Staniford Farmhouse to be Restored.

195928

2 APPLETREE POINT LN

Certificate of Appropriateness

In Review

10-0750CA

DRB May 18 2010

Renovations to historic house, construct new accessory structure [garage]. Contact: Mary O'Neil, 865-7556.

Zoning Activity Report

Certificate of Appropriateness 10-0750CA; 2 Appletree Point Lane (RL-W, Ward 4) Eric Farrell

Renovations to single family house, construct new 36' x 24' accessory structure. (Project

Manager, Mary O’Neil, 865-7556)

Monday, April 12, 2010. Board meeting, 4pm, Seleen-Terhune's. Guest, Eric Farrell.

Eric is preparing the Staniford (Woodbury, Smith, Wick) farmhouse for a new owner who will have the option of doing the renovations to their own taste. He intends to market the historic home with permit for accessory apartment in it's pastoral setting on 5 acres as recommended by historic preservationist, Liisa Reiman.

The property will include the spacious lawns, two ponds and Appletree Point Stream that meanders through a wooded wetland ravine with perennial springs. Liisa researched the history of the farmhouse for APHS and documented it's eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places.



Eric points out sections of the house that have to be removed due to extensive deterioration. APHS had hoped to preserve the Louis Sheldon Newton portico, but the cost of that restoration would have priced the house out of the range of most single home buyers.

How are Properties Evaluated?
To be considered eligible, a property must meet the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. This involves examining the property’s age, integrity, and significance.

• Age and Integrity. Is the property old enough to be considered historic (generally at least 50 years old) and does it still look much the way it did in the past?
• Significance. Is the property associated with events, activities, or developments that were important in the past? With the lives of people who were important in the past? With significant architectural history, landscape history, or engineering achievements? Does it have the potential to yield information through archeological investigation about our past?

Staff Notes to DAB, Apr. 13, 2010.

Sec. 5.4.8 Historic Buildings and Sites

The City seeks to preserve, maintain, and enhance those aspects of the city having historical, architectural, archaeological, and cultural merit. Specifically, these regulations seek to achieve the following goals:

To preserve, maintain and enhance Burlington’s historic character, scale, architectural integrity, and cultural resources;

To foster the preservation of Burlington’s historic and cultural resources as part of an attractive, vibrant, and livable community in which to live, work and visit;

To promote a sense of community based on understanding the city’s historic growth and development, and maintaining the city’s sense of place by protecting its historic and cultural resources; and,

To promote the adaptive re-use of historic buildings and sites.

(a) Applicability:

These regulations shall apply to all buildings and sites in the city that are listed, or eligible for listing, on the State or National Register of Historic Places.

As such, a building or site may be found to be eligible for listing on the state or national register of historic places and subject to the provisions of this section if all of the following conditions are present:

1. The building is 50 years old or older;

The Woodbury-Wick house was constructed sometime around 1830.

2. The building or site is deemed to possess significance in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the City, state or nation in history, architecture, archeology, technology and culture because one or more of the following conditions is present:

A. Association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history;

The Woodbury-Wick house is associated with early agricultural practice, having been the primary farmstead of Reuben F. Staniford, on acreage that extended from the tip of Appletree Point to North Avenue and exceeded 300 acres. The house remains a singular example of an early farmstead in the city.

or,

B. Association with the lives of persons significant in the past;

Urban Woodbury II was the grandson son of former Burlington Mayor and the 45^th Governor of Vermont, Urban Andrain Woodbury.

Embodiment of distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or representation of the work of a master, or possession of high artistic values, or representation of a significant or distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction;

The Woodbury-Wick house is an excellent example of a high-style dwelling and retains its character defining combination of Breek Revival and Neoclassical elements, most notably the 2 storey portico on the primary façade. The work of renowned architect Louis Sheldon Newton is notable within the analysis of the architectural significance. or,

D. Maintenance of an exceptionally high degree of integrity, original site orientation and virtually all character defining elements intact; or,

E. Yielding, or may be likely to yield, information important to prehistory; and,

3. The building or site possess a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association

The building is listed on the Vermont State Register of Historic Places, and therefore is eligible for the National Register.

(b) Standards and Guidelines:

The following development standards, following the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, shall be used in the review of all applications involving historic buildings and sites subject to the provisions of this section and the requirements for Design Review in Art 3, Part 4. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards are basic principles created to help preserve the distinctive character of a historic building and its site. They are a series of concepts about maintaining, repairing and replacing historic features, as well as designing new additions or making alterations. These Standards are intended to be applied in a reasonable manner, taking into consideration economic and technical feasibility.

1. A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships.

Continued residential use is consistent with the historic use of the property.

2. The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.

The applicant has engaged an architectural historian to evaluate and assess the subject property. The study is attached. Due to the significant cost to reconstruct the elaborate two storey portico, and the accomplishment of photo and narrative documentation per federal archival standards, the removal of that element has been considered acceptable. Similarly, the removal of the shutters and the filigree lantern, both components introduced with Newton’s renovations c. 1924, have been deemed acceptable with the condition that removed elements be stored on-site to allow future reinstallation.

3. Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken.

The proposed one storey front porch replacement is based on historic photos of the property taken c. 1922, and are not conjectural.

4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.

The significant changes introduced by reknown architect Louis B. Newton; specifically the elaborate front porch, balustrade, lantern, and detailing have acquired historic significance in their own right. The applicant has provided analysis by an architectural historian with documentation of all elements that are proposed to be removed, with conditions for storage and standard based documentation.

5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.

Replacement/repair shall be in-kind; infill or new clapboard shall match the existing material and reveal. Removed slate will be used to patch the existing roof on the main house.

6. Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials recognizing that new technologies may provide an appropriate alternative in order to adapt to ever changing conditions and provide for an efficient contemporary use. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.

The front porch will be replaced with a more modest version, based upon historic photographs of the property. The slate roof on the most historic structure will be patched with slate removed from the (later) north addition.

7. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.

No chemical treatments are proposed, nor are they recommended.

8. Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.

Although no archaeological resources have been identified at this location and significant ground disturbance has already occurred on this historic farm due to agricultural practices, it would not be a surprise to uncover any element at this early 19th century homestead. Should any discovery be made, appropriate authorities shall be alerted so as to identify, evaluate and properly conserve any significant archaeological resource.

9. New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work shall be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale, and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.

No additions are proposed to the original structure other than a new roof canopy for the rear (north) addition. An eastern porch, added under the direction of Louis Newton in the 1920s and since enclosed by the Wick family, will have new glass installed so as to visually re-open the space.

10. New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.

It is possible to consider the porch installation and renovation as reversible. Photo documentation will allow the potential for future reconstruction of the two storey portico, if desired.