[MassHistPres] RE historic looking convenience store/gas station

Sat May 4 17:37:59 EDT 2013

In the Neighborhood Conservation District in my part of Cambridge we have had an outbreak, not of "phony-Colonie" but of Victorianization with imitation Mansard roofs. Two have occurred in an NCD district, another,  just outside. This last is a c. 1916 Neo-Georgian style house recently completely altered into an Italianate Mansard on steroids. 

One example in the NCD allowed the demolition of a 1930 Neo-Georgian garage, a service building for a grand, frame 1857 Mansard house.  Part of the problem was that the garage was by Lois Lily Howe, an important early woman architect. The other part was that the NCD Commission awarded a certificate of appropriateness to its replacement, a nearly believable brick Mansarded two-car garage, which of course, never existed on the site.  

Perhaps the most distressing of all, as it was in a NR district within the NCD, concerned a builder's 1940 Garrison Colonial, one of three closely sited and nearly small, identical houses erected after the original Mansard house on the lot burned. Here the NCD commission allowed the original gable roof to be replaced by a tall Mansard roof.  The young owners urged that the new Mansard roof would give them more room, conserve open space and that it  would "relate to the neighborhood" although street contains a mix of domestic architectural styles. Neither the Garrison overhang nor the 1940 sash will be removed but the door will have a new "Victorian" scalloped hood, resulting in a mish-mash of styles.  

The idea seems that NCD commissioners will excuse the loss of architectural integrity if they find the proposed alterations will preserve open space or be somehow compatible with neighboring houses.  I call it just-add-water instant history.

Heli Meltsner

On Apr 29, 2013, at 4:58 PM, "Tucker, Jonathan" <TuckerJ at amherstma.gov> wrote:

> Thank you.  You spared me saying it.
>  
> One of my planning professors used to refer to the New England version of that 1950s highway Disney-inspired architectural tradition of something-that-was-never-there as “phony-Colonie.”  None of the really good evocative versions of that kind of highway kitsch were built after 1960.
>  
> The real test would be to require Cumberland Farms to design something in, as Dorothy Sayers described as long ago as the 1930s, “a style neither new or old, stretching out reconciling hands to past and present.”  Not post-modern, which is a form of imitation of the old.  Something new, which fits.
>  
> I am also concerned about the concept of “neighborhood compatibility”, in two ways:  1) architecturally, shouldn’t most LHDCs want something better than that? and, 2) too often “more compatible with the neighborhood” translates into what the neighbors like (or will tolerate), which has precisely nothing to do with the purpose of an LHD.
>  
> Jonathan Tucker
> Planning Director
> Amherst Planning Department
> 4 Boltwood Avenue, Town Hall
> Amherst, MA  01002
> (413) 259-3040
> tuckerj at amherstma.gov
>  
>  
>  
> From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of James Hadley
> Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013 6:08 PM
> To: David Temple
> Cc: MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu; jworden at swwalaw.com
> Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] RE historic looking convenience store/gas station
>  
> Sorry, but I have a basic disagreement with the notion of "colonial-ish." 
> Here on Cape Cod this is a curse. We are becoming a theme park of pseudo architecture, slaves to a notion of history that is entirely bogus. Real history is complicated, filled with color and quirks; the "Patti Page" vision is an all - white and cedar shingle fantasy world, organized for a incurious public that is unwilling to open toward any sort of complication. What is worse, the window openings of our historic districts are now filled with fake plastic muntin bars sandwiched between double glazing. The "good" window replacements are the ones with fake muntins on both sides of the double glazing.
> And still the tourists come.
> James Hadley
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Apr 28, 2013, at 2:59 PM, David Temple <davidftemple at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> About 15 years ago Cumberland Farms wanted to put a store in an LHD at the intersection of Routes 27 and 109 in Medfield.  They proposed tearing down a nondescript gas station and replacing it with their generic store. The Medfield HDC met with Cumberland representatives and persuaded the company to put up a colonial-ish store that was much more compatible with the neighborhood. 
>  
> In your reply, please include my original message. AOL users please note!
> 
> David Temple 
> David F. Temple, Inc. 
> 300 South Street 
> Medfield, MA 02052 
> 508-359-2915
>  
> From: "jworden at swwalaw.com" <jworden at swwalaw.com>
> To: jel42 at comcast.net; MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu 
> Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 11:08 AM
> Subject: [MassHistPres] RE historic looking convenience store/gas station
>  
> Jane,
>  
> Part of your message disappared into the ether, but I can speculate on 
> what you were thinking.
> 
> When Cumberlanbd Famrs came to Arliongton many years ago, they tore 
> down the last remaining blacksmith shop and built a typical glass front box. 
> Maybe they're more sensitive now.  When Osco wanted to come here, I tried 
> to persaude them to put a "skin" on their building to replicate an 18th century 
> tavern that featured in the first day of the American Revolution, but they were 
> committed to the big box look. The Planning Board eventually turned them 
> down on other grounds.
> 
> John Worden
> Arlington HDC
> 
> 
> 
> ------- Original Message -------
> From : Jane Lowell[mailto:jel42 at comcast.net]
> Sent : 4/25/2013 8:49:56 PM
> To : MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> Cc : 
> Subject : RE: [MassHistPres] historic looking convenience store/gas station
> 
> Cumberland Farms is seeking to build in Mendon’s Historic Center District.  The district is merely honorary so the HC has no clout.  The plans submitted to the PB
>  
> 
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