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SOUTH BEND & SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION 235-9798 MEMORANDUM July 15, 2004 TO: Commission Members Edgewater District Liaisons FROM: Karen R. Hammond -Nash, Director 4/ RE: Proposed Infill Construction 739 Bronson Court Edgewater Place Local Historic District In the event that the HPC and the neighborhood association decide that this lot is an appropriate place for infill or replacement construction, consideration must then be given to what sort of infill or replacement building would be appropriate. To facilitate the process of developing architectural plans and drawings for an appropriate replacement infill building, staff has identified several period house designs that staff believes would be appropriate both for this lot configuration, and for this historic district. Mr. and Mrs. Farr could either select one of these plans to be re -worked by an architect of their choosing, or have their architect use these, as well as the information in the District Guideline book, as an indication of what the HPC would be looking for. Three house plans are from Andrew Jackson Downing's great 1850 masterwork, The Architecture of Country Houses. This book is still in print 154 years after original publication, and it was a source of information and inspiration to many carpenter builders during the latter half of the 1800s, which is when the house originally on this lot was built. The three plans suitable in size for this lot are designs III, A Symmetrical Bracketed Cottage, V, A Workingman's Model Cottage and XII, A Square Suburban Cottage. All three of these plans would need alteration to include indoor plumbing, and one of them would need to be altered to bring the cellar door inside the house. I have attached those three plans. Mr. Farr may wish to build in the style of general historic significance to this neighborhood, which is more the 1920s, there are at least ten suitable designs from the 1905 Radford Artistic Bungalow Catalogue. They are attached to this Memo, following the Downing Cottage plans. Alternatively, Mr. Farr or his architect may wish to duplicate one of the existing houses in the district, or to adapt some other housing plan of suitable vintage. You will note that none of the house designs I have identified have a footprint like Mr. Farr's proposed footprint. I strongly suggest that the logical way to proceed is (1) to decide whether the HPC and the neighborhood association believe that infill on any or all of the vacant lots in this district is or could be appropriate; (2) to consider architectural plans and drawings first, and site plans second. Since most architects take lot size and configuration into account when they draw their plans, HPC consideration of site plan issues should be simple, if not automatic, once building architecture is approved.