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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20210202 - Historical Commission - Meeting Minutes1 Hopkinton Historical Commission Meeting Minutes Feb. 2, 2021 7:00 pm Members Attending: Stacy Spies, Eric Sonnett, John Pavlov, Nancy Stevenson, Nanda Barker-Hook, Mike Roughan Members Absent: Beth Watson, James Haskins (Associate), Kevin Mccaffrey (Associate) Also attending: (for 28 Ash Street) Mary Jo and Scott Hamilton, Chatterjee, Mr and Mrs Dave Cote, John, Maggie Hanlon, Karen and Doug DeWolf, Perdeep, Bill Pickens, Atwell, BP18 Attending (for the Terry House): Kelly Grill, Scott Richardson, Jeff Dougherty 28 ASH STREET PUBLIC HEARING Mike opened explaining what our process is with a Public Hearing for a possible Demo Delay. Mary Jo-There are issues with a water break. Had structural engineer do a home inspection- a lot more problems than we know. We want to live in a neighborhood. House built in 1830. Is it preferably preserved based on its features? Scott-We have been transparent, and want to work with the town. Mary Jo-This house is in such bad shape, it even has a tree in the basement holding up the house. Stacy-Tree trunks originally were often used as supports like that. Mike-Point of order: Chatterjee has a comment. We are asking for the HHC members to discuss now and then we will open the discussion up to the public. Eric-Mary Jo, do you have plans for what you want to replace this house with. Stacy-One thing we noticed. It is no surprise that the heating bill is huge, since there are no basement windows in the house at this time. Mary Jo-We have been in Florida since Thanksgiving. Stacy-Things were frozen by December. John (neighbor)-Brian Gassett did a complete renovation of a 200 year old barn. Dave Cody (neighbor at 25 Ash)- I want to back up what John was saying. We decided to do a complete in place renovation on our house and we were fortunate to use him. As he got more into it, he realized floors and ceilings needed to be replaced. Anyone else would have charged 25% more. A yr later, we redid the barn. Decided to not demolish. Restoring was 160 (vs 90) days. Mrs Cote-It was a labor of love for Brian. No floors basically four walls and floor. Cost wise not something he was prepared for. Preserved some of the items. Brian told us that the cost to renovate was much more than rebuilding. Mike-Many of us have old houses, including John Pavlov. John-My house was taken down to studs and no floor, then removed the logs and put in steel supports to save the house. The HHC needs to determine if this house and barn are preferably preserved. If the applicant is willing, can we look at the barn independently from the house? Mike- Mary Jo and Scott, would you be willing to get a decision on separate buildings? Mary Jo-We prefer a single demo application. Nancy-Keep in mind that we are options other than tearing it down or fully restoring it. As an example, You can hold onto the original exterior walls and gut the interior and do what you want. Stacy-It would probably be a full gut job. Elevations from the street are something to consider as well. Mike-Anyone else want to make a comment? 2 Dave Cote- I want to note my previous point in support of financial hardship. If Brian hadn’t been so generous, it would have been out of our cost. Maggie-I am not sure what the historic nature of that house is. It doesn’t match any other one on that street. Walking by that house, it is an eyesore. Dogs deficate there. I would like something to be done about it. Chatterjee-I live at 15 Fenton. What is a historical house? I’m an engineer and I don’t understand. Mike-There are several definitions. The character of a house, has any resident of noted history lived there? This house was owned for 100 yrs and first owner was a teacher, which had an impact on the neighborhood. Clearly if you would read the description, this person is a noted person from Hopkinton history. It is significant to some of us. Doug-Karen and I have a 50 year old house on B Street. The biggest problem we have is a water problem. If you can get a new foundation, huge. We do all kinds of things to mitigate. We are aware of mold problems. I know historical significance. I am a stone mason. The big thing about getting a dry basement is huge. Much healthier. Should use clapboards the right way, etc Mike-A 6” drain all the way around helps. Rebuilding the foundation is not the only solution. There are other remedies. What we are trying to do is to try to maintain the integrity of town with older properties. With the Chesmore barn, we accepted a new replacement. We need documentation as to exactly what would replace the current property before we would consider lifting the demo delay. If we don’t institute a demo delay, you can do whatever you want. Our first order of business is to vote on whether we should close the public hearing on 28 Ash Street. Eric motioned that we close the public hearing. Stacy seconded. Vote: Eric-yes Nancy-yes Nanda-yes Stacy-yes John-yes Mike-yes. Unanimous approval to close public hearing. Mike-We have closed the public hearing in order to deliberate whether we impose a demo delay on the house and barn at 28 Ash Street. John-I would like to see the plans of what they are wanting to replace it with and where it sits on the lot before voting to allow the demo. Mike-We have a time constraint. We have to vote tonight. Eric-I sort of support the direction John laid out. If we institute a demo delay, I would like for the Hamilton’s to come back with us with a plan for a replacement using existing materials. Give them time to come back with plans. Nanda-I want to highlight I want to protect and restore historic properties, not just replace and replicate. Although some of the replicas are pleasant, they are like Disney properties. Original structures have a lot of quirks which make them unique. In this case, I would like the shell preserved and then they could add on to preserve the history. I read both of the surveys. This house was typical, built to accommodate boot factories. At one point 11 people lived there, 3 men worked in factory. I took so pictures of many houses like this one. Those are my primary comments. 3 Stacy-I wanted to add that I do think the homeowners will need to come up with a plan, I would like to see their preferred choices. This house has a lot of the original details that would be expensive to replicate in a new construction. For the house at 24 Ash, they made the barn into a master bedroom, etc. This could be 21st century inside. Mary Jo-I appreciate your open mindedness for not doing a demo delay. I need a better understanding. Need to have it approved. Stacy, you mentioned external features, what are they? Stacy-I was not saying to halt the demo delay. I meant if the demo delay started ticking, you can come back with plans. My fear, if we don’t put a clock on it, it will get in worse shape all the time. We can lay all that out for you. Mary Jo-We are working on a plan so that it will be better for the neighborhood. Farmstyle home with a barn. Mike-I will consider a motion to vote on beginning a demo delay. Eric-so moved. John I Second. Mike we have 6 members. Need a majority to pass: Nancy-yes Eric-yes John-yes Stacy-yes Nanda-yes Mike-yes We have unanimously instituted a demo delay. I will forward some docs from others who have had demo delays. TERRY HOUSE (HCA) Kelly Grill and Scott Richardson, Jeff Dougherty is a board member of the HCA. Mike-We have updated plans and elevations. Still no construction details. We have allocated through CPA a considerable amount of funds. You have to mimic the details in the time it was built. We have agreed that it is okay to replicate materials in form and function. Without sufficient details, the house could look like a 20th c version of itself. I have spoken with Scott Richardson about trim that mimics old wood trim, to help the house maintain its historical integrity. I assume the HCA will endorse docs and tell CPC that the funds are being used effectively. Eric-I have a point about the CPC. WE will fund it, but if this commission doesn’t agree, the project will be out. Stacy-The existing door remains, correct? Are the front steps going to remain? Scott-Just to clarify, my apologies for not including any details. We can provide them tomorrow. We have developed a ramp to the front of the building to the porch. It is safer. We will attempt to rebuild the canopy over the doors, remove the stair and provide landscaping. Stacy-There are no specs on the windows. What will those be like? Scott-Simulated divided lights. Nancy-I believe the ramp is wider than it legally needs to be. And why add another entrance to put in a ramp? Scott-The way that the access code is written, any entrance to a public building has to be accessible. We are using MAAB minimal dimensions and the ramp width is correct. I don’t want to build anything wider than it has to be. Mike-I do think the ramp is necessary to have handicap access for the main entry. 4 Stacy-I agree. I have learned that easy access is best. You can have a bit of screening, but it would be easy to pull up in a car and use it. Nancy-I have a problem with the stair. Scott-We have to take the stair out. It is not to code. Eric-From a CPC standpoint, we have a meeting in a couple of weeks. If this is not resolved, it will not go to town meeting. Mike-Orally the intent is clear even if we don’t have the details figured out. Jeff-I just want to add that a lot of our restrictions are because we have been confined by the building code. We are trying to keep the historic preservation. We have brought in Jeannette Thomson to help Scott. Eric-I make a motion that we approve the plans and elevations and support CPC in funding this process. Mike seconded. Nanda-yes Stacy-yes John-yes Eric-yes Nancy-yes Mike-yes Mike-I will send a letter to the HCA and the CPC to state that the HHC has approved the plans. JOHN PAVLOV TAKES OVER MEETING Minutes for January submitted for approval. One mistake. Conversation was about the Terry House but 83 Main Street was written. Eric motioned to accept the minutes with one correction. John seconded. Stacy- yes Nancy-yes Nanda-yes John-yes Eric-yes Unanimous approval. CENTER SCHOOL WINDOWS A consultant is working on this. CPC is paying half. consultant was overwhelmed by how good the windows are. He is working with Dave Daltorio. Stacy-For energy efficiency Interior storms. Magnetic internal storm windows. Amazing how well they work. Eric-Ken Weismantel was on the Reuse Committee and chair of CPC. Our whole objective is something functional for the town. If it is too expensive, the town won’t support it. Stacy-LEEDS standards prefer shiny new things, but these are excellent. John-It might be good to introduce Stacy to Ken. Eric-Stacy was on the subcommittee on the fountain. Ken wants it done right without killing the project. We have to act like we know what we are doing. $800k for windows is just too high. Stacy-I have studies showing the benefits of old windows. 5 OLD TOWN ROAD Review of work done to date. Stacy-Remnants of Old Town Road by Maspenock and there are some people who are invested in saving it. Eric-It does not exist today. Just kind of left over on a map. John motioned to end the meeting. Nanda seconded Eric-yes Nancy-yes Nanda-yes Stacy-yes John-yes Meeting adjourned 9:20 PM Documents presented: Minutes from January, plans for Terry House renovations.