Historic Zoning Commission

Edgewood-Park City H-1: Level II

3-H-18-HZ

Applicant Request

Level II. Major installment of materials or architectural elements

Install front porch wooden balustrade at 36 inches high, with turned spindles and decorative top and bottom bands as indicated in the drawings submitted and approved at the 3/15/18 HZC meeting.

Site Info

Two and one-half-story frame with weatherboard wall covering. Hip roof with lower cross gables, asphalt shingle covering, and fishscale patterned wood shingles in gable, knee braces. One-story wrap-around front and side porch with square wood columns with Doric capitals. One-story projecting bay on east elevation. Double-hung one-over-one and Queen Anne-over-one windows. Two interior offset brick chimneys. Brick foundation with porch supported by brick piers with lattice inserts. Irregular plan.

1) The c. 1895 Queen Anne house is a contributing structure in the Edgewood-Park City H-1 Overlay and the National Register Historic District.

2) The structure is documented to be a George Barber-designed house; therefore, it can be deduced that it would have originally have had elaborate architectural embellishment. Staff finds that adding a more decorative balustrade in this particular case is appropriate due to the documented fact that George Barber houses were elaborately embellished with architectural features including decorative balustrades.


3) Four examples of George Barber-designed houses are submitted with this application that feature balustades with horizontally-divided sections. Other examples exist on George Barber houses within the city's downtown historic districts. The submitted design with perferated bands on the top and bottom rails helps to give the optical illusion that the balustrade is shorter than 36 inches high, which is more historically appropriate. The design also repeats the small circle design featured on the decorative brackets on the front bay window of the subject house.

4) The guidelines and the Secretary of Interiors Standards state that "new work shall be differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the massing, size, scale, and architectural features to protect the historic integrity of the property and its environment." In this case, staff finds that the 36-inch building code-required height of the balustrade is indicative of its newness, and the degree of embellishment renders it compatible with the level of embellishment on the rest of the house.

5) Since the majority of the porch wraps around the west side rather than across the entire front of the house, it will not be prominently visible in the streetscape or obscure important elements of the house.