Member Letter From the President

LPA Members:

As we renew our membership commitment for another year, I would like to reflect on where we are as a preservation community today, and where we were some fifty years ago.

With beginnings in the 1960s and 70s, and progressing into a steady stream of activity in the 1980s, urban pioneers and Main Street saviors began transforming our downtown and core neighborhoods one structure at a time.  The 600 block of Massachusetts was blighted, and at one point a shopping mall was proposed that would have covered the block and forever closed the intersection at 6th street.  The Lawrence Opera House (Liberty Hall) was headed for a sheriff’s sale on the steps of the Courthouse.  Stately properties such as 701 Louisiana sat with for sale signs in the yard for months at a time.  The very real threat for many of these properties in core neighborhoods was demolition and replacement with suburban design, fourplexes or apartment houses.

When these pioneers began their work, probably unaware that they could be called ‘preservationists’, or that they were part of a movement, others watched in amazement and told them they were wasting their money.  “It’s a labor of love” was the likely response, and for most of these pioneers, it was.

Once a few of these early rehabilitations were completed, others saw they could do it too.  Neighborhood associations had been formed, and some even succeeded in downzoning actions.  The library, community pool, Eldridge Hotel, downtown churches, and the Carnegie Building were improved instead of scattered to satellite sites.  Voters approved bond issues that succeeded in keeping neighborhood schools.  Downtown became a mecca of dining and entertainment options, office space, and boutique shops.  A key component, however, in all these individual actions that created this critical mass of something great and desirable, was a common-held belief that our stock of historic structures should be valued and preserved.  The fact is those early naysayers that felt preservation was a waste of money couldn’t have been more wrong.

These days, downtown is a great place to take family and friends.  A ‘for sale’ sign never stays in a residential front yard for long, if it appears at all.  While those early pioneers may have wondered if anyone would ever join them, now there is great demand to live in these vibrant core neighborhoods and enjoy the great life they offer.

While demolition was the specter hanging over our old housing stock fifty years ago, the danger today is more likely to be that while a number of these folks feel an attraction to the core neighborhoods, they don’t really want an old house at all.  Judging by agendaitems this year at the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission (HRC), some have purchased old houses with no intention of actually living in them until they can take the ‘old’ out, and replace with new.

Those urban pioneers of the past would typically redo a kitchen and take out a small upstairs bedroom to create a bigger master bath or walk-in closet.  Sometimes a garage was built or an addition built on the back.  But by and large, it was understood that “character-defining features” of their historic property were to be preserved- not removed, mimicked or redone to the point of obscurity.  The HRC is there for people with properties listed on historic registers to help them achieve this goal and still fit their definition of ‘livable’.  Of course, not all older properties are listed on historic registers or within the environs of local register properties, which would require HRC review. Massive additions, however, that turn the original house into a vestibule, or an original front façade with an entirely new house behind it, are not what the standards for review are meant to allow, nor what our predecessors who created what is now so desirable had in mind.

This current demand on our downtown and core neighborhoods tells us that what has been achieved collectively over the last five decades has great cultural and economic value.  There is certainly room for more people to come in and make it even better, but before they design a building plan that effectively jumps in with both feet, they should take some time to understand their neighborhood and what makes their recently-purchased historic structure valuable. Unless you can purchase a vacant lot, a downtown loft, or an inappropriate older infill structure, the price of the ticket to this party is a wonderful old house, and that’s as it should be.

Dennis J Brown, President

Spring 2016 Preservation In Progress Awards

John Charlton - 1624 Indiana Street

1624 Indiana Street (Courtesy of Lawrence Modern)

Owner John Charlton, with assistance from members of Lawrence Modern, recently added his mid-century modern home to the City of Lawrence's list of local landmarks. He also had the property added to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. More information is available on our news and events page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prairie Realty LLC - 1015 Alabama Street

1015 Alabama Street

This longtime home of Albert Bloch, the only American artist affiliated with the Blue Rider (Blaue Reiter), a network of German expressionist painters from 1911-1914, received a top to bottom makeover late last year.

In 1923, Bloch accepted a position as professor at the University of Kansas, where he taught art and art history until his retirement in 1947.  In 1924, he bought this house where he lived and painted for many years.  Located in the heart of Oread, 1015 Alabama now sparkles once again and is in use as a rental.

Lynnette and Nathan Littlejohn - 321 Indiana Street

321 Indiana Street

Lynnette and Nathan Littlejohn have found a great way to move into a designated historic district and make new friends: buy one of the most dilapidated houses on the block and steadily rehab it until it stands right there among the best! The structure at 321 Indiana, a contributing to the state and nationally-listed Pinckney #2 Residential Historic District, had suffered from years of exposure to water infiltration and the usual combination of neglect and cover-up fixes. Cosmetic damage had worsened to the point of structural concerns.

The couple replaced one foundation wall and added steel I-Beams tied into new exterior concrete anchors to support another. Vertical supports were added in the basement. Cracked and sagging joists in the ceilings and floors were sistered rather than replaced. An inappropriate roof structure and five layers of shingles were removed to uncover the original roofline, and wood double-hung windows were restored.

Inside, paneling and fiber ceiling tiles were removed to expose the rotting plaster underneath. The house was rewired and plumbed, and new sheetrock installed. Oak and pine floors were refinished and painting commenced inside and out. The lot was regraded to create positive drainage around the house. The couple did as much of this work themselves as they could.

The finished product is a great home for Lynnette and Nathan, some very happy new friends and neighbors, and a much-deserved PIP Award from LPA in their front yard…well done, Lynnette and Nathan!

Beal House Added to Local, State and National Registers

People gather for the Lawrence Modern Open House held at the Beal House in October 2015.             Photo courtesy of Tim Hossler.

The City of Lawrence recently added the George Malcolm Beal House (1624 Indiana Street) to the City's list of local landmarks. The house was added to both the National and State Registers of Historic Places in November 2015 thanks to the efforts of owner John Charlton, who completed the applications with assistance from members of Lawrence Modern.

Designed by KU architecture professor George Beal in 1950, and built by Robert Still, the house at 1624 Indiana is an outstanding example of Usonian organic architecture that built upon his friend Frank Lloyd Wright's design principles. Beal used a heliodon instrument that he designed and built to calculate site-specific sun angles that allowed for creating a more energy efficient house long before LEED ratings were even a concept. He introduced passive solar design by utilizing eave overhangs to shade the house in the summer, while southern facing glass collects the sun's rays in the winter to heat the house. Additionally, the central free-standing chimney absorbs heat that it releases into the house at night.

Not only is the Beal House an architectural gem, it also remains largely unchanged since it was built. Its high degree of historic integrity could not have been possible without the thoughtful stewardship of Beal and John's mother, long-time preservation advocate and LPA member Betty Jo Charlton, who resided at the house from 1971 to 2014.

For more information and photos of the Beal House please visit Lawrence Modern. You can also read the National Register Nomination.

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.**