i think we'll go ahead and get started go ahead and get started we may have a few people coming in but i'd like to first welcome all of you to this meeting of the historic district commission my name is lauren meyer i'm co chair of the historic district commission with lisa lisa harrington and i'd like to welcome you tonight to the present to this presentation by the towns of preservation consultant lisa mouse who all supported this project and it worked to help the historic district commission complete this important project also like to to welcome our colleagues from the planning board  and any other boards and committees who are here tonight tonight's presentation will focus solely on the historic resources survey which has been undertaken by lisa mouse off who was selected through a competitive process that included several qualified consultants who competed for the project lisa has done a substantial amount of work that's very similar in lexington and we're very pleased to have her here in belmont and following lisa's presentation should be available to answer questions so with that i just say thank you joy if you for coming and turning over to waste thank you line i'd like to begin the presentation by talking low bit about the goals of the survey project of historic resources is the foundation for all subsequent preservation planning it provides a summary of what defines a community what makes it different and should be the basis of all future decision making and preservation efforts inventory work might be followed up with other preservation strategies including listing properties on the national register of historic places the designation of local historic districts and or neighborhood conservation districts in other cases the inventory work might provide useful information that could be incorporated into stabilisation or rehabilitation or restoration efforts or in securing preservation restrictions to protect you know where the properties good inventory work is also critical to inform demolition delay ordinances and other preservation measures let's begin by taking a quick look at the state of preservation planning in the town of belmont prior to the current inventory project the last concerted survey effort took place over thirty years ago in one thousand nine hundred two the town contracted with the preservation studies program at boston university to prepare a comprehensive architectural and historic survey for the town that effort produced approximately one hundred survey forms that describe the history and development of various neighborhoods and areas as well as about three hundred forms that covered individual buildings at the end of the project a book was also published thirty years later that survey efforts still provide some useful information but it's badly in need of update survey forms that were used by the massachusetts historical commission have changed much more detail is now required the earlier forms provide little information concerning the original owners and contacts and many of the properties have seen alteration in addition many buildings that we consider significant today were not included in that earlier effort in terms of preservation planning belmont has also seen limited efforts in putting resources on the national register today there are few listings for a community with such a rich architectural heritage properties that are currently on the register include the former railroad station now the lions club and the railroad bridge at con ave also on the register is see at abraham hill house at three eighty eight pleasant street that was nominated as part of a first period multiple property multi town nomination many years ago the mclean hospital district was nominated in two thousand and two it encompasses over seventy resources including building structures foundations and landscapes the metropolitan state hospital district was nominated to the national register in one nine hundred ninety three that includes properties in wall fam lexington and belmont the area that falls within the town of belmont consists of open space which is part of the expanded preservation the house at ninety somerset street also known as red top is notable as the town's only national historic landmark that's a designation that's reserved for nationally significant properties and it's really a step above the national register there are only two hundred fifty six of these landmarks in the state it was designated in one nine hundred seventy one for its association with writer william deane how the shingle style house was designed by his brother in law william mead who is a partner in the noted architectural firm of mccann meat and white shown here is a pleasant street historic district which is both a national register district and a local historic district in addition there is also the common street local historic district which oversees these three properties and most recently is the richardson farm local historic district which was established in two thousand and thirteen it includes a historic buildings and landscape features of two properties located at three o six and three six three thirty six washington street the joseph bright house at three o six washington was built in seventeen eighty one the thomas richardson homestead at three thirty six washington was built in eighteen zero seven and later updated with queen and features the property includes more than ten acres of actively farmed land the richardson farm has been in cultivation since sixteen thirty four the land is protected by an agricultural preservation restriction held by the belmont land trust not all preservation and belmont is initiated by the town there are also numerous examples of ongoing private investment and rehabilitation there are also several properties in town that have preservation restrictions or agreements by which the historic district commission reviews proposed changes these include the former belmont center fire station the former waverly square fire station and the mclean district i'd like to turn now to talk a little bit about the survey work that i've been working on and just completed and give you an update on the progress that has been made the overall goal of the survey was to complete or update inventory forms for historic properties throughout the entire town to cover the full range of resources everything from for nakheel are to high style as part of this goal i drove all over belmont looked at historic maps scoured over assess records building permit data to compile a list which was then reviewed and ranked by priority a b or c by a subcommittee of the h t see we had more than six hundred properties that were considered worthy of survey only two hundred could be inventoried as part of the current project we selected those who were the best examples of their style or their form that had the most integrity or were very unique examples of a certain style or form the remaining four hundred buildings which are on the list which will be seen in the final certain final report where rank b or c and those all await future survey a list of all the properties again will be available in my final report and i'll be talking about that in a little in determining what's important in belmont's history and what should be inventoried we look at various factors typically a building has to be older than fifty years it also should have a high degree of integrity which is to regional owners still recognize that resources also need to have significance which can call fall into various categories in belmont we have several important historic themes there see evolution of the farming community the history of market gardening the growth of the community in the nineteenth century due to the arrival of the railroad in the twentieth century due to the access to boston afforded by the street car there's important history to be told of various community centers and developments some were laid out on former farmland and by prominent local residents for the common good then there were also more speculative developments all of these are an important part of the story of why belmont looks the way it is today some properties are significant because of their associations with specific individuals in belmont we obviously have a huge number of locally prominent families we have the underwoods of wellington's different farming families but then we have the hundreds of prominent residents who have lived here over the years commuting to work in boston  cambridge scientists professors at mit and harvard just you know so many notable figures the last reason that we inventory properties is for their architectural style or their design and we work hard to include both representative examples and really  before i started the survey the h t c had laid out several goals one priority was to inventory prien one thousand nine hundred buildings that had not been covered in the previous one nine hundred eighty two survey here you have five examples of buildings had not previously been recorded the mansard roof cottage at fifty five alexander was built by the lock family of farmers three of seven pleasant street is a greek revival toiling built by the frost family ninety five clinton in the center is a federal style house that was later updated in the early twentieth century eighty four claflin was the wind farm house and it was moved to its present location in the late nineteenth century and in the bottom right hand corner three eighty nine common street was once located on the historic christian pace in that state another goal of the new survey was to record some of the commercial buildings that had been messed for example new forms were prepared for the kuoni over five whole locatelli blocks on leonard street they were constructed in one nine hundred forty the strand upper right hand corner you have the daily building on church street in waverly square which dates to one thousand nine hundred four and the bottom right hand corner the former harvard trust bank building in christian square was built in one nine hundred thirty five i also surveyed all religious buildings that were fifty years or older that had not previously been inventoried at the same time the inventory forms that had previously been prepared for other church properties were revised to ensure that all the church related structures associated with the given property were adequately covered survey another emphasis of the inventory was to per prepare forms for structures and some of the bell months distinctive neighborhoods these those areas that combine architecture and character and really contribute to belmont's uniqueness shown here are just two examples clonal terrace located off of four church street near the wellington school and belmont park late nineteenth century houses on school goeden myrtle and oak streets there are many other such special areas in the town and again those will be included in my final report while he was out doing field work i was also on the lookout for surviving historic accessory buildings that were built before one thousand nine hundred twenty one you have three examples here i also recorded a number of distinctive early twentieth century residence as the building in the upper left hand corner fifty eight to sixty oakley road is located across from the benton library and it's notable for its rubble stucco instict wood exterior it was constructed for everett benton's daughter dorothy and her husband as a two family the unusual two family building at two ten to twelve pace from road was built in one nine hundred ten the colonial revival structure at the right  at two fifty six slate street dates to one nine hundred twenty two it was designed by a local architect victor wigglesworth although it appears to have a flush board facade the house was actually constructed of reinforced concrete and at the bottom of the house at forty three village hill road is one of several english revival welling's in belmont designed by the well known architect royal barry wills as i just mentioned w the survey did highlight the works of several local architects victor wigglesworth was born in one thousand nine hundred five does not appear to have had any formal architectural training he designed a diverse range of buildings in belmont over a pretty short amount of time beginning in one thousand and thirteen when he designed the prairie style house a twenty four seater he designed several houses in belmont of three unforced concrete construction of which only two fifty six lay it survives he designed colonial terrace and actually he and his wife lived at number four for a number of years he also designed twenty highland road in one nine hundred fifteen interesting way enough by nineteen seventeen he was working as chief strath chief draftsman for the craft laboratory in cambridge he appeared to have taken more of an engineering bent later in life though he did live in belmont into the one nine hundred fifty s the survey also includes various works by each taxed or underwood another local architect of note he was the son of dr george underwood the grandson of william underwood founder of the food concern and working with his uncle landscape architect loring under word he designed the bath house for the original bath house for the underwood pool and a number of homes in the walnut hill area including twenty six cedar road and the choir killer area one clover road which you see there he also designed commercial buildings for sixty four to four seventy trip palo road as well as the s s pierce building in christian square he also designed the belmont police station the house in the lower right hand corner with his was his own home which he designed at fourteen glendale road and he lived here until his death in  one of the other priorities that ph d c forced for the inventory was to include the town's important mid twentieth century resources these include several homes designed by architect eleanor raymond including this house one o five tuna per road illustration of the interior on the right is in the collection of historic new england other highly significant buildings in town include this international style house at sixty nine pine designed by walter gropius and benjamin thompson of the architects collaborative it was designed in one nine hundred forty eight gropius was a founder of the german school of design called the bauhaus and later taught at harvard  architecture as one of the best known and most significant groups of contemporary houses in the world koch studied under walter gropius develop this community housing project initially as a way to design an inexpensive  him self and his family he lived at seventy seven state killed road the first five houses in the development were built in one nine hundred forty followed by an additional three in one nine hundred forty one and one last one for koch sister in  forty six that would be fifteen snake hill in the lower right hand corner although there have been many alterations and additions the development is still of note today another mid century modern house this house at three fifteen common street was constructed according to designs for a house by earl flansburgh that appeared in better homes and gardens the magazine in one thousand nine hundred sixty six apparently the first stone or secured the plans from the magazine in addition to developing new inventory forms to cover under represented resources in town i was also charged with revising and updating a number of the previous one nine hundred eighty two inventory forms in some cases corrections eight information about of original owners and architects were added and information was added relative to the alteration said it occurred over the last thirty years the building department files provided of wealth of information including original permits drawings alteration records one of the things that i found the most interesting in the survey was the volume of new information that's now more readily available to us thanks to the internet and the digitization of different types of source material for example while researching the house of forty one cedar road i stumbled on an article on this house that appeared in architectural record in one nine hundred twenty and even for buildings had been surveyed in one thousand nine hundred two new information was found in the case that this house at seventy two cushing avenue i was able to find an illustration of the house shortly after it was constructed contained in an advertisement for building materials that appeared in the journal american architect the belmont historical society was also a source of historic photos one example is for this house at twenty one elm street in total i've produced about two hundred m from tori forms about one hundred thirty cover new properties and seventy that revised preexisting forms that were incomplete insufficient or contained errors this is significant progress that there are still many buildings in town that should be surveyed and forms that still need to be updated to summarize my findings number one there are a number of areas and neighborhoods in the town that exhibit a combination of architecture and distinctive character that may make them worthy in the future for the consideration of the creation of local historic districts or neighborhood conservation districts i believe the town should work to increase the number of properties listed on the national register while the national register alone does not prevent demolition it can elevate the consciousness of a property among local residents it can trigger important tools for preservation including eligibility for federal and historic tax credits preservation easements as well as reviews of federal undertakings the survey should also be used to inform the list of properties that are protected by the local demolition delay by law and for all these reasons work on the inventory really needs to be ongoing it's not an effort that concludes with the survey it's an organic process and there are still many forms to be updated in new resources that should be studied one area which kind of fell outside the survey which is also worth mentioning is what do we do and how do we handle the properties associated with the many significant individuals who have lived in belmont you know as i mentioned before the proximity to the boston area this was a wonderful commuting community for number of significant individuals over the year this is just one example  list is exhaustive includes a prize winners politicians business people artists musicians writers scientists economists scholars sports figures you name it they've all lived here at some point while it's nearly impossible to inventory all of those residences i think priority should be made to long term residences and to start trying to establish that link between buildings and people this building was not survey paul samuelson who won the nobel prize in economics in one nine hundred seventy lived at seventy five claremont for a long time one property we did two in the survey was the home of joan baez when she was seventeen or eighteen  just to give you an example so final products this power point presentation will be available on the h t see website sometime soon tomorrow or early next week in the next few weeks i'll be wrapping up the web component of the project that's going to include links to the two hundred survey forms that have been prepared it's also going to and include overviews of some of the elements notable neighborhoods and areas  they'll be a section on architectural styles and belmont which will include and use photographs of many belmont building to illustrate how the styles were used in our town this is hopefully a resource that will enlighten residents about the town's many historic resources and it can be expanded and it can be updated as new information becomes available copies of the inventory forms will also be forwarded to the massachusetts historical commission they make those available for all the communities in the state on their website the makris website and you can look today at that website and see the property the forms that were previously  thank you very much thank you lisa i like i like to open the floor for questions and if any but one in the audience wants you to ask a question if you please go to the mike and i give  something yeah that's a great for you that that's a great suggestion and particularly if you could provide sort of the base map from which lisa could work that would be super helpful because you know her work is based on research so it's not just looking at how things look it's more we know this this specific boundaries of this development we're all built at the same time and that's why they have distinctive character so that that's a great  just sort of a vague question you mentioned properties that belong to folks of some historic significance such as paul samuelson are you going to be able to compile all of those and actually what kind of help are you going to need in doing that for example my brother used to deliver papers to henry kissinger the boston herald every morning when he lived on slave street but then he moved to louisa road and when rush hour before he moved up onto the hill and at the corner of golden and long avenue so there's a lot of stories that go to all of these people that probably people all over town have little pieces how do you pull them together you know  lisa i think that is the next step and i think you'll be rendered full to engage the community and how compile a map of all of the really interesting people who've lived in this town i know lydia ogleby is member emeritus of arc commission and every meeting she reminds us of you know someone important you live somewhere in belmont and  always have said and i think we've said it several meanings that is the next thing we really need to do so i think it would be really fun to you know invite the community in with a map in he that was produced in the early seventy's and it has biographies of a good number that was next to my computer yeah and at the bottom of each entry it does say where they work and i found some are terribly accurate but it's wonderful start and then coupled with getting that kind of oral history and remember things would be terrific in the book might you know spark will discussion and so in addition that would just be tremendous yeah that's a great idea  fun maybe to the violent historical society might be very interested in partnering with the historic district and i think i'm doing that great collaboration with the historical society especially with their location in the library so many members of the community longer with us but i'd always hoped that somebody would sit down with a tape recorder and just let him talk about belmont and what they know and what you know it's and maybe not even the like her that have the information and have the knowledge of how the town developed and who's lived here and where and what paper route what do they read and what codd like their coffee so i would be you know i  the what the c p c members think but that you know that might be a very interesting proposal from the and start district commission to the c p c is a way of doing oral histories of you know some of the interesting folks in belmont you know before you know while we still can as a way of capturing you know that collective memory of the current programming library should should we just directly go  the i seed i'm not familiar personally with the with the project i see it in the local paper almost on a weekly basis i think it's related to story corps which you hear on and so i think there's a there's an ongoing well it's been a it's been a real pleasure you know it's interesting it all sort of boils down to a short and concise presentation but there's enormous it takes an enormous amount of effort to get to some of these big picture ideas and lisa's work very very hard to try to get to get you know to the forest through the through the trees so to speak with all these inventory forms and we're very grateful for her work so we'll be wrapping this up very soon and then having the final report all you know available online the historic district commission will then switch our efforts to working with the planning board and the demolition to lay by law and part of i would just say that that one of art our goals will be to take this updated information that lisa has produced and meld it with the information that we had previously related to demolition delay that will we know result in some remove of properties from the list and likely  some you know updates to the list so that's our next our next challenge and something that we'll be looking to share with you early in two thousand and seventeen i think any author of anything they want to say