Historic Zoning Commission

Scenic Drive NC-1: Level II

6-I-16-HZ

Applicant Request

Level II. Construction of addition

Replace existing non-original front-gabled porch with two- story porch with 8"x8" square wood or PVC columns, ornamental wrought iron porch railings, and three runs of 8-foot-wide brick steps. Overall dimensions to be 12'x14' as shown on submitted drawings. Hipped roof and 4/12 front-gabled roof of proposed porch addition to be covered in dimensional asphalt shingles to match existing roof (8/12 pitch). First-level porch floor to be of poured concrete and second level to be of Trex decking with edges covered by wood facia. Foundation of porch addition to be brick to match that of main house.

Remove center window from second level and extend opening to floor to accommodate a 36-inch wide wood or fiberglass 15-lite door. The remaining gaps in the existing 40-inch-wide opening will be covered with brick molding. Remove non-original single-leaf front door and surround and enlarge to accommodate a double-leafed arched, multi-light wood frame entry with sidelights as submitted spec sheet indicates.

Site Info

Two-story symmetrical frame with brick veneer. Side gable roof with asphalt shingles. Five 8-over-8 double-hung windows. One-story, one-bay, non-original frame front porch with front gable supported by square columns. Transom over front entry has broken pediment door surround. External end chimney on each end. Side porch and rear additions.

1) The 1952 house is a contributing building within the Scenic Drive Neighborhood Conservation District (NC-1) Overlay.

2) The existing porch is not original to the house and appears to have been added sometime in the late 1970s or in the 1980s. The existing stoop is also not proportionately correct for the architecture and scale of the house façade.

3) Although no photo-documentation has been discovered, there is physical evidence that the more recent porch was constructed by adding extensions on either side of the original stoop. Therefore, it is apparent that the front gable of the original stoop would have been smaller based on the more narrow width of the original stoop.

4) The proposed front porch addition will not remove any specific, original architectural features, but will require modifications to the facade by enlarging the openings (one window and one door) at the center of both levels, thus removing originial masonry and somewhat obscuring as well as altering the appearance of the original design of the historic façade.

5) According to "A Field Guide to American Houses"* by Virginia McCalester, both the original and proposed versions of the house style are sub-types of the Georgian / Federal Revival styles. The original version, with its smaller, more narrow pedimented one-story stoop is intended to depict the most common sub-type of the simple "side-gable", while the proposed version depicts a more high-styled sub-type of a "center gable" with a Neoclassical influence (due to columns supporting two different levels of the porch). Therefore, the proposed changes will render the house in a more eclectic, high-style version of the Georgian Revival style, rather than retaining the pure and simple original version of the style.

6) The proposal adds conjectural features and architectural elements not originally on the house and not typical of the Scenic Drive area, such as a two-tiered, full-façade porch with wrougnt iron railing.

7) The National Park Service's Secretary of Interiors Standards (SIS) are included within the Scenic Drive Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Design Guidelines. The SIS state that "Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or architectural elements from other buildings, shall not be undertaken."

*A widely-consulted academic manual on architectural history and style. (Published by Alfred A. Knopf; New York; 2015)