[MassHistPres] Tracking renovations

Garrett Laws copperandslate at gmail.com
Fri Jun 28 09:49:00 EDT 2024


Richard,

This should also be used as a preventative measure. Requiring a Google
Street View image (when available) sets the stage for an applicant to
realise that it’s now very easy for not only a commission but literally
everyone, to track the changes (past, present and future) to a property.

Garrett Laws
Copper & Slate Company
Waltham

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, Richard Smith via MassHistPres <
masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:

> I noticed something recently that may be useful in historic district
> commission reviews of contentious projects.  In Google maps, you can select
> a location and look at it in Street View to see what the building and
> surroundings look like.  If you look at the box that comes up with the
> street image, it offers you the most recent street images Google has taken
> with its date.  However, next to the date, it says “see more dates”, and if
> you click on that you can bring up earlier views.  What Maps does is
> archive its previous street view photos.
>
>
>
> We were in Woodstock Vermont last night, and I saw a substantial
> reconstruction project in the village historic district.  I was trying to
> remember what was there before, so I brought up the Google street view of
> the building, which is dated Nov 2022.  When I clicked on  “see more
> dates”,  I found street views from Sept 2021, Sept 2018, Aug 2017, Nov
> 2016, and Aug 2013.  That gave me a very good overview of how the property
> had changed.
>
>
>
> If it is a street that the Google truck has revisited regularly, Street
> View can give historic districts and commissions a way to look back in time
> to find more clues to the recent renovation history.  Were windows replaced
> without review?  Was that porch enclosed by the present owner? When did
> those details disappear?  Was it after the historic district was
> implemented?  Street View can provide some objective documentation of how a
> historic property has evolved.
>
>
>


-- 

Many Thanks,
Garrett Laws

The Copper & Slate Company <https://copperandslate.net>

Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/copperandslatecompany/>

The Copper & Slate Company, Inc.
Fine Roofing and Historic Carpentry
238 Calvary Street,
Waltham, MA 02453
(781) 893-1916

*LEAD FREE SINCE 2008*
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