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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/03/1997 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING COLLEGE STATION CONFERENCE CENTER 1300 GEORGE BUSH DRIVE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1997 -- 5:15 P.M. HISTORIC COMMITTEE: Bill Lancaster, Chairman Deborah Jasek, Co- Chair Elton Abbott MEMBERS PRESENT: Sharon Menn Carol Wagner Rebecca Berry Sean Carlson MEMBERS ABSENT: Dennis Maloney Jeannie Miller Aaron Ffrench, Old Main Society Liaison STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent Pamela Einkauf, Senior Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: Mike Luther I. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:21 p.m. by Bill Lancaster, Chairman. 2. INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS: Bill welcomed new member Sean Carlson to the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC). Shawn said she's lived in the area since 1982, and is a member of the Brazos County Historical Commission. She said she's an archaeologist and that not long after moving here she was involved in the excavations at the Richard Carter home site. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes for September, 1997, were reviewed and approved with no corrections. Due to lack of a quorum, there was no October meeting. 4. HEAR__ VISITORS: Mike Luther had nothing to present to the HPC. 5. SOVTHSIDE HISTORIC SURVEY: JOEY DVNN - THE METHODOLOGY & REASONS FOR THE SURVEY: Joey stated that most Texas cities, as well as the Texas Historical Commission, do historic resource surveys. Joey said it is a way for a city to take a snapshot of its resources, and that a lot of it is relevant to that city - what the city considers to be its resources. He said a similar survey has been done for the city of Bryan. Methodology, he explained, is really prioritizing. You take photographs (colored slides and black and white), do a database of those structures, do some historical background if it is available, and have it in a format that can be added to. What you end of with is a volume of information that is somewhat like a snapshot in time. You can go back to it and say "this is what we had in 1996 ". It is a planning tool. A map can also be generated, entered into a GIS database, and then used to track the structures. Years down the line, you will be able to tell to what extent structures have been altered, which ones have been demolished, and what the percentage of demolition has been in that area. There are three main rankings -- high, medium, and low priority. These priorities originated from the surveys which are done state -wide. Low priority is the structure that represents a common local Historic Preservation Committee Page 2 building form, and the only reason it is on the survey is because it's over a certain age. In Southside the time frame taken was anything over forty years old. Compared to other Texas cities, that's not too old, but compared to other structures in College Station -- that's pretty old. The idea is that twenty years down the line, those structures will be sixty years old and you will want some information on them. It's a survey that becomes more valuable as time goes on. Medium priority structures are common local building forms, but some are good examples of an architectural building style, or have some other significance, such as the homes moved from campus. Some are great examples of a building style but have been altered to some degree. Joey explained that a lot of this is subjective, that's why there's a need for the HPC to determine what the city's priority is. What does it value? Is it a type of style, or like they found in Southside, no predominant style, but the history? High - priority structures are your most valued structures. He said those were the general categories, and that they are all outlined in the Northgate Historic Resource Survey. That was the methodology starting out, and it has sustained, with the thought being that the HPC should be the decision - makers on the rankings. The thinking was that the HPC would probably want to designate the homes with historic markers as either medium or high priority. Or perhaps the structures that need markers or that need attention -- the ones that the HPC feels the need to encourage to be preserved -- would be ranked as high priority. Joey said that he didn't know what the specific questions were at the last meeting. David said a lot of the people at the prioritization meeting, felt they couldn't tell what condition the structures were in from a snapshot, and they didn't know how to classify high, medium or low priority. Deborah added that there was also concern from some at the meeting, about what the ramifications were of prioritizing something as high, medium or low. Joey said this survey -- which is typically handled the same across the state -- is never intended to be anything more than a windshield survey from the documentation standpoint. Typically, these are done by preservation consultants, and they rank based on their expertise in architecture and perhaps from history they are able to gather while doing the survey. When you get into your high priority ranking, the Texas Historical Commission has building condition surveys. Nothing along the lines of establishing structural integrity -- but a very broad condition of the building. He said it was a pretty hard task making the designations, and it was up to the HPC, but maybe there would be more benefit in getting an outsider to do the ranking. Bill said his understanding was that the structure with the highest value would not necessarily have anything to do with market value. David asked if the value could be a social value, and Joey said yes. David explained that some of the homes with city historic markers had more social significance to the community than architectural significance. Joey said they'd encountered some of that when the Northgate survey was done. He said that in College Station, the significance would be more on "what happened here ?" or "who lived in this house ? ". He suggested that maybe the HPC didn't want to prioritize right now, instead just have pictures of what's there. Deborah suggested that the prioritization be done in a closed session. Bat said he didn't want to get too deep into the project without the benefit of some professional guidance. He feels the HPC could rank from a social aspect, but wasn't qualified to make decisions from an architectural standpoint. He wanted to know why the HPC needed this done now. Elton said having a database for future reference was good. Carol said there could be a database without assigning a priority. Shawn suggested that maybe the terminology of low, medium, and high priority wasn't appropriate. She said she'd done rankings in the past that used a number system, and perhaps the ranking could be done that way, with so many points assigned if the house had certain things. Bill said he liked that idea, but again, he felt the project needed to be professionally done. Joey said he'd never considered the idea of priority being an Historic Preservation Committee Page 3 issue. David stated that the HPC was concerned about homeowners who may be unhappy when they found out which priority ranking had been assigned to their homes. Carol said that perhaps the word "priority" needed to be changed. Deborah explained to Joey that the concerns about the ranking came not from the HPC, but from the outside. She said a lot of people see the ranking that was done in Northgate as the impetus for all the changes which have taken place there. Seeing a ranking happen in Southside has raised the question "why are they doing this and what are they going to do there / ' Deborah suggested having one of the classes at A &M review the pictures for any examples of an outstanding architectural style. Elton stated that the architectural aspect was very subjective, and could be done at any time, by a researcher or someone who has an interest in it, using the city's photographic database. Bill said he could see beginning the process, and picking out certain structures that the HPC agreed were a high priority, steering clear of assigning a category to anything that wasn't high or good. Elton suggested calling them either historical or vernacular. Carol said she felt that if the survey is to serve as a written record of what is here, a high, medium, or low priority ranking isn't necessary. If they have to be ranked, she suggested ranking according to age. Joey said that it would have to be a little more descriptive than that. He said in Bryan for example, they have 2,000 structures on the survey, and you have to differentiate some from the others. Bill said the HPC needed to work on the database. After some discussion, the HPC decided to go forward with the database phase, and do the ranking later if needed. Elton asked Joey what the benefits would be in designating an area as an historical district. Joey said it depends on the local commitment to preserving that area. He explained that you can have buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, and you can have districts that are designated as National Register Districts, but in some cases you have National Register Districts that have no local ordinances that would allow it to be preserved and treated in a certain way at the local level. Joey said he felt that the local support is the one with the influence as to what happens. The area could be a district designated locally by zoning, as an historical overlay district. Elton asked if there was any funding for home improvement and that sort of thing. Joey said within a National Register District there were some tax incentives, but the most effective stuff is what's done at the local level. Bryan is looking at some type of tax deferment or deduction based on improvements made within historic districts. Bill thanked Joey for his input. 6. REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC HOME APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED: An application for 306 Suffolk Avenue was submitted for approval. Bill stated that this was the campus home of the superintendent who built the corps dorms, not the Fitch house on Glade as stated in their application submitted in the spring. The Fitch house, he said, could be easily verified as being on campus long before the corps dorms. Pam stated that Mr. Ragsdale had asked her to pass along the name of the builder, Alfred C. Finn, and the construction company, Bellows Construction Company. She also stated that Mr. Ragsdale said he'd found pictures at the Cushing Library showing the construction of the home between May - September 1939, and from the photos it looked as though construction was completed by September, 1939. Bill asked if this was the construction of the house where it stands now, and Pam said no, while on campus. Bill said he thought it would have been built before 1939. If the dorms were completed and opened in the Fall of 1939, the house should have been completed and gone by that time. Pam said she'd get back with Mr. Ragsdale to verify those dates. Bill said the Ragsdales' had requested historic plaque #47, and wanted to know if that was a problem. David said it was up to the HPC. Bill said they wanted #47 because that was Mr. Ragsdale's grandfather's number (Wayne Gilbert Irwin, Dairy Science '43) when he was on the football team at A &M. Mr. Irwin was also in the first freshman class to occupy Historic Preservation Committee Page 4 those corps dorms. Carol made the motion to approve the home for a plaque, Deborah seconded, and all were in favor. The HPC agreed to allow them to have plaque #47, but will not give it to them until plaques 40 - 46 have been awarded. If people start deciding they want to pick their number, it could present a problem. David said that Dale Fox had presented additional information for 215 Lee Street, in order to have his application approved for an historic home plaque. Bill stated that the Foxes' were calling it the Zeller house, and it was for sale. He said it had been changed quite a bit -- the front door is on the opposite side of the house now, and the chimney has been removed. He said he didn't know what had been done inside. Deborah asked when the house was built. Bill said all the houses in that area were built in 1935 -37. The application stated the property had been sold to Zeller in 1935, but no construction date for the house was given. Deborah made a motion, it was seconded, and all were in favor of granting the Zeller house historic plaque #40. David told the members that he was going through applications previously received, but not approved, and asking for more information. He'd spoken with Russell Duke, who said he was confused about what the HPC was looking for, so David said he'd drafted a letter describing the real purpose of the program. David said hopefully the other applicants will be sending additional information in the near future. 7. DISCUSSION OF NEXT ORAL HISTORIES AND WRITING OF BOOK; To bring the members up -to -date, David said that Grace Calbert, Conference Center Supervisor and the Conference Center Advisory Committee were heading up the oral history sessions. David said a lot of information has been gathered and through the City's budget process he had asked for $15,000 to do some type of oral history book, thinking it would take several years to get that money. The money to write and publish the book was approved right away, and David said the HPC now has until September 31, 1998 to get the book written and published. David said the HPC needed to decide on how the book should be written, whether from a fictional aspect, or as individual stories in no particular order -- similar to the way Bryan wrote their history book for their 100 year celebration. The decision as to whether it should be paperback or hardback also needed to be made. Elton suggested doing the project in CD ROM form. David said it would be difficult since the interviews were done in group sessions, making it difficult to isolate what was being said. Bill added that the desire now was to do the interviews on a one -on -one basis. Sharon asked if Bill would go back to the groups that had been interviewed and replace those sessions with one -on -one interviews. Bill said no, not to replace, but to add to what had been done. Sharon congratulated Bill, telling the HPC that she'd gone with him when he interviewed Ed Madeley, and that he'd done a wonderful job. Deborah asked if the different Memory Lane sessions would be separate short stories. David said that would probably be the best thing to do, since it would be difficult to mesh them all into one story. Elton stated, and several other members agreed, that he would hate to see the work done as fiction, when they have the actual historical, biographical statements. Deborah said she'd like to see something done in the vein of Jeff Carroll's Legendary Texas. She said he's got about five volumes published, of very short stories (1 -2 pages), with each volume of about 50 -60 pages, dealing with different topics that were typical of the time -- maybe a person or a one -day event. The stories are told the way an old storyteller would tell it, but they are historical, and they're very interesting. David said it would take about $7,500 to have someone write the book and then about that much to have it published as a paperback. Sharon asked if that would cover new categories not yet done, or just what had been collected in the sessions up to this point. David said only what had been done. Bill said putting something in writing was a good way to stir up more interest in the project, since there were a lot of people who could have participated and didn't. He said that at some point in the Historic Preservation Committee Page 5 future, after more oral histories are recorded, the book will need to be added to. Even though a lot of information has been gathered, it's a small amount compared to what's still out there. Deborah said she'd bring in a copy of one of her volumes of Legendary Texas so everyone could see how it's written. David stated that several writers would probably have to be interviewed before the HPC chose the one it thought would do the best job. Deborah said there was a Writer's Guild in town that could give the HPC some insight on how to go about searching for a writer. David said they had been commissioned to do the Bryan book. He said he'd get in touch with the President of the Writer's Guild and have her come to the next HPC meeting. 8. DEVELOP LIST OF COMMITTEE GOALS: Bill said the HPC needed some new direction, and David agreed, saying it was trying to do too many things and not accomplishing much. Bill said the HPC needed to zero in on just a couple of things. Elton said that at the last meeting Dennis stated that he'd like to see the HPC concentrate on the Southside Historic District. Deborah said the HPC was also going to have to spend a lot of time dealing with the book, and to be done right, the HPC will have to help. She saki there also may be a state subject marker for a church coming up soon. After some discussion the members decided that the HPC's main goals for the year would be the Southside district (lighting, etc.), and the oral history book, with state and city markers as ongoing projects. Bill said to keep in mind when working on Southside, that the city beautification committee has money and plans for entrance gateways into various areas, and the HPC needed to offer whatever assistance that might be needed. He said as a goal, this would fall under the historical district category. Deborah asked what had happened to the Lick Creek Park archaeological site project. David said nothing had ever come of Dr. Thom's proposal because the funding had not been approved. He stated that before any development could occur out there, the project would have to be done. Bill told Shawn about Bryan Howard's interest and work on the archaeological subcommittee, as well as Dr. Thom's proposal asking for funding. Bill asked Shawn to take Bryan's place since he was off the committee, and her interest was in archaeology. Deborah said it would be worth trying to find out if there was funding somewhere that the city could match to get the project done. 9. OTHER COMMITTEE CONCERNS: Elton told the members that the Sparks Building in Northgate had been nominated and was a finalist for a restoration award. It's a joint project between the City, the A&M School of Architecture, and the local AIA. Bill told the HPC that the Mayor meets once a month with the chairpersons from each City committee, and at the last meeting, Cheryl Anz had mentioned that they would be asking for help from the HPC to get markers on some of the buildings in Northgate. Sharon asked the members to take pictures of different areas of town for photo documentation purposes when they had a chance. She showed pictures she'd taken of the Reed Arena property before construction started, and of the work in progress. She said she chose that avenue of photo - collecting, because the gathering of old photos just wasn't happening. She asked that the members pick out a certain topic, take before - during- and -after photos, and let her know what would be photographed, so that there wouldn't be duplications. Bill said he had pictures of the George Bush Library site to add to the collection. He said he'd taken photos when the hog barns were still there. Elton explained that there had been a tower constructed specifically for the purpose of documenting the entire construction process of the Bush Library. David informed the members that Elsie Patranella Sauer had given a gift of $4,000 to the College Station Cemetery to provide funds to start the memorial walk planned as a fund- raising project. The Historic Preservation Committee Page 6 Luke Patranella memorial plaque, which had been moved from the recreational slab at Oakwood School when renovation took place, would be placed in the City Cemetery near the memorial walk with an informational sign. The sign would explain how the slab and plaque came about, and a little about Luke Patranella. 10. MOURN; The meeting adjourned at 6:48 p.m.