August 2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

East Wayne Street Local Historic District Guidebook APPENDIX B A Landscape Assessment Summary East Wayne Street Local Historic District possesses a character that has endured for decades and has maintained the most intact historic landscape of any of the Local Historic Districts. The flavor and ambiance should be maintained to ensure historic continuity. The use of hedges, ground cover and ornamental trees are the most obvious landscape elements that create a visual continuity throughout the district. Formal street tree plantings could enhance the district but are not neces- sary due to the presence of large trees in the front yards of most homes. The human scale of the neighborhood is a unifying factor that should be maintained through regulation if necessary. A grouping of oak and walnut trees is one element not as obvious as some but no less significant to the historical landscape. The large trees act as a back drop for the historic homes and also tie the neighborhood together. The use of hedges in combination with the architectural styles of the homes in East Wayne Street Local Historic District create a very formal atmosphere. In yards visible from the streets, fences as property dividers and privacy barriers should be prohibited, while the use of hedges for these pur- poses should be encouraged. The large trees in the front yards in combination with those in the tree lawns create a canopy enclosure that enhances the intimate human scale of the neighborhood. The street trees do not seem to create a line or visual connection in the manner of the trees in some dis- tricts; therefore, planting in the tree lawns is not imperative but would not be objectionable either. The use of one large tree in the front yard seems to be more characteristic of the neighborhood than formal street tree plantings. To preserve the character of the district, each residence should have either trees in the tree lawn or a large tree in the front yard. The use of ground cover rather than wood chips or decorative stone also adds to the formal design of the homes of the early 1920s. The use of Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) and English Ivy (Hedera helix) should be encouraged while wood chips and decorative stone should be used in a limited fashion. Ornamental trees, such as the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and Flowering Crabapples (Malus) are the elements that add to the symmetry and structure of the district. While the use of ornamental trees is desir- able and adds to the formal atmosphere throughout the district, each lot should use only two or three to eliminate disruption of visual continuity. All of the elements discussed above combined with the architectural styles of the homes along East Wayne create an environment that is scaled to the human. The character of the elements should be maintained to insure the integrity of the human scale of the district. A stand of diverse varieties of oak trees runs from Sunnyside south of the district, to approximately 1630 East Wayne Street. An exciting find, these trees are native species with size and shape which suggests they were planted immediately after conclusion of construction. Because the land which became the Sunnymede Development in the 1870s was farm land, the idea that the trees are sur- vivors of development holds slim possibility. However, the size of the trees dates them at 80 to 90 years old. This fact could suggest that the Studebaker brothers, Jacob F. and John M., let the trees grow to enhance their subdivision and business venture. In any case, the number, location and visual effect of the trees is significant to the character and should be preserved. Page 57