With Your Coffee

Burlington’s Moran Plant in winter. The Community Sailing Center uses the yard for boat storage, as the lake is directly to the west (right in this photo). 

Happy Presidents’ Day, everyone! How are you? I’ve been on a semi-blogging break, I guess you could say. Or at least, a blog-writing break. A few [good!] life events and the general avoidance of screens after working at a computer for most every day of the week contribute to this. Also, I’ve been avoiding many forms of social media since November. I’ve deleted Twitter from my phone, and it seems to help my overall sanity, somewhat. However, I’m feeling the pull of the blog again and missing the preservation conversations. To start off, I’ll jump back to the reading lists, because I continue to enjoy good lists from other blogs. Here are some preservation articles.

• The Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act co-sponsored by Senator Collins (ME) needs your help!

• More info from Preservation Forum.

• What is the actual meaning of blight?

• Multi-million dollar views of Manhattan (aka what most of us will never see).

• Doing preservation research? If I were, I’d definitely apply for the 2017 Pocantico Fellowship. Deadline March 31.

• Another reminder: Apply for the Poplar Forest Architectural Restoration Field School. An incredible deal and a wonderful two-week experience. Deadline April 7.

• Signs of Inclusion. Posters that every child (or person) should read. Print these for free.

• 99% Invisible – Read or listen – Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonia.

• Have you read Loving Frank? It’s partial fact, partial fiction, but an entertaining read.

• Have you seen McMansion Hell? It’s highly entertaining for architectural history nerds.

Hope you have a lovely day. And I hope today is a holiday for you.

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Know Your Standards!

By standards, I mean the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.  Essentially, rehabilitation takes a historic building and adapts it for modern use. However, it is more complicated than that.

First, why would you want to follow the standards? The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards are used in determining if a project will qualify for a historic tax credit. So, you can get the tax credit if you follow the standards. Second, as of right now, the tax credit can only apply to income producing properties; in other words, not your private home (but a rental home counts).

Alright, so when talking about tax credits and standards, you should also know that in order for a property to be considered for this tax credit, it must be eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  If your property isn’t already listed, be prepared for research!

Now, you have an income producing property eligible for or on the National Register. Perfect! Now you can get to work. Hang on, this is where the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation come into play. Basically, they are guidelines to follow in order to maintain the integrity and character defining features of your historic property. After all, if a rehabilitation erased everything important about the building then it would no longer be eligible for the National Register. See how it works?

There are 10 standards to follow, to know, to memorize, to justify to the National Park Service that you adhered to. Want a fun way to learn them? Take the electronic rehab course offered by the NPS – an interactive web “course.” (One of my professors shared this link with us.) You can review all 10 standards, see them in action, and then take a quiz to see what you’ve learned!  If you don’t have time in a classroom or with a group discussing the standards, this is an excellent starting point! (Actually, even being a student talking about, I find this to be a good review.)  Enjoy! Thanks again, NPS!

A Life in the Trades: January 2010

Series introduction. October 2009. November 2009. December 2009.

By Nicholas Bogosian

It didn’t take too long after my move to St. Clairsville, Ohio to realize that the community’s architectural pride rests on two structures: the Belmont County Courthouse and The Clarendon Hotel. Both are a short walking distance from my home. The Belmont County Courthouse, as it stands today, is a mammoth Second Empire sandstone structure replete with Corinthian capitals, tall arched windows, and Justice statues. Built in the late 1880s and designed by Joseph W. Yost, it is still used today as the county seat’s courthouse and boasts some of the area’s high-profile cases.

Belmont County Courthouse. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Across the street from the Courthouse stands the Clarendon Hotel, which was constructed in 1890 by Thomas Clark, superintendent of the Courthouse construction. It’s a 15,000 square foot Romanesque Revival brick structure which became a transient property over the past forty years. The city purchased the building and began to stabilize it in the 1990s under the direction of Dennis Bigler, Director of Public Services. Mr. Bigler has been the major proponent of the city’s downtown revitalization. Just having moved here, I can enjoy the fruits of their long labor. Coming upon St. Clairsville’s downtown through the winding and hilly Ohio Valley is a refreshing sight. Though passage of the Main Street Program never materialized here, the city has done well to implement a majority of the program’s phases.

The Clarendon Hotel. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

The purchase of the Clarendon was the beginning of an effort to reuse the property and bring it back to its original function. The entire façade has been restored and the city hopes a developer will turn the building into a boutique hotel with a restaurant on the first floor. Though 12,000 vehicles pass the hotel daily on 40 (the Historic National Road), St. Clairsville’s downtown is not what one would call a tourist destination. This appears to be the biggest obstacle in finding developers. The city’s traffic is in large part due to its location on the Historic National Road – a main thoroughfare for the valley. Though lodging could be useful for out-of-town business people and scenic drivers, the city is really setting their hopes on the development of National Road scenic tours.

I recently got an inside peek into the Clarendon Hotel and got to see fragments of its past and current rehabilitation efforts. Most of the interior walls have had their plaster removed because of the extensive foundation work. Some ornament remains. Old wiring splays out from between joists. Walls reveal sandwiched layers of wallpaper and paint. The original framing remains, but very little else. Everything is bare and cold.

Foyer stairwell recently stabilized. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Second story hall. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Faux marble decorated fireplace. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Felt wallpaper. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Eastlake Door Knob. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Third story parlor room overlooking old sheriff's building. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Shag carpet covering the baseboards. Interesting. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Historic window frames kept intact in newly constructed emergency escape. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

Tubs, sinks, heaters, and piping are organized in the basement. Courtesy of Nicholas Bogosian.

This was my first experience witnessing a massive rehabilitation effort which is utilizing Historic Tax Credits. Granted, the progress is slow moving, but the pride that the community has for the Clarendon is vivid and immediate. Lucy, who operates Sipper’s Café down the way, talks about her teenage daughter‘s ambition to write a history of the hotel. I recently served the mayor and his wife at a local restaurant. The Clarendon came up in our conversation and he told me he’d be happy to let me in anytime to look around. An original timber from the hotel with an impressive span of growth rings resides in my classroom at Belmont Tech. The Clarendon is hope for the city’s future vitality. Its completion will bookend a long list of rehabilitation efforts in the city and revive a nostalgic landmark to its original glory.

Special thanks to Tom Murphy, Dennis Bigler, & Brian Kralovic of the City Council as well as Mayor Robert Vincenzo for their assistance in my curiosities.