April 25, 2012

Comments Made to City Council on April 24, 2012

Filed under: News,Preservation — historicbeaufort @ 10:09 am

We are here to again voice our interest in achieving the best future redevelopment of the properties in the Historic District that adjoin the Bladen Street Redevelopment District and to reiterate our belief that that can best be accomplished by retaining Historic District Review Board (HDRB) oversight for those properties.

HBF is concerned about the potential expansion of the Bladen Street Redevelopment District throughout the Historic District. It has been implied that any parcel in the Historic District might be subject to rezoning to Bladen Street Redevelopment and be removed from Historic District Review Board oversight.

Following its vote against including the two additional parcels in the Bladen Street District, the Beaufort-Town of Port Royal Metropolitan Planning Commission recommended the placement of boundaries on the Bladen Street Redevelopment District.  This is a recommendation with which we strongly concur and we believe is critical.

Without defined boundaries, what is to stop the expansion of the Bladen Street Redevelopment District throughout the Historic District and the elimination of a separate review process (the HDRB) based on the Historic District Guidelines (Milner Associates’ Beaufort Preservation Manual and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Rehabilitation)? The answer is simple. Nothing.  The Bladen Street Redevelopment District is slowly creeping into the National Historic Landmark District and potentially eroding the historic fabric that many generations have so carefully worked to protect.

As the Bladen Street District ordinance currently reads, to include the two proposed parcels in the Redevelopment District essentially removes them from protections afforded by the Historic District guidelines.  By removing these two properties from the purview of the HDRB, the character and quality of Beaufort and our National Historic Landmark District, and possibly the City’s CLG status, is jeopardized.

We believe conflicting standards for infill development set a dangerous precedent for other properties in the Historic District.  If a project is appropriate for the Historic District, it will be approved by the HDRB.  A change in zoning is not necessary in order to rehabilitate a structure or redevelop a site. There has been no indication that projects have been proposed for these two particular parcels. Given that fact and that appropriate projects do get approved, we wonder why the proposed zone change is necessary?

While we do strongly support appropriate infill, Historic Beaufort Foundation opposes the proposed zoning change.  We adamantly believe that any changes needed to move the Bladen Street streetscape forward can be proposed through the Historic District Design Review Board making the rezoning redundant.

Please seriously consider the ramifications of removing these two parcels from the Historic District and the far-reaching implications such a decision could have on the integrity of Beaufort’s Historic District.

August 11, 2011

Photo of the Week

Filed under: Education,Preservation — historicbeaufort @ 12:29 pm

This photo was an exciting find for HBF because it gives us an excellent view of the Verdier House outbuildings in the 1890s which no longer exist.

Taken at the corner of Bay and Scott’s streets, the photo is a copy of one that originally appeared in a book about the Red Cross and was taken after the 1893 hurricane when Clara Barton organized a relief effort in Beaufort.

It’s labeled “Carts loaded with grits for the distributing station at McLoud’s,” a reference possibly to McLeod’s Farm at Seabrook. Temporary distribution sites were established throughout the county.

(Click on the photo to enlarge.)

February 9, 2011

Photos of 1915 Duke Street

Filed under: General,Preservation — historicbeaufort @ 9:52 am

February 7, 2011

Free House!

Filed under: General,Preservation — historicbeaufort @ 1:05 pm

Historic Beaufort Foundation has joined with the owners of a ca. 1890 cottage to find someone to move and preserve the structure which has been slated for demolition. The Killingsworth House at 1915 Duke Street and owned by Family Enterprises  is one of a few remaining structures in one of Beaufort’s earliest suburbs and is free to anyone who will move it. The owners received permission to demolish it from the City of Beaufort’s Historic District Review Board last month.

A modest cottage that was the architectural norm in what was once called Dixon Village just blocks east of Ribaut Road near the current Beaufort County Courthouse, 1915 Duke was built on part of the former Hermitage Plantation, a significant antebellum plantation. Until the first decade of the 20th century, Dixon Village was outside the town limits.

While it is not in the National Historic Landmark District, the house is important because it’s part of the legacy of late 19th century African-American building patterns, according to HBF records. The cottage was built on one of 54 lots that were subdivided after the Civil War from Hermitage Plantation owned by the family of Caroline Edings Sams Fripp who acquired title in 1878 and created the suburb. Ned Killingsworth purchased the lot in 1889 and built the house sometime after that.

Stylistically, the house shares a one-story, side-gable architectural form found commonly in the adjacent Northwest Quadrant that date to the same period, c. 1875 – 1900. Aerial images suggest that the extension at the northeast corner of the house was an early ell, and that a later addition at the northwest corner of the house is not historic.

Other remaining historic structures in Dixon Village that have not been modified extensively are the Peete House at 1805 Duke Street, the Alston House at 1909 Duke Street which was a duplex or triplex and Bethel Church at 1823 Duke Street.

For additional information, call HBF at 379-3331.