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. STAFF REPORT CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS Date: July 10, 2008 Application Number: 2008-0710 Property Location: 16021 Cleveland Road Property Owner: Burnett C. Bauer Trust, B. Patrick Bauer, Trustee Landmark or District Designation: Landmark Rating: Outstanding STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE/HISTORIC CONTEXT: The Daniel Ward House is an Italianate built in 1865 and is significant in that the farmhouse is situated in a farmyard surrounded by a series of outbuildings: milk house, pump room, dairy barn (no longer extant 7/2008) and chicken coop. The clapboard Italianate Farmhouse sits on a brick and stone foundation and is topped with a glass enclosed monitor or "widows -walk" bracketed eaves and a veranda with ginger breading. Daniel Ward of the Ward Family of Pioneers left for California in 1849 with the Argonauts of '49 to seek his fortune in the gold rush. He returned in 1851 with a small fortune, purchased the farm with his father, then married Martha E. Martin in 1852, built their home in 1865 and resided there until 1891. The house and its outbuildings and 7.94 acres of land were designated as St. Joseph County Local Landmarks in 1980 and the house was listed on the Indiana State Register of Historic Sites and Structures in 1988. APPLICATION ITEMS: The letter from the trustee is 'requesting the following: to move the Daniel Ward Home from its current location (Exhibit A) to a new site immediately to the north (Exhibit B.) and for the Commission to "consider relinquishing the historic site designation for the 260'x1320' parcel". "B" LOCAL LANDMARK STANDARDS: E. Moving: The moving of landmarks is discouraged, however moving is preferable to demolition. When moving is necessary the owner of the landmark must apply to the Commission for a Certificate of Appropriateness. RECOMMENDATION: _ The Staff recommends approval of the move as the new site is sympathetic to the historic placement of the house and its preservation. However, this recommendation is contingent on the moving and/or reconstruction of the buildings from the farm yard that were also landmarked. (Exhibit CZ. There is a precedent for releasing landmark designation of the land in the decision of the Commission on May 21, 2001 (Exhibit D) for land included in the landmarking of 14297 State Road 23.