Observer on the Lower Town Historic District
The new Observer has a feature about the push to create a Lower Town historic district and the implications for historic preservationists if it were to suffer a defeat (one might say a historic defeat.) Lower Town has a rich history, supporters of the proposed district say. It was home to a number of abolitionists and “one of Ann Arbor’s first integrated neighborhoods.” What better way to honor that heritage than by keeping out affordable housing like the new private dorm that’s been suggested for the neighborhood? Of course, this being Ann Arbor, what’s “historically significant” is sometimes not as clear-cut. One house is cited for once being owned by a man who led “spiritual worship…in the nude.”
A poet whose work appears as one of the few less-than-positive pieces in the new anthology “Writing Ann Arbor” also touches on the preservation theme: “Trees and a few grand old/accidentally preserved houses/save it from total suburbanization,/give it the mildly authentic complexion/of secondhand furniture.” Uh, because suburbs never have grand old single-family houses.
We should probably point out that we grew up in an old home in a historic district, and our family has fought the town’s policy of permitting demolitions of older houses to make room for McMansions. So we grew up respecting the need for historic preservation. But when, say, some stylish new brick townhouses sprung up along the tracks in our town, it never occurred to us that this was part of the same problem that allowed that cookie-cutter monstrosity with the two-story foyer and stone address plate to be built a few blocks down. It’s our experience with historic districts in other places that makes the Ann Arbor approach so perplexing.
Of particular interest, in the Lower Town article, is the photo of Cahill and his Good Lady Wife posed like porcine gnomes enacting a parody of American Gothic, sans pitchfork.
And not to mix metaphors too terribly (while at least retaining the swine trope) one is also put in mind of the pigs in Animal Farm, eating heartily in their Historic District protected farmhouse, while the rest of us are lodged in the barn and exhorted to just keep working harder.
posted by Anonymous on October 31st, 2005 at 4:43 pmThat one above was my submission. Forgot to type my name….
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on October 31st, 2005 at 4:44 pmHow come in the proposed ordinance available on the city website, there are multiple references to “Appendix A” (including a reference to a map located there), but Appendix A is nowhere to be found? Does anyone know where it is?
posted by Mike on October 31st, 2005 at 5:37 pmI really *loved* the picture of me and Sabra in the Observer! I can’t figure out why they wanted my picture, since I’m not involved in the project; I’m just her elbow ornament.
By the way, Sabra says to tell you that the version of the proposed ordinance posted on the Web site is not the current version, and is not the one that will be submitted to City Council. She doesn’t know what happened to Appendix A; maybe it was the victim of a stealth appendectomy.
I think our picture is so good that I’ve ordered a glossy from the photographer.
posted by DaveCahill on October 31st, 2005 at 8:04 pmI got about half way thru a Masters in Historic Preservation at EMU before I had to put it on permanent hold, so I’m not adverse to historic preservation but I got enough NIMBYism in me to fear the Ann Arbor version for personal reasons. My house is 105 years old, very plain, pretty small, and was moved from 3 blocks away in the 50’s. Not a window or door in it was original when we bought it in 1999, all were from the 1980’s or later. The siding was horrible 1950’s 9″ wide dented peeling aluminum. Under the siding someone down the line had bored holes in the clapboards to blow in insulation so all the original wood looks like giant woodpeckers (or to keep it up to date, emerald ash borers) have feasted on it. We replaced two windows and two doors and got smaller profiled vinyl siding and wrapped that sucker head to toe last summer. No one in their right mind would say I destroyed anything architecturally significant (except maybe some totally rotted cornice returns) or historically important but as soon as we heard we’d be included in the district (the only house on our street, lucky us living on the corner of Pontiac Trail!) we went to work.
I fear the hoops we’d have to jump thru to have done the work we did all because our house is old. We get a double whammy since damn near every side of the house is visible to the street so a lot of things people are allowed to do in a historic district we can’t do because of living on a corner or if allowed we’d have to present ourselves to the HDC. I don’t have the money to return our house to its former glory, hell I couldn’t buy our house today if it was for sale!
If anyone is worried about preserving the character of my neighborhood they should worry about what happens when my 90+ year old neighbor dies, living as she does in a tiny house that would probably be bought and torn down to build something much larger a la Bloomfield Hills and all those places. Hate to jinx her (I think they won’t redraw the lines this late) but their house to me is more historic. African-American couple moves to Ann Arbor from the deep south in the 1940’s to the only side of town where there’s few racial restrictions and builds the house themselves. Her house isn’t in the proposed district, there’s no protection for it but the zoning laws and the goodwill of her family.
Sorry to ramble. Drive by sometime and see if I’m out of line. Drop in, I got good booze and a back deck (we probably couldn’t build if included in a historic district) we can sit on and complain about all things Ann Arbor.
posted by Thomas Cook on November 1st, 2005 at 9:54 amBut Thomas, our historic districts protect the history of blacks and workers in this community! At least, where such protection reinforces the existing power structure and current, homeowning residents.
posted by Dale on November 1st, 2005 at 12:11 pmMr. Cook,
posted by swines on November 1st, 2005 at 5:33 pmThere is a wonderful photo of your house from 1958 at the Bentley Library in the Urban Renewal appraisal documents from 1958. Apparently it was targeted for demolition because of its age (I would guess it is from 1840-1850). Since the urban renewal program was vetoed by the mayor then, the demolition of your house never took place. Lucky you!
Thomas, I have renovated two historic houses and have been through the mill with both HDC and the Zoning Board of Appeals (since any house that is historic is a non-conforming structure). For my money, the Zoning Board of Appeals is like the Queen of Hearts Court in an acid flashback compared to the HDC.
Here’s the secret: talk to people in advance. Don’t act like everyone is out to get you. There are ways of doing what you want, especially if you are not out to turn it into a rental. Some of the rules are annoying (must have wooden muntons!), yet there are ways to do what you want if you don’t act like an asshole.
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 1st, 2005 at 7:39 pmIf you can finish the job by the time you receive the “stop work order” from the HDC, you are in the clear as well. Just ignore them, and watch their fat faces turn red shouting at you. It is tremedous fun, actually.
posted by Clos du Marquis on November 1st, 2005 at 8:41 pmThanks for all the feedback folks. We’d read the house got moved from Moore St (where the empty Suzuki tech center is now) in 1956 or 1957 and was built in 1900 or so. It definitely got moved, the poor bugger is not square at all! I’ll have to go to the Bentley. If it’s really that old it explains a lot (tiny, afterthought bathroom, steep turning staircase to a 3/4 floor with no good heat or electrical service). Ah the joys of homeownership. I do love it and the neighborhood though, wouldn’t move from it for anything else in town.
posted by Thomas Cook on November 2nd, 2005 at 9:43 amNorth Side REPRESENT!
posted by js on November 2nd, 2005 at 2:00 pmNo, no, the stop work order is not the end of the HDC’s powers. If work was done without a permit, they can order it undone. And yes, they have ordered such.
Indeed, city building departments generally have that power, for without it, a permit requirement is pretty meaningless.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on November 2nd, 2005 at 2:14 pmThomas,
posted by swines on November 2nd, 2005 at 2:42 pmYour house is a fairly rare example of a Greek Revival style known locally as a “hen and chicks” although yours has only one ‘chick’ (this would be the side wing which looks like it is being sheltered by its mother). Emil Lorch of the UM Architecture School is reputed to have coined this phrase in response to noting its peculiar presence in Michigan. I believe the most famous one from Ann ARbor is the Ann Arbor House at Greenfield Village (formerly known as the Robert Frost house because he lived there for one year).
Swines: Thanks for the good info, I have seen the Robert Frost house. Ours is a very plain version that’s for sure. In my win-the-lotto dreams I add a chick on to the missing side (and magically make a full 2nd storey, get good heat, build a bar, bowling alley, and massive model train layout in the basement, etc).
js: NORTHSIIIIIIIDE! (visualize throwin’ appropriate gangtsa sign here).
posted by Thomas Cook on November 2nd, 2005 at 3:26 pmI find the “don’t be an asshole” suggestion works well in all kinds of delicate situations.
posted by DaveCahill on November 2nd, 2005 at 4:46 pmamen bro
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 2nd, 2005 at 6:21 pmI noted the American Gothic likeness in the photo, too. But what sort of ego would it take to go to pains to special-order a photo of…yourself? Sheesh.
posted by lima bean on November 2nd, 2005 at 10:13 pmLima Bean, as you get older, you will take a good picture when you can get it.
posted by OFWinsurgent on November 2nd, 2005 at 10:23 pmthomas,
posted by swines on November 2nd, 2005 at 11:15 pmI forgot to mention that the Ann Arbor house at Greenfield Village was originally located at 1223 Pontiac, not far from your house.