B.    HDC2007-00404   [Consent Agenda]
       Applicant:  Laura M. Beach, Office Manager McCarthy Wilson
       Address:   100 South Washington Street
       Request:   Fence replacement and extension

MOTION: Commissioner Moloney moved to approve applications HDC2006-00368B and HDC2007-00404 as recommended by the staff reports. Commissioner van Balgooy seconded the motion

VOTE: 4-0

C.   HDC2007-00403   [Consent Agenda]
      Applicant:  Lynn Wagman
      Address:   203 W. Montgomery Avenue 
      Request:   Add stair rails to front and side porches

MOTION: Commissioner van Balgooy moved to approve application HDC2006-00403 as recommended by the staff report. Commissioner Hunt-McCool seconded the motion.

VOTE: 3-0-1 (Commissioner Moloney abstained)

III. Evaluation for Historical Architectural or Cultural Significance

A.   HBS2007-00784
      Applicant:  Rev. Jane Wood
      Address:   19 Martin’s Lane
      Request:   Evaluate for significance  [Demolition review]

Planner Kebba provided the staff report, including the architectural description and cultural/social significance of the property.  Based on an assessment of the history and architecture of the site, Staff finds that this property does meet criterion 1b (identification with a person or a group of persons who influenced society) of the Rockville Cultural and Social significance criteria, based particularly on the civic contributions of William Wood during his ownership and occupancy of the property, 1929-1980.  Staff does not recommend designation of the site, however, as the architectural integrity is not sufficient for a single site historic district. 

The one-story cottage was built in 1922 as a summer cottage for a member of the Martin family.  It was expanded/modified when William Wood and his first wife (Evelyn Carroll Wood) purchased it in 1929 to be their permanent residence.  It is currently owned by Reverend Jane Wood, pastor of Jerusalem-Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, but it is vacant.  Pastor Wood grew up in this house.  She put about $40,000 into the house within the past decade – including vinyl siding, all new vinyl windows, new synthetic shutters, new asphalt shingle roof, wrapping with vinyl, etc.  As a result, most of the exterior materials have been changed.  She wants to raze the house because there are structural defects that include the roof structure and foundation and she has been advised by structural engineers that building a new house that meets current code requirements is her best alternative.  She does intend to keep the lot, rebuild and move back into this neighborhood.

The half-width front-gabled porch has a deep overhang.  The porch roof is supported by two square posts with shaped brackets at the two corners and knee brackets at the façade junctures.  These have been wrapped with vinyl as has the underside of the porch roof.  The front door was replaced with the windows, shutters and other alterations in 1997.  The east and west facades include the main block and two additions, one of which appears to be an enclosed porch as was described in the 1988 MHT form.  The east façade has a pair of shuttered windows in the main block.  A subordinate gabled bay has two 1/1 replacement windows and to the rear of that is the enclosed rear porch that has no fenestration.  The west façade’s main block has small 1/1 windows in the south bays and a larger 1/1 window in the north bay.  All are replacements. The first shed-roofed addition has a central 1/1 window and the rear porch addition has no fenestration of this side either.

There is a central interior brick chimney although the fireplace has been covered up.  The driveway once led to a single car cinder block detached garage but it has been removed.  Looking directly north toward the rear of the house is the only fenestration on the enclosed porch.  The small window to the left has been reduced in size as this is where the bathroom was installed when water and sewer finally came available to the neighborhood in 1951-52 after it was annexed into the City of RV in 1949.  Until then, there had been an outhouse in the rear yard which has been removed.

The deep yard is typical for the lots on the north side of Martin’s Lane in this block.  The yard once had many gardens.  Some of the residents along Martin’s Lane raised chickens, hogs etc. and had small farmsteads, orchards, etc.  Ms. Kebba pointed out the contrast in size and scale between this house and a house to the west on the corner of Bickford.

Haiti has been found to be eligible for the National Register.  Staff showed the boundaries of the eligibility area.

According to the National Register survey, Haiti evolved over the last 170-175 years through four distinct development phases.  The first phase began with Samuel Martin’s settlement in the area in the 1830s.  It was very rural and the Martin family were probably the only inhabitants.  Samuel Martin’s 8 3/4-acre farm was located on the north side of Martin’s Lane.  He died in 1873 and family members subdivided or built on their inherited portions.  Martin’s Lane was originally the lane that led to the farm.

The second phase of development was on the south side of Martin’s Lane to North Street, and west of Washington on land previously owned by Margaret Beall. She deeded about 30 parcels of land to former slaves and servants.  Most paid a nominal sum ($5) for the land. It was settled in the generational homestead pattern (that is still apparent today) in the third quarter of the 19th century.

The third phase of subdivision of Margaret Beall’s land, west of Van Buren along north Street,  wasn’t developed until the 1920s.  This phase of development has much more regular setbacks. The fourth phase was 1940s development along Bickford and the duplexes on MacLane Court.

Samuel Martin’s farm was divided after he died into five long, narrow and equally sized 1 ¾- acres parts, numbered 1 through 5 from west to east.  In 1892, 19 years after Samuel Martin died, white real estate speculator, Nathan Bickford purchased and subdivided lots 2 and 3 from Samuel Martin’s son Thomas which resulted in 25 lots that averaged 3,400 square feet and a 26th lot of 1.07 acres. Bickford conveyed a portion of the 1.07 parcel to Louisa Martin, Samuel Martin’s daughter-in-law.  She built a dwelling on her land which she used as a summer cottage.  Like other members of the Martin family, Louisa rented a home in DC for most of the year.  In 1929, the cottage was conveyed to William Edward Wood and his wife Evelyn Carroll Wood.

The Wood family already had a presence in the area. William Edward Wood’s grandfather, Edward Wood, Sr. and his sisters Jane Carroll Ross and Kitty Smith all purchased land from their former slave owner, Margaret Beall.  Edward Wood’s property was on N. Washington Street, just outside the City limits.  His son built a house next door.  William Edward Wood was one of 10 children and he grew up at the N. Washington Street house.

He and his wife purchased 19 Martin’s Lane in 1929 and hired a local builder Raymond LeRoy Baker to enlarge it and make it into a permanent, year-round house.  Baker had learned the business from another local builder, S. Leonard Gray and Baker built several houses in Haiti and Lincoln Park.  Some of these were Alladin catelog homes.  According to a 1988 interview with Baker’s daughter, he used an Alladin design in renovating the house.  This house was likely influenced by Alladin homes, but not a kit house per se.

Staff concluded that this house does not meet the architectural or design significance criteria.  It does not embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction.  It is not the work of a master.  It does not possess high artistic values.  It doesn’t represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction because it is being evaluated as a single site.  It does not represent an established or familiar visual feature of the neighborhood, community or county due to is singular physical characteristic or landscape.

However, Staff finds that for cultural and social significance, the site does meet criterion 1b through its identification with a person or group of persons who influenced society. William Edward Wood owned and occupied the house from 1929 when he expanded it with his second wife, Rosie, until he died in 1980.  Rosie Wood continued to live in the house until she died in 1994.  It continues to be owned by the Wood family.

Mr. Wood worked for the Government Printing Office and at the U.S. Naval Hospital. He was an excellent athlete.  He played baseball on the Odd Fellows team and won a gold medal in track in 1924 from the NY Athletic Association.  He was also a musician and played bugle for the American Legion drum and bugle companies.

He is probably most well known for establishing what has become a long-time and important tradition for Rockville – the Memorial Day Parade in 1944.  Rockville’s Memorial Day parade is the oldest and one of the largest in the metropolitan area.  His idea for the parade originated with his childhood memories of parades held by the Odd Fellows.  These annual parades were established traditions within the black communities of Rockville and were held along Washington Street in the early part of the 20th century.  Mr. Wood revived the tradition and transformed it into a citywide inclusive and much larger celebration that continues today.  He remained involved with organization of the parade and he and his family have been honored at it since.

Mr. Wood is also recognized for his involvement with local civil rights issues.  He was a leader in the desegregation of the Rockville Drive-in which was located within sight of his house and he led other members of his community in successfully retaining the name of Martin’s Lane when it was proposed to be changed to Nelson Street when Woodley Gardens was being developed.

Based on an assessment of the history and architecture of the site, staff finds that this property does meet significance criterion 1b – identification with a person or group of persons who influenced society – based on the civic contributions of William Wood during his ownership and occupancy of the property, 1929-1980.  Staff does not recommend designation of the site, however, as the architectural integrity is not sufficient for a single site historic district.

Reverend Wood agreed that her father, William Wood, had done great things as a resident of Rockville, but she said that his legacy should be for the future of his daughter and his granddaughter.  She said endurance and moving on is the legacy he left.  She said that the Rockville Memorial Day Parade continues to this day and two streets, Martin’s Lane and Wood Lane, continue the legacy of her father.

James Baker, Silver Spring, MD, said that William Wood was an influential man and helped the black community.  He helped found Post 151 of the American Legion and helped black people get jobs with whites.  Mr. Baker joined the American Legion when he was 22 and he remembers marching on Hungerford to desegregate the drive-in and George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi party came into Rockville to try and stop them and was put in jail. The post building of the American Legion was knocked down in 1986.  

There was some discussion about where Post 151 met and the consensus was that they met at Fisherman’s Hall in the 1940s-1950s and before merging with Post 86 which is located on Veirs Mill Road.

Felicia Morris introduced herself as Reverend Wood’s daughter.  She said that she had lived at 19 Martin’s Lane from 1998 to 2003 when the house was deemed structurally unsound and unsafe.  She said the walls were buckling and the roof was falling in.  She said that her grandfather would want her and her mother to have a safe place to call home.

Seldon Higgins, 3471 N. Van Buren, referred to his mother-in-law’s house (Rosalie Campbell) at 375 van Buren which was evaluated by the HDC last year.   He said that the HDC was not sensitized to what the black community wanted – a livable home.

Warren Crutchfield, 20 Martin’s Lane, said that he can see Rev. Wood’s house from his own window and it looks lopsided.  The house floods every time it rains.  He said that it would take $200,000 to rehabilitate the house.  The existing house has served its purpose.  It is more important that Rev. Wood stay in the community and live in a safe house.

Commissioner van Balgooy asked staff what prompted this evaluation and what the HDC was allowed to consider.  Staff responded that the property is the subject of a demolition (though the permit has not yet been filed) and the HDC should consider the adopted significance criteria in evaluating the property for designation.  Commissioner van Balgooy added that the Commission may not take physical condition of the property into consideration at this time.  Condition does not have anything to do with significance of a property.

Commissioner Hunt-McCool said that there had been major changes to the structure.  She was concerned about depriving the community of another asset, meaning Rev. Wood.  Commissioner Moloney stated that the integrity is not there because of all the material changes to the exterior.
Commissioner Hitchcock agreed but said that he was happy to learn more about William Wood’s contributions.  Reverend Wood said that she had nominated her father for the Rockville Remembers Project.

Commissioner van Balgooy said that Mr. Wood was clearly a brave and significant person who made civic contributions during a period of segregation, which is a time that fewer and fewer people remember.   Commissioner van Balgooy said the significance of his house is more problematic because it has been so altered.  He reiterated that architectural and material changes are not the same as physical condition, however.  He noted that if the house had architectural integrity and were designated, the HDC would consider condition in a future demolition request via a Certificate of Approval application.

MOTION: Commissioner Moloney moved to find that 19 Martin’s Lane is not eligible as a single site historic district and to not recommend it to the Mayor and Council for designation. Commissioner Hunt-McCool seconded the motion.

VOTE: 4-0

Chair Hitchcock thanked Reverend Wood for providing additional oral history on her father’s contributions to the City.

V. Discussion/ Updates 

A. National Trust Conference; October 2-5 in Minneapolis.  The Rockville HDC was represented by commissioners Con Hitchcock and Max van Balgooy and staff Robin Ziek. Chair Hitchcock stated that he thought it was a good use of resources to send members to the conference and noted that we seem to be in fairly good shape compared to other communities around the country.  Commission van Balgooy stated that information on the recent past stressed the need for a good survey and a thorough knowledge of what a community has.  He is concerned about the high demolition rate in Rockville and is concerned that we are becoming more reactive than proactive. Commissioner Hitchcock noted that the Minneapolis Library has been designated a historic site.

B. Update on 801 Hungerford (Phillips 66 station) there has been some interest in salvage but not in relocation.

C. MAHDC annual meeting, February 20, 2008, to be hosted by Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission. Topic: substitute materials.

D. Rockville tax credit workshop, is scheduled for the Saturday morning of January 12, 2008 at City Hall.  Staff will be available to assist historic property owners in Rockville with county and state tax credit applications.  There will be a press release with more information forthcoming.

VI. Minutes

• Meeting No. 9-07, August 16, 2007 (annual worksession)
   
  MOTION: Commissioner Hunt-McCool moved to approve the minutes as submitted. Commissioner van Balgooy seconded the motion.
  VOTE: 4-0
   
• Meeting No. 10-07, September 27, 2007
  Commissioner van Balgooy noted that a word in the last line in paragraph 5 of page 5 should read personal instead of personnel, and that this sentence should follow a statement to the effect that it is not uncommon for family members to minimize their own family’s significance because they are often too close to it.  Commissioner Hunt-McCool noted that in paragraph 2 of page 10, she had disagreed with the limited options that had been given to the homeowner regarding the tree, not necessarily with the neighbor who allows the tree to be taken down.
   
  MOTION: Commissioner van Balgooy moved to approve the minutes as amended. Commissioner Hunt-McCool seconded the motion
   
  VOTE: 4-0

VII.   Adjourn 

The HDC adjourned at 8:45 p.m.