Historical Summer 2007 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Rehab, restoration, reconstruction, & preservation: all the same, right? Not according to the National Park Service’s standards. Preservation focuses on the maintenance and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property’s form as it has evolved over time. Rehabilitation acknowledges the need to alter or add to a historic property to meet continuing or changing uses while retaining the property’s historic character. Restoration depicts a property at a particular period of time in its history, while removing evidence of other periods. Reconstruction re-creates vanished or nonsurviving portions of a property for interpretive purposes. Why are these nuances important to us? One reason is legal.
We live in a historic district.
We have made preservation of the neighborhood’s architecture a priority and set up district standards to assist and guide these preservation efforts.
Another reason is possibly more esoteric, but the fact is that we occupy treasures of the past which combine to make a neighborhood unlike any other in the State of Missouri, and probably just as unique nationally.
The neighborhood boasts many examples of Arts & Crafts architecture (think house tour!).
This style has come back such that furniture and other accessories such as cabinetry are now found from discount to the highest end stores (also referred to as “Mission,” an Arts & Crafts variant). Unfortunately, some of the rehab work in the area does not adhere to our standards & flaunts the historic district ordinance.
Some construction work is out of compliance with our historic district rules, and it shows. I’ve recently seen removal of original windows in several homes replaced with authentic 1950’s plate glass!
The need for the permit process with the Cultural Resources office is apparent. Our district standards are available on the City’s web site as well that of SDCC.
The Cultural Resource office (which has our standards) page on the City’s site outlines the permit process and contains other information regarding compliance.
It also has some good links, such as the National Park Service’s Technical Preservation Services outlined above. Go to: http://stlouis. missouri.org/citygov/planning/ heritage/standards/skinker Other resources abound. Old House Journal is a great magazine, along with companion publications Old House Interiors and Arts & Crafts Homes (usually available at Left Bank Books).
It has a useful web site with plenty of information including sources for materials and services. Careful, as the wave back to original features seen in these magazines could make a brick & lathe board hugger out of you! Beyond the scope of this article are state tax benefits which might be available when doing work on historic homes. Federal tax credits only apply to commercial buildings. For more information, go to: http://www.dnr.missouri. gov/shpo/TaxCrdts The Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council’s Historic District Review Committee is another resource. For specific questions, call the city’s Cultural Resource Office, 622-3400, SDCC at 862-5122, or Katie Kurtz, Chair, Historic District Review Committee, 727-6377.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2007.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2007_06.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
