2.20.2024 Historical Commission

thank you uh good evening everyone uh and thank you for joining us for the meeting of the histo uh Fall River historical commission it is Tuesday uh February 20th 2024 uh we are meeting on a hybrid platform uh both in person and also via Zoom um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium

attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible um and before I do forget it is 6:00 p.m.

um may I get a roll call please Jonathan Lima present Rick manini present Joyce Rodrick present and Jason bushard irachi present um we are missing uh absent is Connie Su Elizabeth dblock and Ashley tuna uh we do have a quorum tonight and we do have uh we do not have any open seats um the first item on the agenda item number one is to review and approve the minutes from January 24th

2024 um I did receive a message from Elizabeth that she is not yet finished with those so we will review those next at our March meeting um do we have any citizens input no okay um I did receive three notices of intent to demolish uh item two is number 23 Brian street is not listed on the uh fall Riv register of significant structures um item number three 1298 Rodman Street uh the same

thing it is not listed on the register of significant structures and item number four 25 Eclipse Street which is a garage also not listed on the register of significant structures um I did receive correspondences uh item number five is 1260 Robison Street um in uh an inquis inquiry regarding uh changing up the third floor Windows um I did indicate to Carrie aash that the um property is not listed as part of the

40c uh protected District in the highlands um so they have no design restrictions um then I received a phone call uh actually an email and a phone call uh from the realtors in charge of um selling number 710 High Street and this is item number six um they were inquiring about the design restrictions because they were told that it is in the 40c um so I sent over a link to the

design guidelines that we have on our website um the I did indicate that the exterior any major alterations to the exterior uh changes of material Etc do need to come before us um so before they apply for a building permit they have to go through that necessary process um so the um the house is interesting it is a um the house itself was uh as I found out more about it was moved as part of

the Charlton Hospital uh Expansion Project in 19881 uh so that house used to stand over on Prospect Terrace and had been moved down the hill to its site on the corner of um High Street in French um so it's a pretty fascinating house altogether um but I believe um they're trying to do their due diligence before they have people um putting in offers uh so with that said um moving on we do

have new business uh item number seven we have um uh Brad Paul is it uh from regarding the Corky row this is item number seven uh the corki row Club they are seeking a letter of support for consideration of community preservation act Grant funds um and I believe we do have uh Mr Paul sorry just looking at the application one moment um yes uh Mr Paul is here via Zoom um good evening can you hear

us yes can you hear me yes um if you wouldn't mind just uh stating your name and uh who you're representing and how you are presenting if you're in person or via Zoom please uh my name is Brad Paul I grew up in Fall River and Swansea I live in San Francisco now but I get back quite often and I'm the president of the Corky R club I'm on Zoom right

now thank you and um would you um uh my going over the application and what the grant funds are being sought for sure I mean I think you're all familiar with the corki RO Club so I won't go over that it's been around since 1936 my father was one of the founding members he was hery Paul he owned Paul Auto Sales and worked at four years for many years before he passed away about

10 years ago my grandfather was a member I'm a member my son just joined so he's a fourth generation member we are best known probably for our uh St Patrick's Day dinner celebration which is coming up soon soon and as you may know the club is it's been around for a while the roof is very old and it leaks there's also a front window that's in really bad shape and leaks so the application we

submitted um to the the original application we submitted last fall was for 75,000 but it included doing some work on the inter internal floor in the building that's behind the bar and it turns out that internal work is not eligible so we presented this application at the initial eligibility hearing at the community preservation commission they uh encourage us to apply for the roof and the window but not the

floor so the proposal is for $55,000 to replace the roof replace the window and then some of the framing around the window is rotted needs to be replaced so that's what it is for once we secure the building our goal is to increase the program that goes on there that benefits the neighborhood and the residents of the neighborhood and brings more people into the community so in the

application which I hope you have a copy of yes we talk about doing things with the Corky ow neighborhood association including things like funding murals in the community uh having T tutoring students there when it's a rainy day or they need to be inside when it's cold we talk about um sponsoring sports teams when my father was a young man in Corky row he played baseball and football in

the neighborhood and my grandfather Nick fitten who owned fit movers over on Heartwell Street where my mother was living when they met uh used to sponsor or pay for Cory row teams so there a picture of my dad and a bunch of his friends wearing Corky roast shirts they were a softball team and then one of the t-shirts said fit and movers on it so the Corky Road neighborhood the cor Road

Club used to sponsor Little League teams basketball teams we like to get back to doing that but the main thing we need to do is stabilize the building so we can have more events there the the biggest fundraiser of the the year for us is the St Patrick's Day dinner which is coming up on March 17th but we can also do rentals of the club which we have done for birthday parties Community meetings and the more

we secure the building and stop the leaking the more we can do that uh the other thing we did to reduce our expenses is we used to have a full-time commercial liquor license which costs three or $4,000 a year to maintain we now have gone to doing a an event license which is much less expensive so we've been cutting our costs we want to fix the building up the building or the club will be 100

years old in 2036 and I think we'll get there and I'm happy to report that we have a growing membership once again um we've had a number of new members I've gotten two members of my family and two friends to join and I have a number of relatives in full River who I think are going to join in the next few months so we and and other people on the board are

doing the same thing so I think we're going to see a growing membership uh so that's in in a nutshell what we're asking for and we were told I didn't realize when I filled out the application that um the commission needed to sign a letter of support it was expected to get one from any City body that had jurisdiction over the project and I was just thinking in terms of renovation but this building is a um

it's in both a local historic district a state historic register and in the National register historic district for corki road so clearly it comes under the purview of the um historical commission so so I am I'm here late but I'm uh uh here to answer any questions and I I hope you can see your way to providing us with a letter of support of course thank you very much um and you're

exactly correct um we do get uh requests for letters to support um uh not just for CPC applications but also for historic tax credit applications um because uh the uh part of the ordinance the requirement is any um the historical commission or any um Municipal board that oversees is the U historic Assets in the city um so um do we have any questions for Mr Paul on the application no it's all self-explanatory

in the in the letter uh and then you are going to abide by the Secretary of St of interior standards you did state that in your letter yes and then you're going to make go ahead I'm sorry what were you saying well I was just saying that you're going to abide by that which again would put the window under those same standards so you'd have to replicate in kind the windows and the roof it now it

you you did say something here about if the if using the same material is not feasible a compatible substitute may be appropriate before you use the substitute you would then either check with historical commission and then the CPC yes I was just quoting from the secretary standards I should also mention that um when I first moved out here to San Francisco I worked for the National Trust for historic preservation

in the San Francisco office and in my in those days 35 millimeter slideshow I showed examples of the secretary standards to explain to people what they meant and how you complied with them and I have served on the board of the California state preservation Foundation the San Francisco foundation for architectural Heritage and I'm back on that board again so I'm very familiar with the secretary standards and we will

comply with them for two reasons one is it's the law but it's also something we need to do to preserve the context and history of the building and the club yeah well I'm just I'm just coining in honing in on the word appropriate that's a subjective word you know no might not be my appropri the historic commissions exactly and the experts in historic preservation not me exactly you

have to go by these standards that's all just excellent um great and uh when do you expect uh pending funding and so forth when do you expect the work to commence we'd like to do it as soon as possible so the uh the grants will be awarded I believe in April we would then have to uh do a a bid or do a process we would get bids we would get the people

bidding I think we need to get three bids uh we would get all the contractors to agree to follow the standards and build that into their their bids we'd select a bid once we did that we could apply for or we could start doing the work and apply for the grants from the community preservation uh commission committee sounds good thank you and and one last thing is I was involved and

still am involved with st an's so I wrote the application two years ago to the CPC for the $150,000 grant that St an's received to replace the historic slate roof uh that work as you I'm sure you know driving by is underway now and it's going very well they are working closely with Stark Architects to appies them on not only complying with the secretary's standards but also making sure that the work is done up to the

standards that everybody expects excellent thank you yes uh and it's it it's a true Testament of the CPC program here in the city that we have um we have this type of a program not every Community can say the same thing um going towards back towards the the um the historic assets here in the city whether it's um a church whether it's a public building nonprofit um and often times we see a lot of these buildings

just fall into neglect and they have to come down eventually and it's it's really a shame so we have this program and I'm glad that it is it is being utilized um so that said Do we have any other questions for Mr Paul at all no no no no questions okay um all right may I get a so this is to a uh approve a letter of support from us from the

historical commit for CPC funds MH okay well I'll make a request that we approve the letter of request okay so we have a motion by Rick uh make get a second please I'll second second that motion okay John John got it okay so I have a motion by Rick and a second by John um to approve a letter of support for Community preservation act Grant funds um make get a roll call vote please

Jonathan Jonathan Lia Yes Rick p yes Joyce Rodricks yes and Jason bushard ncky yes um thank you very much I will uh when when is your next meeting or when do you need the letter by uh the I believe the CPC is meeting to make final decisions on this in the first week of March okay all right I I can get I'll get you the exact date and send it but the sooner the better sure I

can have it out before the end of the week we've done this okay I can have it uh I I'll I'll get it prepared by the end of the week and um what I'll do is I'll when I email to you I will also email to Sandy Dennis so she has a copy of it um be great yep that's what I usually do in the process anyways for CPC letters I usually include her so she

has it readily available um excellent well thank you very much for joining us and uh um hope you enjoy the rest of your evening you too thank you very much thank you pleasure thank you all right thank you everyone um all right so um item eight we have two nominations um put together two nominations for additions to or inclusion for the Fall River register of significant structures um in this

process we haven't had buildings nominated in quite some time um and I was going through some of the paperwork um that the commission has available from um oh goodness years ago um so the the first one that I have um is uh item 8 a this is 31 Summerfield Street I did include the packet um so this it's a this particular house it's the Ley and Arin M melon house um it was built in

1892 um the it doesn't have an architect but the contractor the builder of the house was the owner Aaron melon uh he was a carpenter um and doing a little research on this house it was pretty fascinating there's a lot of connecting the dots uh with who is affiliated with this family and um this particular house it's the only um there's no other house on Summerfield street that is on the

city's register uh this particular house is directly behind um what was 317 Handover Street which was the Reuben uh Ruben small house that was just recently demolished uh by um South Coast Health uh for that parking lot and this property AB buts that parking lot um and um it's uh a very modest small cottage um I did put together the um the architectural description for it um the boundary description which was pulled

directly from the uh registry of deeds um and uh a little bit of the history of the house so or at least the history of the family so Aaron melon uh and his late wife lenia melon um they were they lived in Maine and they moved down to Fall River in the 1870s actually Aaron did after the death of his first wife levinia but Aaron in levinia had uh a number of children their son George F

Millan um uh he was one of Fall Rivers uh in at least in his obituary in The Herald News uh from 1901 he was regarded as one of the city's most enterprising citizens um he's best known for organizing the globe Street Railway Railway which was the the city's first street car line um and then he dabbled in a lot of different businesses but he liked uh he traveled across the country working with different communities to

establish street car lines um and then in 1889 I think it was he came back to Fall River or 1886 he came back to Fall River and he established the melon House hotel which used to stand on North Main Street um uh sort of diagonally across from the library and that was the largest hotel in downtown um so he was a very noted businessman business sorry businessman but his um so he is

connected to this house by way of his father um and the house for the most part has remained intact um it has would shingles on the outside um with trim uh the only alteration that I could see are vinyl windows that were added um so it is noted that the owner um we're making the nomination or at least uh uh somebody from the historical commission is making the nomination there are as

part of our ordinance uh for the Reg indry um there are three different ways that properties can get nominated uh one is a member of the historical commission making that nomination um the other uh the second one is um the property owner makes a request to the historical commission and then the third um option is uh 25 I think it's no more than 25 um residents with signatures indicating

their request to nominate a property onto the city's registry um and uh so those are the three different um Avenues to nominee and uh from there um if the property owner is not part of the this this initial process um a letter will get written um if it's approved by us that we want we want to proceed with a nomination um I'll put together a letter indicating sending them this packet of

course but indicating that their property was not nominated to the registry um and what that means essentially it the only real restriction is the six-month demolition delay um but it does get included onto the list um their address would be included uh passed over to the um building department uh so if forever uh for at any point say for example if there's a request to demolish the house or part of

the house or so forth um that there's a delay process on that um it doesn't change the value of the house um uh doesn't change any restrictions on the outside that sort of a thing so the letter um I do have a template letter um from uh uh the I think it was I think it was Tony Das who put it together years ago so I have a template letter that I

will um make edits to regarding this information here um and then the on in the letter it'll just say uh whether or not the homeowner wishes to proceed and have the house or the property included on the register and they will just send it back um and then we can take a formal vote of getting it listed into the register um does that make sense how that process works oh no we're fully fully aware the

process um so with that said so that's the first one I would like to recommend uh or at least nominate um do you want to make the nomination and accept it now and then move to the next uh sure we can do that um it is I do have um so the property owner that I looked up in the registry Deeds is Veronica Dunn um and she lives in the res at the residence um

so I will what I'll do is I can draft a if it's approved I'll will draft a letter to carry for her to mail um certified um so that way with a with a um a response that the property owner will maill back to carry so we can have a just so we have a paper tral on that yep okay perfect I would I would make the nomination that we put this home on

the significant structures list it's it's a good good area that should start being developed in that uh in that format so I would make the nomination thank you all right I have a motion by Rick a second do I have a second want a second Jo do I have a second on this okay thank you uh and the second by John all right so a motion by Rick second by Jonathan uh to nominate 31 Summerfield

Street uh roll call vote Jonathan Yes Rick yes uh Joyce yes yes thank you and Jason bardaki yes um thank you um so I will get that letter drafted over to mdun um and hopefully hopefully it's a good response on that um and it should also be noted too that there's u in that neighborhood um there's not a lot of houses that are that are listed on the register um this

the neighborhood was surveyed in the ' 80s but for whatever reason it just it never made it past that point um so the next one 8B um this is 225 Madison Street this is the John Russell Ferguson house um there are a few houses on Madison closer to Pierce Street and then there's a whole cluster over on President AB that are on the register but um this particular house um and same

thing uh this has a really cool history um so that block of land bounded by President a Robison Street Pierce Street and Madison Street um up until 1905 was open land there was no there there were no houses it was one single block of land um and through a estate sale or at least through the Airs of um um I think it was Francis Francis Hood after his death um his Heir Josephine Hood Chi uh

inherited the land and she sold the property the block of land uh to two people Fred uh Frederick J mclan and Eva bongarts and I'm not sure the relationship between the two but Fred mlan was a real estate broker uh in Fall River and he marketed that block of land bounded by those four streets as a subdivision and he Market it he marketed as Highland Terrace um and if you go through the old newspapers you'll find

all these advertisements for building Lots um he they didn't sell the land speculatively I'm sorry they didn't uh build the houses speculatively um but they um Fred mclan um had the property subdivided and I forget the exact number of uh Lots but there was a building there were building restrictions only single family houses and no Stables um and this was 19051 1910 uh so in come

John in comes John Russell Ferguson he was the principal at the Watson School uh prior to that he was the principal at the West doll school uh and the uh newspapers at the time regarded him as one of the leading Educators in the city uh so he bought the land uh 225 Madison um from Frederick mclan and Eva bongarts and uh we don't know I don't know the architect of the house um a number of

the property a number of other houses on that block were designed by Joseph darling so my suspicion could be Joseph darling but it also could very well be um a pattern house uh purchased uh plans purchased from a magazine um the only alterations that I can see from the exterior um I do I did see that there's a a permit pulled 1927 for uh a dormer in the back that was widened um the

house does have composite shingles on uh plus um vinyl vinyl replacement windows and the the porch the front porch was altered just a little bit I did indicate that in the building description um it was shortened the roof was kept the same but the flooring of the porch was shifted over just a little bit to allow a sidewalk um but that work is re reversible um but aside from that um the

uh um it's pretty straightforward um Ferguson lived in the house for only a few years he sold the house um in 195 when he moved to Providence to become the principal at a school over there um but um the house has a very lengthy chain of title um it has been purchased and sold a number of times um but the homeowner she just recently purchased it in October um the homeowner I did have

it here on the form it's um uh pamola Liberty um so who happens to be a former city counselor um but she she's aware that we have the register um but uh I would like to also send a formal letter over to her so she can um say whether or not she wants it included on the list um so with that said um yeah are there any questions on this particular one no no none

whatsoever I'm hoping this will Kickstart especially this block um because there's a few houses that are listed but I'm hoping this kickstarts um some additional nominations for other houses in that block because it's a really really cool history of of how it's probably one of the earliest subdivisions in in B River um great um and I do apologize I when I um I have a photo but for whatever

reason it never made it maybe when I was printing it just didn't show up but I do have the um I do have a photo of the house so I'll include that on the the form um so same process uh she will receive a letter indicating that her property is nominated um and she just has to accept it or deny it and send the form back over to carrye okay

okay I'll make a nomination that we uh that we put this on the significant structures list thank you all right motion by Rick I'll second that motion thank you Joyce all right motion by Rick second by Joyce roll call vote Jonathan Yes Rick yes Joyce yes and Jason bushard Andi yes thank you very much everyone so um and if there's if you have this goes for everyone too um if there are properties

that you think should be included on the on the city's register um if this is a fabulous tool because it does um allow us the ability to look at neighborhoods that might if we have a a larger assemblage of properties that are on the city register but they're not indic they're not listed on the national register or anything like that um it gives us good cause to look at um getting that

neighborhood surveyed formally for a uh inclusion as for a potential National register District um which helps our cause out um so but if there's ever a property that we do want to consider listing by all means uh and I'm happy to help with the research um so with that said moving on on Old business uh item nine annual report update um it has I've started it um but I am nowhere near complete so I

hope to have that uh finalized by the March meeting um item 10 fall Riv e permit issue uh Rick and I did meet with uh we had a meeting with mayor um at the end of January unfortunately that topic did not get covered so I we will have to make another appointment exactly um um item 11 Bank Street Armory update okay so uh the the letter was

sent um and I I looked at I the day that um what day was that January now I can't remember we met on the 12th was it no we met on the 24th um that Tuesday now I can't remember but so the city council voted they denied the sale of the Armory to Alan Mamer uh his company um the letter from US was sent to city council um earlier that evening

um I was not aware of the fact that it was not on the agenda but I was not aware that an item if it's tabled if they have the votes they can lift it from table and they could take a vote on it I was not aware of that so that was purely not intentional sending it before their meeting um but we had recommended for the Armory sale to be paused um but

city council had a yes or no vote Yes to sell it or no to uh don't sell it and so that's that vote went through that they um they did not sell it um so um just recently last Tuesday at city council uh last Tuesday's meeting of the city council um uh councelor Michelle Dion uh made a resolution or put through a resolution um that would transfer the building the responsibility of the

Armory from the parks department to our commission to the historical commission um councelor Linda Pereira made the addition of uh the Amendments adding in the preservation Society so that motion passed so it's now onto City or uh to the ordinance committee uh that will take that matter up for vote I don't know what the process is after that if it goes back if it goes to the mayor and

then back to city council I'm not sure it goes back to city council goes back to city council okay um so Michelle Dion uh did inquire whether or not we need to take a formal vote to accept it we do not she checked in with Allison uh bushard the city clerk and we do not need to take a vote to accept it um so we would be responsible for the building um that's what the

proposal is so with this kind of ties into item number 12 um but that's the update regarding the Armory um just just a comment I I would think at this point that it would be best for historic commission a historical commission to just uh wait for the ordinance committee to meet and let's see and hear what kind of input is being placed there uh we might attend ourselves just to be present and get involved with the

conversation uh you know it's I think it's it's it's going to be a much debated subject absolutely I don't think any of those decisions are in concrete at this point no um yeah so uh when it does go before committee uh the ordinance committee I believe we will we will be invited to attend um we will not be able to attend as a quorum um so uh we can all from what I was told

we can all attend in the audience but for those presenting um when invited to speak we can't have more than three people um so just letting you know on that um that's my understanding of that um and I could be I could be totally wrong but um so with regards to item 12 um certified local government application update so I emailed the application I did receive finally the uh comments back from the

state commission uh um with some very M uh minor um additions not necessarily edits I just had to make a couple statements and addition to everything so I sent that over to um Corporation counsel for their review um there is a small section partway through uh the assurances um so I have not received a response yet but what I will do I'm going to email um tomorrow uh the mayor's office as well as Corporation

counsel um just just as a followup to see where we are with it um from my understanding uh Mass historical said everything everything's good on the application um so once the mayor signs off on it we mail it over to the historical Commission in Boston they will they will review it once approved they will send back to us um a certif certification and that has to get signed by the mayor from there it gets sent

back to Boston for their final signatures they then send the whole packet over to the National Park Service um for their approval so it's we're we have a few more steps but we're in the right direction right it's moving it's moving it's moving just a lot of back and forth um well this is this is quite a this is quite an accomplishment to to get even this far uh in the state with this

program and for the city to get this program is is it's a tremendous asset it also uh opens up the uh opens to us the ability to acquire a lot of funding that's available so it's it's a plus plus for everyone to get this completed and and I believe we're going to be one of less than 35 oh uh commun cities and towns and communities that will have this certification in the state so

there's Federal monies and state monies available that are just not being utilized so getting this certification is a tremendous advantage to the city absolutely and it's it's interesting too because we have um the the groups that we've met before um the Consultants uh I'm thinking of those from Ryan LLC and then uh Epsilon um and we get the same comment over and over again how are you

not a CLG um we check all the boxes off um so it it's it's great and it does tie in with the Armory because we will be able to if we are the ones that would be overseeing the building um and you know whether or not we need to create a subcommittee I would imagine we do have to create a subcommittee um but we would at least be able to um apply for Grant

funds for example in this bu in the case of this building for uh an updated feasibility study structural assessment um and so forth which and that's not just for that project but other things too um and in the case of moving on to item 13 um the dis the Highland's local historic district expansion Grant funds would also be uh handy to apply for for getting surveys done um because when I drafted the

addresses I wasn't I was not expecting 150 addresses so that's that's excellent but um so the where are we at with we just need to get the mailing addresses put together yes and uh i' I've got a few of them done and what's going to happen is I've been taking the time to um we've been getting a a an actual photo I did not bring it with me so sorry that's okay uh but what'll happen

is when when they're all done and and ready we'll give them to Carrie and see if she can mail them out oh yeah yeah but it'll be a regular tax assesses form that will be attached to each one of the addresses okay so that there'll be a photo and a complete description of the property and everything else that we need not only you know the name and and the address of the home but home owner

but it will have all of the U significant information about the structure with it so that'll that'll be good when I went on to the um so I was drafting up all the addresses I was using the city's GIS maps uh when I was drafting up the addresses and I noticed there was a disclaimer when you go on to that website it said that um it the last time was updated was in May of 2022 I

think it was so I any of the any of the uh info on there was I was taking with a grain of salt um so I would imagine Patriot Properties should be updated um with the own with the the proper homeowners maybe I'm not sure but the tax assessor will have the the most upto-date list on that yeah and that's the list that I'm using perfect excellent so it what it what it'll be

giving us is a u a short form B actually y with every one of the filings which is a plus get gets us you know more towards the Form B completion um and then uh so once uh on that on the Excel sheet that I um sent over and what I'll do is I'll just send over a link to the folder so everyone has access to it if there's any

additions that need to be made um but that list will um on the Excel sheet I can send that over to Carrie and she can use that directly um to create the labels and so forth and we can get the get those mailers out um okay um and and if you need any help on that please let me know I can hop on um so with that were there any questions on anything at all okay

um all right I don't think I have anything else um we are scheduled to meet next let me just grab my calendar I did not put on the agenda I do apologize I do have this room blocked out on Tuesday March 19th 2024 um so I and I did go through and I did give um the list of all the dates to carry uh so we do have this room blocked

out every third Tuesday at 6 p.m. um so we will be meeting next on March uh Tuesday March 19 sorry Tuesday March 19th 2024 okay um it is 6:40 PM um I get a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting make a motion I'll make a motion to adjourn go John made a motion may I get a second I'll second that motion thank you um all right by uh Jonathan and a second

by Joyce to adjourn at 6:40 p.m. uh roll call Jonathan Yes Rick yes Joyce yes and Jason buard nocki yes thank you very much everyone