Tag: Historic Districts

Not with the Historic Districting of Columbia

I have faith that the Invisible Hand will ball up into a fist and smite the creators of the ugly.
Yes, I saw the Washington Post article about ugly tops. Pop up roofs are ugly in suburbia when they plopped on top of bungelows, and they are ugly in the city. It’s just ugly all around.
However, I don’t believe, that the hammer of historic districting is the solution. Maybe the screwdriver of zoning, is a better tool. And then there is the chisle of legistlation to allow just banning, if not regulating, the use of the hated vinyl siding, like single beers and go cups?
Really, what inch of the District isn’t historic? Okay, maybe bits of Ward 8 which were developed in the middle of the 20th century, but what isn’t over 50 years old with some sort of from the bottom up people’s history?
Instead, I believe the truly ugly will come at a price to the developer and the seller. For one tack off points for curb appeal. Yes, they get to say that they’ve added a bedroom, more space, what have you, but then they are also competing with other say 3 bedroom, 2,000 sq ft houses that were designed to be those kinds of houses. Secondly, even when the market was hot, I’ve seen ugly houses just sit. But that’s only in my area, maybe ugly sells like hotcakes in Columbia Heights. There are also other things that developers, or others getting a house ready to sell do that are useless, like large decks off bedrooms.
Also, I believe what has been done can, with the will and money, can be undone. True window sizes can be restored, proper turrets returned (unless there is something in the DC building code against them), bricks replaced, siding removed, and better design implemented. We renovate kitchens, transform yards, add things, remove things over the years, as occupants change things. You truly lose something when the thing is completly demolished.
So lets start the petition to ban vinyl siding and regulate extra floor additions to pre-exisiting housing since the goal isn’t to preserve some vague history but rather to prevent that which is an abomination in your eyes.

U.G.L.Y. you ain't got no alibi


Uglyhouse
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

This picture was taken some 3 years back of a house on the 1500 block of 3rd Street, NW. Since this picture was taken and I ranted about it’s ugliness in 2004, I have yet to see anybody living in it. Three years and nothing, all that ugly for naught. Of course the house might have other problems.
Confusing windowAnother house that has seemingly sat vacant for years is at the corner of Marion and Q Sts NW. It is not so much ugly as it is confusing. There are two windows, one sitting on top of the other, allowing light into a space, well I’m not sure how that space is to be used. It would make a lovely spot for a spiral staircase, but I’m not sure where one would be going and the reasons for traffic flow in and out are not obvious. Now, it looks like there might have been a door there long time ago, and maybe the house was renovated to look like this but it just don’t make no sense.
Check 'n' GoLastly, not a house but a business, is the Check ‘n’ Go or the rob people of their paycheck with usury fees. Note the top portions where windows have been busted in and out and the masonry (you may need to click on the photo to get to a bigger image). Yes, I know Historic Districts would prevent the remuddling, and make my whites whiter, my brights brighter and reduce crime by 98%. But some of you know how I hate history being prostituted out for reasons other than strong history. Besides, ugly remuddling would be true to the historic slum look because the ‘Shaw’ identity seems to be more 1960s urban renewal than 1890s Victorian. And what’s more true to the story than a check cashing place in a messed up building?
I believe in the invisible hand of the market coming down and smiting those who would make the ugly. They have been punished by their wickedness with properties that bear little fruit. May those who screwed up residential properties wail and nash their teeth and pay the vacant property tax. As for the ugly commercial property, maybe location, location, location may override the ugly when a business is looking for a place to be (and I don’t see a long life for the check cashing place), or maybe not.

Three who improved my Sunday

Let’s start with Peter. I made a 2nd run over to the Bloomingdale farmer’s market to pick up snacks for the weekend painting. While I was there I noticed some guy in front of the Big Bear playing guitar. His back was to the market, facing the R Street entrance of the Bear, but I knew who it was, it was Peter, a neighbor. He and his wife live a block from my house and it was great to see very local talent. The thing that made me feel good was, I asked Peter to play some blues to enhance my shopping experience, he did, and that made me happy.
Right after leaving the market with a bag of cherries, I ran into another neighbor and gave him a house tour. He validated some of my decisions about painting the brick and the new layout which made the place unique. If you count the kitchen that was done several years back, the renovations have been quite customized and geared towards pleasing me and not so much a future buyer. I don’t/won’t have the stainless steel, granite countertop, oak/maple floor, CAC, bricky exposed brick, standard tub, marble tile set up that has become quite common in many renovations. There is nothing wrong in liking and wanting those things, but they don’t reflect me and my desires. I like my counter tops to be forgiving with china and glass. I love my heated floors and I love my radiators. The living rm floors were recycled from what was under the carpet. The tub, a used and now repainted clawfoot, promises me some soaking enjoyment with showering utility. The house has character, now hopefully, the good kind.
Then later that day I met up with a colleague at a mixer (the American Library Association was in town, did you notice?). We were talking, and I mentioned this blog that I’m going to semi-retire and spin off something else that excites me, neighborhood history. Then he and I got to talking about historic districts and preservation and realized we were of the same mind. I can’t explain this joy that rushed over me, to encounter someone with a strong academic background in history and a true understanding that not every d*mn thing can be preserved. Then he mentioned that somewhere out there there is some data that recently shows that houses in historic districts do less well in the real estate market because of the restrictions. He also explained the difference between antiquarians and historians.

Body and Spirit

This weekend I got B and IT (and later BL) to join me at the Florida Ave Market (or Capitol City Market). The plan was to hit three or four stores to show them what was there. I forgot my shopping bag, so I didn’t buy anything at the places I normally shop. B was in one of his smart-alec moods pointing out what would not appeal to yuppies. No prices on things, no clear lines, etc. He also suggested that if we wanted to save the market the historic preservation people should be brought in. I think I may have actually growled at him.
While the HP people are good at protecting the body, that is the buildings and the structures, I don’t think they can preserve the spirit. The market for me is not a collection of warehouse buildings, instead they are a Hodge podge of businesses, a mix of wholesale and retail banded together, the spirit. What they are housed in to me seems fairly irrelevant. The 19th century structures that are there have attached to them squat ugly cinder block, cinder block that seems to distract the eye from the brick.
The spirit is that thing that is when you have these warehouse businesses all together in one place, some providing retail services, selling goods at a low price, in a central DC location. It is my inner libertarian screaming that if the government places some extra burden on the businesses there, be they HP regs or a ‘temporary’ move or rules to make residential possible, those businesses may fold, leave permanently or pass the expense on to consumers in a way that makes the market less attractive to those consumers.
Even in theological discussions with friends I have trouble defining and describing the spirit. It is a fuzzy thing that I sense and feel. I sense the energy radiating from the people working, pushing handcarts, yelling in a variety of languages. The consumers give off an international, down to business (as the market does service restaurants and other businesses), utilitarian vibe that I feel. And you have the two interacting with each other in a central DC location. If you change the type of business, you screw with the spirit. Change the type of consumers, you change the vibe. Change the location, same thing.
My fear of the city coming in and changing the area is that it will kill the spirit. New businesses would replace the old ones and those new businesses would appeal to a different type of consumer (or a different side of some consumers who do use the market).
At the end of the shopping, at Litteri’s we noticed a petition on the counter. So if you’d like, stop in, by a sub or some pasta or wine and sign the petition to preserve the spirit of the market.

When Historic Preservation Attacks!: Old people

As reported in the Washington Post.
On one side elderly people, aged 88 & 86.
On the other Historic District, age 19 years protecting house aged 74.
Does medicare cover preservation approved accessiblity options? And doesn’t the Americans with Disabilities Act trump historic preservation? As I understand it, residential buildings do not have to comply with ADA but what if the owners want it to be ADA accessible, can it trump historic preservation?

Modern in Shaw

Okay maybe I’ve been unfair. So I’d like to try to be a bit more positive. Not all Suzane Reatig projects in Shaw are ugly. Since figuring out how to spell the name correctly and finding the architect firm’s site, the firm has done some lovely things in the hood. I also learned historic district- smistoric district, but more of that later.
So. The multi-unit on S Street, across from the Wonderbread, not pretty in my eyes. But you know the row of townhomes near New York Ave, on L, with the colorful doors that look so cute? Suzane Reatig! I know, I found it surprising too! The firm does a little of the same on 5th St and there is supposedly more color in the back.
So the firm can take a townhome and spiff it up a bit.
Now, historic districts. There are a few SR projects within the borders of the Mt. Vernon East Historic District, that’s the pink on the map. First thing is the Metropolitan Community Church. Being a traditionalist, my first impressions of MCC was ‘oh they’ve taken a gym and turned it into a church’. Okay, the SR site says different. Another project in the Mt Vernon East area are those lovely glass houses on N Street. I really like the back of them. The front looks very euro-something. The L Street condos previously mentioned also sit in the borders. So modernism can be in an historic district (also noticed a pretty cool Georgetown project too).
The townhomes on the corner of 5th & O look nice, in the pictures. On the ground, a little less so, but the theme of this post is positive about modernism. So there you have it, local Shaw architectural firm, some cute stuff, some not so cute stuff. Some stuff in historic districts, some stuff just sitting across the street from the HD.

Still anti-Historic District

Gad, the whole thing makes me not want to continue with my neighborhood research. Actually I just want to shred it all of it and turn it into compost. Start over and do another Old City neighborhood. B. was bright enough to choose a history topic on the other end of town.
The map is of all the historic districts in DC. Except Shaw East which was recently approved as an historic district. So all y’all within the Florida, 7th St, New Jersey, and N St borders got all your window replacements, changes and additions done so they can be grandfathered in. From the looks of the map and when you add Shaw East, the blue/purple takes up a good portion of the Old City 2. How much of the city needs to be in a historic district, especially when there are only 2 staff members to monitor them all.
My reasons for being anti-historic district rest on a couple of things, one being I don’t like extra regulation and my house has issues. Some people don’t mind it and it is not a big deal. I on the other hand would prefer to avoid homeowner associations, condo/co-op associations and local historic district boards. All those groups have their pluses but I really bristle at being told what I can and cannot do with my property. The second reason is the most important one, my house being a pile of crumbly bricks. You doubt me? Come on over, bring a butter knife, I’ll show you can cut through a brick with it. My house, as well as several others on my block suffer from decades (if not a century) of neglect and poor maintenance. There are a huge laundry list of things inside and out that need correcting and to correct them will be a burden, possibly exceeding what I can afford to do on my single person salary. I don’t need the extra burden of one more hoop and a 50% increase in cost.
Where’d that 50% come from? Well I wandered over to Home Depot yesterday and asked for a cost comparison between vinyl windows and wood (on the outside) windows. For the dimensions I asked for the vinyl was $178, the wood was $260, that’s about (if my math is correct) a 50% markup. That does not include installation and that could vary because they are installed differently. Nor does it include a protective coating for the wood to protect against wood rot. Also wood needs to be repainted every 3-5 years, vinyl stays white. Also talking to some other people who priced their renovations where they voluntarily considered wood windows found the cost to be 2x to 3x the cost of doing the same job with vinyl. Fiberglas doors and steel doors are cheaper than wood too, and less apt to warp and swell, a problem I have with one of my wood doors.
Of course, when asked about higher prices between wood and vinyl the preservationists said that it wasn’t much higher. Well they don’t have to pay for it.
Is there anything that will sway me? Yes. Knowledge that I might move and a stable home, of which I have neither. I am trying to bring this house back up, with the resources I have, one day at a time. I don’t need to be rushed so I have to get everything I want done grandfathered in… Maybe if the windows and the floors weren’t crooked, the fence falling down, the porch big enough to not have to step down to open the door, and the other slew of things that need fixing I’d be a bit more open to the idea. Or if I knew that I was going to move, sell the house and reap whatever investment put in, that might warm me to it.
Will it be the end of the world if Truxton, and especially my block becomes part of a historic district? No. I’d just have to put a rush on slapping something on and up. Rules were made to be worked around.
Previous Gentrification and Historic Preservation Posts:
Gentrification and Historic Preservation, pt 1
Gentrification and Historic Preservation, pt 2a: This Old House vs Old House Journal
Gentrification and Historic Preservation pt 2b: This Old House (TOH) vs Old House Journal (OHJ) pt 2b
Gentrification and Historic Preservation, pt 3: When it is right