national register - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T19:40:49Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/national+registerDelray Beach: Old School Square Historic District gets national listinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-old-school-square-historic-district-gets-national-li2018-04-04T19:04:38.000Z2018-04-04T19:04:38.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>Delray Beach can now boast it has two historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places.<br /> The newest register listing came in mid-March when the National Park Service, which keeps the Historic Places list, decided that the Old School Square Historic District could join the Marina Historic District. <br /> “We are delighted that this honor has at last been bestowed on one of our most cherished historic districts,” said JoAnn Peart, president of the Delray Beach Historic Preservation Trust. The city asked the group in 2014 to begin working on the district for submittal to the National Register. “It took a lot of time and sweat to get the district listed.”<br /> The district, which runs along Swinton Avenue from Northeast Fourth Street to Southeast Second Street, is home to some of the city’s most significant buildings, including the Old School Square campus and the 1902 Sundy House, home of the city’s first mayor. Both are listed individually on the National Register.<br /> After the state approved sending the district listing to the federal level in late November, Hudson Holdings — developer of the proposed Midtown Delray project in the southern half of the district — put out a flier with misinformation about what the National Register listing would mean to property owners, according to Historic Preservation Trust members. <br /> “SAY ‘NO’ TO THIS DAMAGING DESIGNATION,” the flier copy read. Instead of being a feather in the cap, the National Register listing was described as limiting property repair and renovation, she said.<br /> But the historic building changes and renovations are reviewed on the local level by the city’s Historic Preservation Board, Peart said. Nothing is done on the federal level, she said.<br />Steve Michael, Hudson Holdings co-founder, said he no longer opposes the designation.<br /> “We originally thought they were trying to stop the development of Midtown Delray,” he said. “But we don’t think that anymore.”<br /> Historic Presevation board chairman, John Miller, called the flier “mean-spirited and punitive.” On the flier, Hudson Holdings offered the services of its notary to have the statements certified, he said.<br /> Michael said his team was trying to educate property owners about the designation. Midtown Delray received conditional approval from the city one week before the district was listed on the National Register in mid-March.<br /> “We need to make them aware of the changes to our site plan that includes demolitions and slight relocations of historic buildings,” Michael said. “I don’t know when we will alert the National Park Service. We are trying to work on our site plan.” <br />The listing was delayed by 30 days after another district property owner appealed to the National Park Service in mid-February to postpone the decision. The owner promised to provide details, but didn’t produce them.</p></div>Delray Beach: Old School Square nominated for national historic designation/registrationhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-old-school-square-nominated-for-national-historic-de2018-01-03T19:44:20.000Z2018-01-03T19:44:20.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br />Delray Beach will soon be able to boast that it has two historic districts on the National Register.<br /> The Old School Square Historic District, with 119 contributing structures, received unanimous approval Nov. 30 from the Florida National Register Review Board. The application was sent in mid-December to the Keeper of the National Register in the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. <br /> It will take about 60 days for the keeper and the state review board officer to decide whether Old School Square Historic District can be listed or will be sent back for revisions, said the Florida Department of State spokeswoman. Most state submissions make it onto the National Register, she said. The Marina Historic District is the city’s other designated district on the National Register.<br /> The National Register is the federal government’s official listing of historically significant properties and districts throughout the country. The list includes sites and properties identified and documented as having played a significant role in the architectural historical development of the nation, states, counties and local communities. <br /> The Old School Square District contains historic structures that span more than 60 years. The oldest is an 1898 building, but most of its historic structures were built between 1920 and 1960. “It has a very good selection of architectural styles,” said Ruben Acosta, survey and registration supervisor for Florida, when describing the district to the Review Board. <br /> Boca Raton attorney Michael Weiner, who owns several buildings in the Old School Square District, spoke by phone at the review board meeting. He was against the designation. <br /> “It is forcing the neighborhood backwards, rather than helping to preserve it,” he said. Among the buildings he owns is the 52 N. Swinton Ave. house that was converted into a commercial use for the popular Dada restaurant. <br /> “It won’t add additional approval layers for local property owners,” said Price Patton, vice chair of the city’s Historic Preservation Board. He traveled to Tallahassee for the Review Board meeting. “It’s an honorary title that is well-deserved,” he said. <br />Carolyn Patton, a board member of the Delray Beach Preservation Trust, said that as far back as 2008, consultants recommended the district be nominated, but the city had insufficient staff to fill out the demanding application. In 2014, the trust was successful in having the Marina Historic District named to the National Register. <br /> “We have several others in the works,” she said. “The Old School Square District contains Delray’s history and Delray’s heart.”<br /> The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency sent a letter supporting the district’s designation, said Andrea Harden, a member of the city’s Historic Preservation Board. The agency owns buildings in the district, including its offices at 20 N. Swinton Ave. — a house that is an example of Monterrey style architecture.<br /> The trust raised money to hire Ellen Uguccioni, a Florida Review Board member and a historic preservation expert, to write the National Register application. Uguccioni recused herself from the vote, as did preservation architect Rick Gonzalez, also on the Review Board. <br /> Gonzalez is working with the developers of Midtown Delray Beach, a proposed project that includes historic buildings on South Swinton Avenue. The most famous is the Sundy House, built in 1902 in the Frame Vernacular style for Delray Beach’s first mayor.<br /> The Sundy House and the Old School Square campus are individually listed on the National Register.<br /> “We are excited that this Delray Beach treasure is finally getting the recognition that it has long deserved,” Preservation Trust President JoAnn Peart said in a prepared statement after the Review Board vote.</p>
<p><br /> <em>Note: Price and Carolyn Patton are founding partners of</em> The Coastal Star<em>.</em></p></div>Delray Beach: Builder seeks to block historic designation for districthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-builder-seeks-to-block-historic-designation-for-dist2017-08-02T14:14:57.000Z2017-08-02T14:14:57.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br />Hudson Holdings had its attorney write a warning letter to a state board, threatening to file an injunction unless it delayed the National Register review of the Old School Square Historic Arts District, said a principal of the Delray Beach developer. <br /> The Aug. 10 hearing will now be held Nov. 8, after the letter reached the Florida Historic Preservation Office in late July.<br /> “The application is flawed,” said Steven Michael, the Hudson Holdings principal. “It was not brought through the city process. … The property owners were not notified. … The City Commission did not sign off on it.”<br /> Michael is referring to the city’s rules for properties to be designated locally historic, said JoAnn Peart, president of the Delray Beach Preservation Trust. The nonprofit group sponsored the application of the Old School Square district. <br /> To be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, properties follow a different process. The nomination goes to the city’s Historic Preservation Board, then on to the state for recommendation to be placed on the National Register, Peart said. In 2014, she said, the trust used the same process to get the Marina Historic District on the National Register. <br /> Historic homes should not be moved and alleys cannot be abandoned in districts that want to be listed on the National Register, Peart said. <br /> The developer’s Midtown Delray Beach project sits in the southern half of the Old School Square district that is locally historic. The developers want to move some historic homes and demolish others to build the underground garage. Then the homes, on better foundations, would be moved a second time. They also want to use an abandoned alley to create a wide pedestrian plaza.<br /> “We are bringing back the homes to their original state,” Michael said. “The new buildings will be compatible.”<br /> The application writer, a historic planner for the city of Miami, and the preservation architect for Hudson Holdings sit on the five-member state review board. They cannot vote on the Old School Square district because they received a financial gain for their work. <br />For more than a year, only four members attended the meetings. With two not being able to vote on the Old School Square application, it was not reviewed.</p></div>