American Northwest Vintage Homes - Should Your Neighborhood Go Historic?

Should Your Neighborhood Go Historic?
By Aaron Tobiason
Photography by Tim Reid

Historic Sehome District, Washington State

Whatever a neighborhood
association's motives for seeking
state and federal historic status, real
benefits should be matched against
the lengthy, involved process.
The attainment of historic status
can be a powerful tool for building a
sense of community among residents of an area. It can provide a link to the past, a vital museum of structures that have housed the hopes and dreams of generations. If nothing else, it can provide a deterrent, whether through peer pressure or a city council, to plastic flamingos and toilet planters.

Two Neighborhoods' Journeys

Sehome Hill Historic District -- Bellingham, WA

The Sehome Hill Historic District was born in early 2001, the culmination of nearly two-years of research undertaken by members of the Sehome Historic District and the Sehome Neighborhood Association. There was so much information, they wrote a book, "At Home on the Hill," about their findings, available at Village Books in Bellingham, WA.

The neighborhood, which stretches between Jersey and Newell Streets and extends to Samish Way/Ellis Street, is listed in the National Historic Registry/Washington Historic Register as being significant in the areas of "Industry, Architecture, and Ethnic Heritage."

According to past Neighborhood Association President Alex Woodbury, the neighborhood's roots reach back to the local lumber boom of the early twentieth century. The product of a style now referred to as Craftsman or Arts and Crafts, the residences are mostly bungalows, built by their predominantly Norwegian residents who worked at the Bloedel Donovan mills.

After reading a publication called "American Bungalow" several residents began to realize how important some of their homes were to a movement that has seen a recent resurgence in popularity. "It represents a slice of American life at the turn of the century," states Woodbury, "these homes are one of the few things that give us a real link to the past."

Neighborhood member Carol Yoon and her husband contributed a great deal to what became an enormous research project. "We took pictures of the old pictures, we took pictures of the houses," she says. They applied for and won one of the mayor's "Small and Simple" grants to offset the costs of the photos and the printing of "At Home on the Hill." A subsequent grant covered the cost of the decorative plaques topping the neighborhood stop signs, designed by the neighborhood's resident artist, Wray Berry.

Yoon acknowledges a great deal of help from the Department of Neighborhoods and Community Development and the Planning Department (now merged into the Planning and Community Development Department) in gathering information, advice, and "rah-rah moral support" for the project.

After months of waiting (the state requires a draft six months in advance of the nomination deadlines, which fall in January, June, and September, and notification can take an additional forty-five days), the Sehome Hill Historic District was officially listed on the NHR/WHR on February 13, 2001.

The neighborhood initially sought recognition in the hopes of staving off the encroachment of multi-family housing units serving the nearby Western Washington University campus. But, according to Yoon, something more subtle and significant transpired, "It's been much more effective than any regulations we could have put in place about what people could do with their houses - people have a lot more pride in ownership of their houses."

While people once described the Sehome neighborhood as having "older homes... not 'nice and new,'" Yoon now says people refer to them as "historic homes, which is a really different way of describing homes that are old." The historic status has also attracted a different group of homeowners to the neighborhood, those drawn to the idea of investing in a part of the area's history.

But Yoon believes the most welcome benefit has been the increased sense of neighborhood pride and involvement. For this reason, she cautions against any one person trying to "go it alone," not only because acquiring historic status requires a huge investment of time and energy, but also because it precludes the opportunity for community building. "We had a lot of talents in the neighbohood that were brought in and eased the load that would have been on any one person. The more important thing is that there's a sense of ownership of the historic district that can never be created if one person does everything."

South Capitol Neighborhood Historic District, Olympia, WA

The South Capitol Neighborhood Historic District in Olympia, established in 1991, receives a different benefit from its historic listing. Recently deposed South Capitol Neighborhood Association President Russell Cartensen, who swaps places with the VP in a "rigged" election every few months, paints an understandably different picture of the older association.

"Roughly forty percent of the homes are rentals," he says, their proximity to the Capitol campus tending to attract young, ambitious people. The frequent turnover has prevented any unified community movement. However, the Historic listing has allowed the more permanent residents of the neighborhood to avail themselves of State tax incentives.

Listed as historically significant by way of its "Architecture, Politics/Government, and Commerce," the South Capitol district has long been home to the middle/upper middle class of the city. Many of these homeowners have been able to afford to make the improvements that earn them a tax break - Washington State's "special valuation" allows owners who spend the equivalent of twenty-five percent of their home's appraised value on renovations to then deduct that amount from the value on which they are required to pay property taxes.

Editor's Note:The specific details of creating an Historic Neighborhood are outlined in the continuation of this article. To learn about registering your Historic Neighborhood, read more....

If you would like more information, contact:

Washington State Office of Archeology and
Historic Preservation:
http://www.ocd.wa.gov/info/lgd/oahp/

National Parks Service National Historic Register
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/index.htm

Also see:

"At Home on the Hill"
Available upon request only at http://www.villagebooks.com

About the writer: Aaron Tobiason