HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/04/1998 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee xistoric Preservation Committee
Regular Meeting
College Station Conference Center
1300 George Bush give
Wednesday, November 4, 1998 -- 5:15 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Deborah Jasek, Chair; Bill Lancaster, Elton Abbott; Dennis
Maloney; Joan Perry; Russell Duke; Margaret Griffith; Dock
Burke; Shawn Carlson
MEMBERS ABSENT: Rebecca Berry
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 5:15 p.m. by Deborah Jasek, Chair.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes were approved as written.
3. HEAR VISITORS: Deborah welcomed Mike Luther, who had nothing to present.
4. REVI EW AND DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC HOME /BUILDING APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED:
New: There were no new applications to discuss. David said an application had been
sent to 504 Dexter, and the owner needed to know where she could go to get information
on her home. Deborah told David to have the owner go to her title company, and
request a copy of the abstract. If it had been done correctly it would give her a lot if
information.
Bill Lancaster brought a copy of the title abstract for the College Park Subdivision to be
included as part of the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC) files.
Pending: Deborah told the HPC that there were three home applications which had been
pending for some time, due to lack of information. One application was for Russell and
Dorothy Duke. David suggested putting together some type of guide that would tell
homeowners where to go to get information on their homes. Dennis suggested that
whenever information was received on a historic home, the source of that information
should be documented in the file. In that way it could be validated or rejected later on.
There was an application from Dock and Karen Burke, and one had been turned in by
Deliah Fleming. Ms. Fleming had taken her application to add more information, however
it had never been returned. Dock said he had more information and would bring it in,
adding that he'd been told his house was the first built off campus. Bill stated that 504
and 505 W. Dexter were the first two homes built off campus, by the same contractor,
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Clarence Andrews, in the spring of 1922. He told Dock that the actual year his home was
built would be on his abstract, and that Drink Milner was probably the builder.
The last pending application had been turned in by William and Yumiko Stewart at 708
Hereford. Dennis said they sold and moved up north. Bill stated that one of the homes on
Hereford was a Sears Roebuck house. Margaret said it would be easy to tell because the
wood in the attic would still be imprinted with the numbers.
David explained that those four applications that had remained pending had come in
before the HPC had started the policy of approving an application even though more
information was needed.
Dennis asked that a list be put together of homes that the HPC wanted more information
on. Margaret said some sort of standard should be set as to how much information was
collected on a home. David suggested including the offer to help people complete their
application as part of the form. Bill said getting the abstract was a must, because it was a
written sequence that could be expanded on.
Deborah said the application for 708 Hereford would have to be added to, however the
new owners may not be interested. Dennis said he would get with the new owner to
complete the application. Deborah said she'd call Deliah Fleming's daughter and have
her finish the application. The HPC voted and moved to approve the Russell and Burke
homes as #50 and #51.
5. STREET NAMING HISTORY PROJECT: David stated that the scheduled guest, the city's GIS
Coordinator, would not be able to make the meeting as planned. He did get the maps
made up for the HPC to use showing the footprint of all buildings, curb lines, and street
names. The maps were broken up into Southside, Eastgate, Northgate, and Southwood
beyond 2818. Redmond Terrace was not included, but would be done.
The HPC went street to street giving their input on the history behind the streets' names
(see attached). Bill said that Laura Fitch would probably know where a lot of the street
names came from, and may have helped name them.
Dennis wanted to know who the first developer /builder in College Station. Bill said
F.B. Clark and four other men. Dennis wanted to know if there was anything in the city
named after Clark. Bill said no, adding that Fitch had bought a lot of the land in the area
from Clark for practically nothing, and that he and Clark had worked closely on a lot of
things. Dennis suggested renaming the Conference Center to Clark -Fitch Meeting Center,
or something similar, to recognize their contributions to the community. Bill stated that no
one realizes what Bill Fitch did for College Station, adding that all the land south of
Southwest Parkway out to Pebble Creek had been Fitch property. Bill agreed that Bill Fitch
needed to be honored. David said that the HPC could turn in a proposal to rename the
Conference Center. Dennis said it could be discussed at the next meeting.
Joan said she would talk to her mother to get information on as many of the earlier street
names as she could. Mike Luther made a suggestion that the HPC also do a proposal to
rename the sanitation facility, the Zellar Sanitation Facility. Peter Joseph Allen Zellar was a
Sanitation Engineer at A &M for many years. Dennis said it was a good idea as well.
David asked the members if they'd like for him to get more maps from GIS so that the
Streets Name Project could be done for the entire city. The members said yes.
6. DER COMMITTEE CONCERNS: David read the letter from Mark Smith which had
been sent in reply to the HPC's letter regarding changing the Special Event parking signs.
Dennis said the HPC had discussed using decals over the old signs, and a cost needed to
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be gotten on the decals. Everyone agreed that the city shouldn't purchase any more of
the city parking signs when they reorder, but should order the signs with the depot logo.
David said he would pass the information along.
7. ADJOURN: The meeting adjourned at 6:33 p.m.