Lawrence Historic Register Initiative

945 Delaware St. - Dennis Domer writes down notes on the architecture of the William H. Schell House, listed on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places

The Lawrence Preservation Alliance is actively pursuing new nominations to the Lawrence Register of Historic Places. In place since the passage of the Lawrence Preservation Ordinance in 1988, the local register is newer than both the Register of Historic Kansas Places (1977) and the National Register of Historic Places (1966). A local listing doesn’t qualify a property owner for tax credits on rehab projects like the other listings do. For these reasons, there are a lot fewer listings on the local register than there are on the state and national registers. As the threshold for documenting significance and extant historic integrity is lower for the local register and higher for the national register, it could be argued that the local register should have the most listings rather than the least.

For LPA, this disparity came into focus when the Kansas Legislature eliminated the environs portion of the state preservation law in July 2013. The Lawrence ordinance has an environs definition that requires projects needing a building permit that are within a 250 foot radius of a locally-listed historic property to undergo a review process before the permit is issued. The state law review, which had a more strict interpretation than the local one, had a 500’ radius.

LPA believes in the review process for the immediate environs of listed historic properties. While the local process, as designed, will stop only the most outrageously inappropriate building proposals, it does provide multiple opportunities for effective interaction with professional planning staff, the Historic Resources Commission (HRC), and concerned members of the public at structured hearings at the local level. The end result in most cases is a project passing review that is improved in how it will relate to the listed property while still achieving the applicant’s project goals.

LPA’s response to the Legislature’s action has been threefold. First, we worked with all owners of stand-alone properties that were listed at the state and national levels. By signing a consent form, these owners allowed LPA to bring their nominations to the Lawrence Register before the City's HRC and City Commission. This has involved a dozen or so properties over the last two years.

We recently began working with owners of contributing properties on the perimeter of the city’s state and national listed historic districts. As with the first group, a signed consent form is all that is needed for LPA to submit a nomination. By listing some of these individual properties locally, we can restore some of the environs review that was taken away by the Legislature.

820 New Jersey St. - the Green and Sidney Lewis House, listed on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places

Third, we are now working with owners of great historic Lawrence properties that have not been documented or listed on any historic registers to date. As we look around, there are a number of outstanding properties that could easily qualify for state and national listing. Our intent is to place them on the Lawrence register first, so that some of the initial steps in the process will already be complete if those owners wish to pursue listing at higher levels at a later date. While a local nomination can be accomplished by a dedicated volunteer, the scope of our project will require some professional assistance, for which we will be providing some internal funds as well as seeking grant funding.

As LPA continues to move forward with this project, the Lawrence Register of Historic Places will have more listings, a more diverse array of architectural styles, materials and eras, and will present for the record a much more accurate portrayal of our city’s rich architectural and cultural history. Do you own a property you think should be listed on the local historic register? If so, contact us and tell us about it!

Winter 2015 Preservation In Progress Awards

Good things have been happening this year in the 1100 block of Rhode Island! In recognition, LPA is announcing two winners of our PIP Award. The winners are:

1106 Rhode Island LLC - 1106 Rhode Island

1106 Rhode Island St.

This LLC, formed by the Hernly and Myers families exclusively for this project, is on the verge of completing the complex and monumental task that has been vexing city and neighborhood leaders for over 30 years. How the Rhody Delahunty Transfer and Storage Company slipped from years of prosperity, and at times flamboyant notoriety, into a rusty graveyard of Packard chassis and crumbling historic structures is a story we will try to summarize in our next newsletter.

Condemned by the Lawrence City Commission in 2013 in a last-ditch attempt to save it, the Hernly/Myers group was the only respondent to a City RFP to buy the property, complete the cleanup, and rehab the significant structures. While the property was located on a very desirable corner lot bordering downtown, it also was listed as a contributing property to the North Rhode Island Historic District on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Any redevelopment proposal involving wholesale demolition would likely not be permitted.

What has resulted is a mixed-use development that saves the house, its historic addition, the barn and the truck shed. A new, one-story master suite was added onto the back of the house, and a two-story gabled garage with apartment above has replaced a ragtag and unsalvageable collection of sheds that were in the southeast corner of the property. The barn and truck shed will be the new offices of Hernly and Associates, currently located upstairs at 920 Massachusetts. The house and the apartment will be rentals.

Besides the courageous action of the City Commission and the LLC, the project has required a Special Use Permit, a rezoning from RM12 to RMO, setback variances for existing buildings from the Board of Zoning Appeals, use of both the federal and state historic tax credit programs, and a 10 year, 85% Neighborhood Revitalization Act (NRA), which rebates (until year eleven) 85% of the taxes on increased property value due to the major improvements. A Development Grant from the City waived fees for permit application and new sewer/water services. The transformation taking place is a major success story for everyone involved and for preservation in Lawrence, Kansas.

Marci Francisco & Joe Bickford - 1124 Rhode Island

1124 Rhode Island St.

Just a few doors south of 1106 RI, who else would be behind the cleanup and stabilization of this gable front and wing contributing property? For years Marci and Joe have quietly and deliberately worked their own particular brand of magic on a number of historic, vernacular houses desperately needing their experienced touch. Some of these have been in the Oread neighborhood with other partners; many have been in the East Lawrence neighborhood. In 2010, LPA presented them with our highest honor, the Preservation Achievement Award, in recognition of their efforts.

The PIP is awarded here for their work to prepare this house for eventual rehab: cleanup, foundation and porch repair, floor-leveling, installing new solar-reflective roofing shingles, and replacing an inappropriate porch floor with tongue and groove flooring. Marci and Joe continue to show us that a neighborhood is best improved little by little, one house at a time.

Notes from the President: Annual Letter to Our Members- It's time to renew your membership!

Next year, preservationists throughout the country will celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.  Among other things, this law marked the beginning of the National Register of Historic Places, under the auspices of the National Park Service, as a program to coordinate and support both public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our nation’s historic and archeological resources.

Of course, preservation actions occurred in this country prior to 1966.  Possibly the first organized action was the purchase of George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, in 1860 by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union who raised $300,000 (in 1860 dollars!) to fund the effort.  Countless actions by other groups and individuals occurred in the succeeding century, but it took a calamitous preservation tragedy - the destruction of New York City’s Pennsylvania Station (built in 1910) on October 28, 1963 - to galvanize organized action that led to the establishment of the national law three years later. 

Here in Lawrence, a similar story is told. While individual preservation achievements, including the Douglas County Courthouse and the Watkins Bank building, were complete by the early 1980s, and other good things were happening, Douglas County Bank's surprise destruction of eight older homes in a square city block bordered by 8th, 9th, Kentucky and Tennessee Streets early on the morning of June 27, 1987, galvanized our local community to pass our own Preservation Ordinance in 1988. 

LPA was in the thick of those efforts with great individuals leading the way (some of whom are no longer here) whose actions have placed us forever in their debt.  A 50-year anniversary offers us a good opportunity to reflect on those community leaders and those individual property owners who have invested time, finances, and sweat to bring us to where we are today.  

But make no mistake, those people and organizations that will do the most to take us through the next 50 years will be the ones who use this time to feel the excitement about where we are going.  As I look around our great city, there is no shortage of younger people who understand the value of identifying and protecting specific built and natural environments, and what that brings to the rich diversity of our community’s history and culture. 

LPA is working diligently to bring these younger folks into our expanding group, and to help them to learn as they grow, just as we once did.  We learn from them as well, as their fresh perspectives and new energies help drive us forward.

In the past several years, our membership group has gotten younger; the Board of Directors is also younger.  Additionally, we’ve spent the summer giving our website a great new look.  There is a treasure of easy to navigate information here, and our systems are in place to keep that information accurate and up-to-date.  From last year’s Annual Meeting in Clearfield to our Old Housewarmings and this spring’s Awards Event at the Cider Gallery, ask anybody who attended, these were great, positive events that brought smiles and a jolt of positive energy to every participant.   LPA has a new shine and is ready for the next 50 years!  

Early this summer, a letter writer to the Journal World lamented that, “the vast majority of the lions of our community’s preservation and heritage movement of the late 20th century are indisposed…or dead.”  This is a bleak world view that LPA cannot share. 

LPA chooses to look forward, and look around.  There’s so much work to do, and as participants in a greater community, no we don’t get everything we want.  But look at all the smiling faces and helping hands around us, a number of them half our age!  It’s a great time to be a citizen of Lawrence, and a great day to be working to make it better. 

Please pay your dues as generously as you can, and join your friends and neighbors at the Annual Meeting at Eudora City Hall on September 27th.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Dennis J. Brown, President   

        **You can now pay your dues or make donations online!  Go to Get Involved, then click join or renew.**