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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/05/1997 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING COLLEGE STATION CONFERENCE CENTER 1300 GEORGE BUSH DRIVE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1997 -- 5:15 P.M. HISTORIC COMMITTEE Bill Lancaster, Chairman Deborah Jasek, Co- Chair Dennis Maloney MEMBERS PRESENT: Bryan Howard Brett Estes Carol Wagner Aaron Ffrench, Old Main Society Liaison MEMBERS ABSENT: Elton Abbott Mary Jane Hirsch Sharon Menn Bill Fox, Council Liaison STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent Pamela Einkauf, Senior Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: Betty Groce, Community Appearance Subcommittee I. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:17 p.m. by Bill Lancaster, Chairman. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes for February, 1997, were reviewed. There were two corrections made. On page 2, 'War Project Administration' was changed to 'Works Project Administration'. On page 3, the name 'Fred White' was changed to 'Fred Weick'. The minutes were approved with no further corrections. 3. HEAR VISITORS: Betty Groce had nothing to present to the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC). 4. REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC HOME APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED: An application for 208 Fairview Avenue S., by Dr. and Mrs. Harrison Hierth was reviewed by the members. Bill L. stated that his father was part of the Southside Development Company which sold the land to Miss Jennie Camp in 1923. Carol made a motion to approve the application and Deborah seconded. There was no opposition -- the application was approved for historic home plaque #37. David said an application had been picked up for the old campus house at 1712 Glade. He stated that the owner who lived in the home after it was moved from campus lives in San Antonio, and the current owner would contact him and write up the application. Bill L. stated that the architecture of this particular home was different from the other campus homes. 5. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS: Bill L. said that there had been some discussion about revitalizing or updating the subcommittees. Deborah stated that she was mainly concerned with the topic of Education. Since the Black Education and the College Station Education markers had already been obtained, she wasn't sure what else to do. She suggested that the HPC come up with particular goals and have the current subcommittees changed or deleted to fit those goals. David said the HPC Historic Preservation Committee Page 2 could easily do that. Brett suggested that the Education subcommittee put together a packet of information on College Station history which could be taught in the schools, if it hadn't already been done. After some discussion, it was decided that the information would need to be on the order of a lesson plan and kept fairly simple, perhaps with activities. Bill L. asked the members to think about how the subcommittees could be revitalized. Dennis asked Deborah if there was another subcommittee she wanted to work on. She said she wanted to work with the black churches on doing state markers, but she didn't want to interfere with the person doing the research for markers. She said there were three churches over 100 years old, and at this point there was interest from the churches in preserving their history. It was decided that since this information could be considered "education ", the Education subcommittee would be updated to Education/Churches. Dennis asked Deborah if the black churches were the oldest churches in College Station. She said she hadn't found out -- a poll would probably have to be taken to make that determination. Bill L. stated that St. Mary's was the only other church near the age of the other three. Deborah said she believed it had been established in 1910, adding that they were already doing their own history. David said the HPC needed to work on researching the otber three churches, and when St. Mary's was old enough, use their research to obtain a marker there as well. Historic Tourism: Mary Jane was not present to report. There was discussion about creating a self - guided tour brochure just for College Station and including some of the A &M markers in it. Carol stated that the Arts Council was developing a binder listing the major tours, from the arts point of view. The information would be located in several different places around College Station and something from the HPC would fit in perfectly. Oral History: Dennis said the last Memory Lane on Military History had been very interesting. Bill L. said hopefully someday, someone would interpret all the stories and write something up. Bryan suggested contacting Dr. Sylvia Qridr in the Anthropology Department, who is a folklorist. He said she has students who may be looking for a project. Bill L. said he had in mind someone, perhaps retired, who had the expertise to do writing of that sort for about a two -year period. Bryan said the students Dr. Qridr worked with were graduates getting their Masters and Ph.D.'s in folklore. Bill L. said that would be fine as long as Dr. Qridr could oversee it. Bryan said he envisioned the project being done leading to someone's dissertation. He said she had a lot of resources, and as a past President of the Folklore Society of America, she would be a good person to advise the HPC on the project. Bryan said he could talk to her about it. Research and Archaeology: Bryan said that based on the past meeting's disucssion, he'd written up a draft proposal on how the city could put out their own markers for events, objects, people, etc., not done through the state. He passed out the draft for the members to review, and asked them to make changes as they saw fit. He said he based the majority of the proposal on the state's guidelines for markers. He said he'd like to discuss any changes that needed to be made and come up with a firm draft at the next meeting. He hoped to have the proposal finalized by the meeting after that. Bryan said one of his concerns was the actual funding process for the markers. His suggestion was if someone wanted to obtain a marker for private property, then that property owner could help pay for the marker. If the marker would go on public property, then if possible, public funds could be used. David said he thought that would be possible. Dennis said he was definitely in favor of using the railroad depot logo for the top of the marker instead of the city logo. Bryan said he'd like to see the markers numbered or alphabetized and the information put in a book so that it could be tied in with a Historic Preservation Committee Page 3 map. He also felt the city should retain the right to take back an object marker if something happens to the subject. He said obtaining a marker would not prohibit anyone from doing anything to their property if they wanted to, so it shouldn't scare anyone away from trying to obtain one. Bill L. said that was something the HPC needed to be careful of, since knew Bryan's historical district was so confined that the property owners couldn't do anything. Photo Document: Sharon was not present to report. Bill L. said this was an ongoing project and for everyone to take pictures. Education; Bill L. said it had already been discussed. Community Appearance: Dennis stated that David had gotten a copy of the deed restrictions for him for Dexter Park. Dennis said he'd spoken with people in Bryan about their Heritage Park and it was all done with volunteer money and labor, and there's a plaque in the park. He said he'd like to do the same thing in Dexter Park, however the deed restrictions prohibit erecting anything in terms of a permanent building or unsightly objects of all kinds. He didn't think that would include period lighting. Bill L. asked who would be the one to define unsightly objects. Deborah and Dennis both stated that there would be someone who would complain no matter what the HPC did. Dennis was told by the people in Bryan that in order to generate interest and enthusiasm in period lighting the HPC needed to give the neighborhood a sample of the lighting. Dennis said the HPC should take the $10,000 it has for signage and put it into three lamps. If those lamps were placed on West Dexter and Dexter with the Historical District sign on them, they would be in the heart of the District, and Dennis felt there would be a good response from people wanting lamps like that. He stated that the HPC needed to come up with a program with the City where a citizen could buy a lamp and the City install and maintain it. Bill L. asked what it would take to change the restrictions in Dexter Park. Dennis said that according to the restrictions it would have to be a majority vote cast by qualified voters of the City of College Station. Dennis said he'd love to see Dexter done like Heritage Park with a gazebo for weddings, etc., however if it goes to the voters and they agree to make changes, the beautiful natural setting of the park would be ruined with swing sets and other things. Rather than have that happen, he would just like to add lights around the sidewalk. It would be attractive, give more security, and be fairly inexpensive by just tapping into existing power lines. Bill L. asked David if he thought there would be any problems with the idea and David said no, he and Dennis were already working on it. Dennis said the research on the lamps had been done it was just a matter of getting with the City. David said the $10,000 CDBG money had to be used between Fairview, Wellborn, George Bush, and Holleman, since that was the funding area. Dennis said putting the lamps at the four comers of Luther Jones Park might be a better idea. David agreed stating that you wouldn't have to go through anyone else's property, or worry about where to place the lights so that the trees wouldn't hide them. Dennis said double -faced signs needed to be gotten to go on the lamps. David said bumper sticker -type decals could be made and if there were enough they could be used to start covering up the College Station "snails" in Eastgate. Dennis said Ed Hard had told him that there were 15 single -faced historical district signs, and that they would install one for Mrs. Fleming, but it hadn't been done yet. David said he'd check on it. 6. OTHER COMMITTEE CONCERNS: David said that the letter done by Elton Abbott which would be sent to the Eagle showing the HPC's support of the renovations being done in Northgate, still needed to be signed by Brett if he wanted to. Dennis said he was worried that by signing the letter it might be misconstrued that he, or the HPC, supported giving away land in Northgate to a free enterprise corporation to build a meeting room and hotel. Deborah stated that the Bush Library Historic Preservation Committee "age 4 as well as Reed Arena would have catering /convention facilities. David read the letter to the HPC and after discussion, it was decided that the letter was pretty clear about what the HPC was supporting. 7. ADJOURN: The meeting adjourned at 6: p.m.