Historical Commission

SALEM HISTORICAL COMMISSION MINUTES April 17, 2024 A meeting of the Salem Historical Commission was held on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 6:00PM via Zoom Virtual Meeting. Present were: Mark Meche, Vijay Joyce, Milo Martinez, Rebecca English, Larry Spang (Chair). Staff: Patti Kelleher, Absent: Margarida Goncalves, Kelly Tyler-Lewis. 21 North Street—continuation Jacob Rego submitted an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness for an attic vent. The applicant requested to withdraw without prejudice. The applicant decided against moving forward with any new vents on building. VOTE: Mr. Joyce motioned to accept the request to withdraw application without prejudice. Ms. English seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Martinez, Joyce, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried. 29 Willson Street—continuation Stephen Lovely and Meghan Lovely submitted an application to waive the Demolition Delay Ordinance to demolish more than 50% of a building roof. The applicants requested to withdraw application without prejudice. The applicants decided against expanding the house. VOTE: Mr. Martinez motioned to accept request to withdraw application without prejudice. Mr. Joyce seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Martinez, Joyce, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried. 30 Northey Street—continuation Flora Tonthat submitted an application seeking a waiver of the Demolition Delay Ordinance to demolish more than 50% of garage roof. Claudia Paraschiv, 20 Fowler St, and Flora Tonthat were present. Chair Spang had met with applicants since the last meeting four weeks prior. Ms. Paraschiv thanked members for meeting and working with applicants. Garden area and wide driveway were shown. Current rendering was also shown. Ms. Paraschiv cited inspiration of existing pergola porch on Ms. Tonthat’s property, citing wood siding and emphasis on clear glass/panels. A trellis and garden bed also featured. Trellis was being used to help scale and highlight intended use of structure. A written rationale of design guidelines were also shown for the proposed ADU. Windows on second floor would be in scale with those existing on house. Line drawings were also shown. Fixed panes would feature on roof of garage. Ms. Paraschiv also exhibited past elevations/drawings from past meetings.  Salem Historical Commission meeting minutes April 17, 2024 Page 2 Chair Spang questioned retaining three existing bays of garage. Chair Spang questioned whether more mullions could be added to the windows to break down their scales. Ms. Tonthat was open to mullions though noted that main house does not currently have any (only on lower addition). Mr. Joyce thanked applicants for continued work. Mr. Joyce favored the new revisions over past iterations, expressing favor for seeing enough of the original house blending in with the new. Mr. Joyce spoke to the window style of main house with bronze cladded windows, clapboards on the addition just like the main house. Ms. Paraschiv cited budgetary constraints on some of Mr. Joyce’s recommendations, such as adding rafter tails on top of trellis. Clapboards were verified to feature on outside of building. Mr. Meche also lauded the applicants’ responsiveness to past feedback from the Commission. Mr. Meche said that the bars on outside of glass seemed compositionally favorable. Mr. Meche also noted that rafter tails were his original suggestion, but the rafter tails would need to be real. Ms. English agreed with Mr. Meche and Mr. Joyce and asked why middle mullion was different. Ms. Paraschiv noted that the doors would be swinging like French doors on the ADU. Mr. Martinez noted that his previous position had not changed; i.e. taking design cues from pergola did not make sense, nor did pushing doors sideways rather than placing them in the middle. Ms. Paraschiv noted that framing would be easier as drawn. Ms. Tonthat noted that if the doors were moved, they would not be open-able on the inside. Ms. Paraschiv also noted that livability of interior was a major factor in placement of outer doors. Mr. Joyce questioned if a water table could be added all around the ADU to further correspond to main house. Mr. Meche questioned how the corners (which are CMU) would be dealt with. Ms. Paraschiv noted that the corners of ADU would be somewhat visible though obfuscated by corners of main house. Public comment: Pamela Hartford strongly lauded how nice and strong the new drawings looked as well as new framing devices. Chair Spang noted that removal of roof to create second floor was the matter to discuss before the Commission. Chair Spang also noted that the property is not in a local historic district but is in a National Register District. Ms. Paraschiv and Ms. Tonthat were also pleased with where the designs had gone. Mr. Joyce noted that “Making new designs fit” was the mission of the Commission. VOTE: Mr. Meche motioned to find existing garage structure historically significant based on its being a contributing structure to National Register district. Ms. English seconded the motion. Roll Call: Meche, Martinez, Joyce, English, Spang Meche were in favor and the motion so carried. VOTE: Ms. English motioned to waive Demolition Delay for purposes of removing roof, building a second floor, and building new building based on drawings. Mr. Meche seconded the motion. Roll Call: Meche, Martinez (no), Joyce, English, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried.  Salem Historical Commission meeting minutes April 17, 2024 Page 3 3 Smith Street—continuation Megan Valentine submitted an application requesting to waive the Demolition Delay Ordinance to demolish more than 50% of roof on house older than 100 years. VOTE: Mr. Joyce motioned to continue the application to the next meeting. Mr. Martinez seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Joyce, Martinez, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried. 29 Washington Square North—Bertram Home—continuation The Bertram Home submitted an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to replace windows. The applicants requested a continuation to May 1 meeting. VOTE: Mr. Joyce motioned to continue the application. Mr. Martinez seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Martinez, Joyce, Spang. 186 Federal Street Denise Carria submitted an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness for garage rear porch enclosure. Jim and Denise Carria were present. Mr. Carria noted plan to enclose rear porch to make a three-season room. Chair Spang clarified that the existing openings were going to be in-filled. Mr. Meche clarified that these would be walls enclosing the space with wood and insulation. Ms. Kelleher showed a close-up view of the space’s visibility from a public way. A small portion of enclosure wall would be visible from one side of the house. Mr. Carria noted that the siding would be clapboards. Chair Spang proposed running clapboards up what was identified as “fascia plate” in the drawing on left side of house. Mr. Carria noted that windows planned for installation would be low enough on wall as to not be visible from street. Mr. Meche advised exercising diligence in converting porch to occupied living space. Mr. Carria noted that previously approved Essex Green would be used, or Mint Green to match the house. Chair Spang and Mr. Martinez recommended painting to match white trim of garage. Mr. Joyce recommended using smooth-side-out clapboards. No public comment. VOTE: Ms. English motioned to approve with the conditions that clapboards be brought up and into sloped section of roof and windows not be visible from street (otherwise applicants must return for approval on specific windows) and paint color white to match garage trim. Mr. Joyce seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Joyce, Martinez, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried.  Salem Historical Commission meeting minutes April 17, 2024 Page 4 8 Gifford Court Michael Scott submitted an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to replace wood siding with composite siding. The applicant was not present. Ms. Kelleher showed the application materials. Ms. Kelleher noted that the house was once covered in asphalt siding which had been removed. The owner was seeking to replace all clapboard siding with Hardie composite. Chair Spang questioned if cornerboard was missing or featured. Ms. Kelleher noted that a very delicate trimboard is featured. Chair Spang questioned if the clapboards fully needed to be replaced. Ms. Kelleher recommended a site visit. VOTE: Mr. Meche motioned to continue the application to afford time for a site visit. Ms. English seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Joyce, Martinez, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried. 1 Pierce Road John and Jo Eckman submitted an application to request to waive the Demolition Delay Ordinance to demolish house older than 50 years. Correction: this application was for the garage, not the house. Paul Sipe, contractor for applicants, was present. Ms. Kelleher showed photograph of garage and noted that house had been inventoried (1880s) without mention of garage. View of property from the street was also shown (side view from Buchanan). Mr. Sipe noted that Pierce Road was an unconstructed road (a “paper street”) and noted that the applicants’ mailing address is actually 14 Buchanan. Mr. Sipe noted that a new replacement garage was planned, and that the existing was approximately 3” out of compliance with setback requirements (the new one would be compliant and pulled away from neighbor’s house a bit further). The new garage would have a second floor. Drawings were shown. In terms of color, the new construction was slated to be all white with Essex Green trim. An addition would also be added to main house which had been through the Conservation Commission, according to Mr. Sipe. The whole body of the main house would have shutters added to match historic photos of home. Chair Spang commented on how obscured the existing garage was from street view. Mr. Sipe noted that the garage was approximately 75 yards from the street. Mr. Sipe spoke to the applicant’s strong commitment to maintaining historical appropriateness of property. Mr. Meche questioned when the garage was built. Mr. Sipe did not know, but described features of the garage, surmising that elements of its construction indicated 1970s work. No public comment.  Salem Historical Commission meeting minutes April 17, 2024 Page 5 Mr. Martinez asked for confirmation that the garage did not feature in a historic district, which Ms. Kelleher confirmed. VOTE: Mr. Joyce motioned to find that the garage not historically significant. Mr. Martinez seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Joyce, Martinez, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried. 80 Willson Street Ramon Tejada submitted an application to request to waive the Demolition Delay Ordinance to demolish house and garage older than 50 years. Ramon Tejada was present. Image of house was shown. Ms. Kelleher noted that history on the property was scant other than that the land was subdivided in 1947, with likely construction date of approximately 1950. Proposed plans and drawings were shown for existing buildings and proposed new constructions. Mr. Tejada noted that the existing house sits sideways toward Willson going up towards the high school. Chair Spang questioned whether the house and garage should be separated for the purposes of finding the structures historically significant. Ms. Kelleher noted that the structures were likely built at the same time. Mr. Martinez clarified that the property was not in a historic district, which Ms. Kelleher affirmed. Mr. Tejada questioned whether trees on property could be removed. Mr. Martinez and Mr. Meche noted that street trees a certain distance into private land (purportedly 20 feet) may be subject to review. Ms. Kelleher advised Mr. Tejada to clarify with the Building Department or Tree Warden and encouraged retaining trees as much as possible. VOTE: Mr. Martinez motioned to find the property not historically significant. Ms. English seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Joyce, Martinez, Spang were in favor and the motion so carried. 36 Derby Street The applicants submitted a request to amend existing Certificate of Appropriateness for paint colors. The applicants were not present. Commission members discussed options for making further progress with the applicants, who had previously altered paint colors on home without an application. Commission members were not inclined to grant further alteration requests without further discussions with applicants. Ms. Kelleher noted that a motion to continue was not needed on this item. Other Business Minutes Minutes were reviewed for March 6, 2024.  Salem Historical Commission meeting minutes April 17, 2024 Page 6 VOTE: Ms. English motioned to accept the minutes for March 6, 2024. Mr. Meche seconded the motion. Roll Call: English, Meche, Joyce, Martinez, Spang (abstained) were in favor and the motion so carried. Coach House Inn Ms. Kelleher noted that applicants were told by the City that they needed to install a full sprinkler system. A fire department connection on building would be required. Ms. Kelleher showed photographs of property, indicating where fire hose connection would be installed. The planned connection needs to be facing a street. The fire department agreed to place the connection in back of property rather than on front façade. Ms. Kelleher also showed what the connection would look like through other precedent installations. Ms. Kelleher noted that no alarms or bells would be installed, in response to Ms. English’s question. Ms. Kelleher inquired whether the Commission would approve this as a Certificate of Non- Applicability or in the “minor change” category. Mr. Martinez and Ms. English were more in favor of categorizing this alteration as a “minor change.” Winter Island Fort Pickering Tour/Walk A project examining erosion at Winter Island and planning stabilization of coastal bank (and Fort Pickering) was described by Ms. Kelleher. Mandatory Training for Certified Local Government New training on National Register listings will be required. Ms. Kelleher said that at least one Commission member needs to undergo training. Ms. Kelleher noted that the trainings would occur online. Salem Common Lights Ms. Kelleher noted that some lights on the Salem Common were changed by the City as a trial run. Ms. Kelleher noted having received numerous inquiries and complaints about the alterations. John Giardi of the City’s electrical department had been notified of negative feedback from public. Ms. Kelleher inquired as to replacing these lights in kind. Mr. Martinez noted that this is the second time this has occurred, i.e. the entire lantern head has been changed. Ms. English questioned why the lanterns were changed. An image of the replacement was shown, which featured frosted glass (the existing are clear) and LED lights. The existing canopy was also glass, Mr. Martinez noted, whereas the new one was solid black matte in appearance, and more residential. Chair Spang questioned if the alterations were made as part of converting to LED. A side-by-side juxtaposition was shown of previous and recently installed lights to demonstrate marked differences. Mr. Martinez questioned if new bulbs could be installed in existing lanterns. Ms. Kelleher noted that the new LED installations may give off more light.  Salem Historical Commission meeting minutes April 17, 2024 Page 7 Adjournment VOTE: Ms. English motioned to adjourn. Mr. Joyce seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion so carried. The meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM. Respectfully submitted, Dan Graham, Historical Commission Clerk