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

[Paul Rohr]

Sometimes thematic, non-contiguous districts can indeed be contagious.

In 2009/10, I chaired the study committee which successfully persuaded
Easton's Town Meeting to pass the thematic, non-contiguous Ames LHD.  Our
initial scope protected all of the Richardson/Olmsted structures built by
the Ames family in North Easton Village, along with the Shovel Works
complex where they made their fortune.  Quoting from the study report:

*"Where feasible, boundary lines were drawn to connect adjacent properties
into a single contiguous area. However, as with the underlying H. H.
Richardson National Landmark District, two of the properties on Elm Street
are not physically contiguous with the rest of the proposed district. In
April, the Committee voted to specify more precise boundaries at the Gate
Lodge to rectify ambiguities in the original National Landmark nomination."*


In 2013, the Historical Commission convinced Town Meeting to expand the
district beyond the initial 15 properties, adding another 50 properties *"to
include additional public buildings, stores and residences associated with
[a] unique industrial village as it existed around the turn of the 20th
century."*  While most were contiguous with the original core area, again
there were non-contiguous exceptions.  Even so, the Ames LHD still only
protects a subset of the larger North Easton National Register Historic
District, + partially overlaps some of the many smaller MACRIS thematic
districts in the village.

For more details, including maps + the two study reports, see:


https://www.easton.ma.us/boards_and_committees/historical_commission/local_historic_district/index.php

Paul

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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