[MassHistPres] Olmsted-ricahedson non-contiguous thematic LHD passed

[sally milne]

I enjoyed your hard work. Thank you. Congratulations!
Sally Urbano
Harwich


On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 11:48 AM Hetty Startup <hms1815 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I shall always think of things like this as non-contagious in future. And
> thanks for attaching the report. Good reading! Hetty, Amherst Historical
> Commission
>
> On Sun, Dec 5, 2021 at 9:20 AM Dennis De Witt <abtdewitt at rcn.com> wrote:
>
>> PS — I should have said the LHD did pass by 196 yes, 29 no, 7 abstain.
>>
>> And, four of its five sites are "non-contiguous" not "non-contagious” —
>> altho they may be that too.
>>
>> > On Dec 3, 2021, at 4:53 PM, Dennis De Witt <abtdewitt at rcn.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Last spring a proposed extension of a Brookline LHD was unexpectedly
>> defeated in Town Meeting by one vote less than the needed ⅔.  The negative
>> votes came from two overlapping factions.  One felt the site should be
>> available for development.  Although zoned for a version of single family
>> allowing only limited multi-unit development, it was argued that such a
>> site near a Green Line station and the Longwood Medical Area should be
>> developed.  There was also an overlapping general racial equity argument
>> based, in part, on the fact that part of the area had once been red lined —
>> something that might affect many existing and prospective LHDs, given how
>> widespread that Federal practice was at one time.
>> >
>> > With the above as background for a general sense of trepidation in
>> approaching another LHD . . .
>> >
>> > This fall the Commission came back to Brookline Town Meeting with an
>> LHD attempting to save from demolition the 1803 Perkins-Hooper-Richardson
>> House, the home and office of Henry Hobson Richardson from 1873 to his
>> death in 1886, and the adjacent Mansard “Cliffside," the second Brookline
>> home of John Charles Olmsted (FLO’s nephew and adopted son and partner).
>> >
>> > As they are in the Brookline’s "estate area," there was no possibility
>> of creating a contiguous, neighborhood based LHD, given the 80% owner
>> support usually expected for a neighborhood LHD by Brookline's Town
>> Meeting.
>> >
>> > Thus, there evolved a proposal to create a non-contagious, thematic
>> Olmsted-Richardson LHD that would also include, in addition to the two
>> threatened houses, Fredric Law Olmsted’s nearby “Fairsted” home and office,
>> a National Historic Landmark and NPS museum, as well as the first John
>> Charles Olmsted home, further down the same street, and Richardson’s grave
>> marker in Brookline’s Walnut Hill cemetery.  These latter three locations
>> were all included with the owners’ support.  (See study report attached
>> below.) The Olmsted-Richardson theme was based on their long friendship,
>> frequent collaborations, and the fact that Olmsted came to Brookline
>> because of Richardson and there emulated Richardson’s conjoined home and
>> office.
>> >
>> > The proposed LHD did not include a lot adjacent to the Richardson lot,
>> owned by the same developer who also applied to demolish its nice 1970s
>> Deck House.  Even though the lot had once been a part of the Richardson
>> lot, it was felt that the 1970s house would confuse the thematic issue in
>> Town Meeting.
>> >
>> > The major discussion in Town Meeting and before was the connections
>> with slavery of both the first owner, Samuel G. Perkins, who had previously
>> traded goods in Haiti, and Richardson’s family, which had a sugar
>> planation, and the need to have a sign at the street in front of the
>> Richardson house explaining that — in addition to Richardson and Olmsted
>> information.  All have agreed that will happen.
>> >
>> > The attached study report addresses all of the above — as well as the
>> connection of the columned Perkins-Hooper-Richardson house to Mount Vernon
>> as a Federalist political statement.  But no one in town meeting cared
>> about that.
>> >
>> > Dennis De Witt
>> > Brookline
>> > <Olmsted-HHR SR final
>> 8.14.21.compressed2.pdf>_______________________________________________
>> > MassHistPres mailing list
>> > MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
>> > https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
>>
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