordered, where they would be placed, and who would take care of them after installation, as well as some additional issues he was trying to work out with City staff. He said when the HPC met in September hopefully those issues would be resolved and the poles in place. Dennis asked if there was a time limit on when the $10,000 for the lights had to be spent. Gary said since it was Community Development money it could be carried over. David said originally steel poles, which had to have some type of anchoring foundation, were being considered. However, the most recent prices he gotten were for concrete, direct -burial poles. That type only needed to have a hole dug and the pole set in the ground, and they are cheaper -- about 2/3 of the cost of the steel poles. Dennis agreed, Historic Preservation Committee Page 3 saying that not only installation, but maintenance of the concrete poles would be cheaper as well. David said the lamp head itself would be common to what the City Utility Department already stocked, and therefore would not be a problem to repair. Deborah asked if anything more had been decided about what would be done with the Patranella plaque. David said he had not had a chance to work on it since the last meeting. 6. ADJOURN: The meeting adjourned at 6:43 p.m.