Lincoln Historical Commission
Historic District Commission
Meeting Minutes
March 4, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Board Members: Ruth Wales, HDC Chair, LHC/HDC; Lucretia Giese, LHC Chair, LHC/HDC, Ken Hurd, HDC, Andrew Ory, LHC/HDC, Colin Smith, LHC/HDC
Alternate: Jack MacLean
Secretary: Elaine Carroll
NEXT ANTICIPATED MEETINGS: April 1, 2008, 7:30 p.m., Town Offices
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. A motion was made by Lucretia Giese to accept as written the minutes of the Jan. 22, 2008 meeting. The motion was seconded by Andrew Ory and passed unanimously.
Certificate of Appropriateness Hearings:
24 Bedford Road – Thomas Blake, the prospective buyer for 24 Bedford Road, came before the members to request an extension to the garage and a new entryway into the mud room at the front of the house.
Mr. Blake is a builder/remodeler who lives in a historic district in Belmont. He restored an almost uninhabitable farm house. He is buying 24 Bedford Road to fix it up for resale most likely. He showed the members knobs that he had to replace and had to have replicated 4 years ago in a 1927 cottage in Cambridge. He also showed the members documents and photographs kept by the owners of 24 Bedford Road over the years including deeds from 1726 to the present. He is buying the house from the Russells who have lived there for 39 years. He also showed a map from 1892 showing the entire property with no buildings on it and some old pictures of Bedford Road. Mr. Blake said that the house has had many additions. The front half is formal and the back part with the kitchen is
informal. There is no proper entrance in the front of the house and he would like to take out one of the front windows and put a new entrance where there is a pantry. He would like an open portico for the front entrance. This entrance will lead to the kitchen, which everyone gravitates to. He also said that it would be helpful to have a one story bay added on to get cars out of the way. He knows that he will need to go to the ZBA for a special permit because of the setbacks. Ruth Wales said that this house is very close to the road and therefore visible from a main public way and the addition of a bay would alter the appearance of the façade and was concerned with massing. She also did not feel that the garage doors complimented the style of the house and looked like a Queen Anne style of door which is a later period. Mr. Blake said that he is open to using another style of garage door and said that the garage door there now
is a garden variety Home Depot type. The members did not feel that there should be arches on the doors. They looked over a pamphlet showing different styles and felt that the Churchill style of door was more suitable. Lucretia Giese asked if the garage could go behind the house as an accessory structure. Ken Hurd suggested that instead of adding the bay to the front, he could replace the garage door in the front with a window and put the garage doors on the side facing Canaan Drive and add the one story bay to the back of the present garage. John Legates, an abutter on Canaan Drive, said that he would like to see additional garage space to hide more cars but that he does not want to see any flood lights. Mr. Blake said that he would not add flood lights. Canaan Drive is higher up by a couple of feet so a curb cut off of it may not be feasible. Mr. Blake will go back and measure to see if he can get 2 garage bays on
the side facing Canaan Drive with a 5’ bump out in the back and will ask for a continuation until the next meeting when he will come back with a new garage design. The Commission said that they have no objections to the front entrance but that a Certificate of Appropriateness will be given on the entire project at a future date. Mr. Blake said that he will be starting interior renovations and is happy that the entryway will be part of the plans.
Other Business:
Ruth Wales received a letter from Bob Domnitz regarding the view corridor for the National Park. The Planning Board recently discussed options for preserving the historically important Battle Road (Route 2A) corridor and believes that the most effective management of the corridor’s viewshed would be through adoption of a historic district overlay straddling the corridor. Jack MacLean said that he doesn’t think that a historic district is the right tool for preserving the viewscapes and thought that the Neighborhood Conservation District may be a better option because the viewshed can be included as one of the things to be preserved. He sent a copy of that by-law to the National Park. He read notes from their meeting and told the members that the Park’s first step was a historic district
but if there are other options they would be interested. They would need to do a study of what viewsheds are important to them and which ones are at risk. The State does not protect viewsheds. Ken Hurd asked if this could be incorporated into the Historic District by-laws and perhaps this should be something the Commission should be looking at. It was left that a representative from the National Park should come to a meeting with the Commission to go over what their needs are.
Ruth Wales said that the Selectmen want to have a joint meeting with the regional Historic District Commissions to discuss concerns of each of the area towns. She said that some towns are ahead of Lincoln in terms of getting inventoried properties on the website. Marlboro has all of their inventoried properties on line. She has a list of all the towns that have their guidelines on line. Ruth showed the members a new map showing the Lincoln Historic Districts with the houses included, which was done by Ellen Meadors and Angela Seaborg. There was a total estimate of $4,000 to have all the houses in Town placed on an assessor’s map. The Assessors may be able to come up with $2,500 or $3,000 for this job and was looking for some financial help from the Commission. It was
brought up see if the Codman Trust would underwrite the entire project.
Jack MacLean went over a list of issues he would be discussing at the CHuG meeting on March 5. He said that he would e-mail a copy of the compilation of CHuG interview material with historical and other organizations to the members.
Lucretia Giese will e-mail the members a letter to be submitted to the Lincoln Review under the section “The Town Speaks” for their review. Lucretia also said that the only article from the HDC/LHC left on the warrant for Town Meeting is the need for alternates to be available for the LHC.
1 Woods End Road – The members reviewed a letter, photographs and plan showing the landscaping done to this yard and the abutter’s property to hide a fence erected on Mrs. Soulette’s property. The landscaping and plan was done by Angela Seaborg.
Inventory Discussion:
Jack MacLean said that Mass. Historical lost what was sent to them a year ago on the Conant Road properties. It was never filed and the numbers got reassigned to a FoMA house. Before a new Historic District can be official it needs to be recorded with the Registry of Deeds, which has not been done yet. There has been communication with the Town Clerk and it will soon get settled. After it is recorded, a copy will be given to Mass. Historical, which will then recognize it. The forms will be re-submitted for 64 Conant Road because that number is incorrect. He will also re-submit 15 and 68 Conant Road. Ruth Wales will change the incorrect number in the library. The new number is 273. Jack will file copies with Mass. Historical for the Red Rail Farm/Old Concord Road area. The Clogston house at 3 Old Concord Road is new and he will add a National Register page to it. St. Anne’s parsonage at 153 Concord Road will be worked on this week. He said that the next areas to be
worked on could be the Lewis Street “industrial” area, which would include 22 Lewis Street, known as the “pickle factory” and 2 Lewis Street on the corner. The other areas could be Old Sudbury Road and Peirce Hill Road to Lincoln Road. The members were asked to look over the list of starred properties to come to a consensus of what areas to give priority to.
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There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Elaine Carroll
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