NEWS: 7 Staten Island Buildings Calendered by LPC
From the Staten Island Advance
Record 7 Island buildings to be nominated as landmarks
Preservation panel pushes to protect historic structures from wave of demolition
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
By KAREN O’SHEA
ADVANCE STAFF WRITER
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected today to nominate for landmark status a record seven borough buildings at one shot: Five 19th-century houses, a tiny Folk Victorian storefront in Tottenville and a former factory in Elm Park.
The clustered nominations, including what was once one of the world’s largest manufacturers of varnish and enamel on Richmond Terrace, signals a push by Landmarks to grant protective historic status to structures identified by the commission during a boroughwide survey conducted over the last few years.
The internal agency review of hundreds of buildings on the Island was prompted by a spike in the demolition of historic homes here and later criticized after a builder bought and then vandalized a house that had been identified on the survey.
“This is the first product coming out of the survey and all our efforts,” Robert Tierney, chairman of the Landmarks Commission, said of the plan to calendar the buildings for landmarks consideration at a commission meeting today in Manhattan.
“They all carry with them sort of interesting stories … and are part of the richness of the history of Staten Island,” he said of the buildings.
The vote to calendar means that the fate of the structures will be considered at future public hearings. It also prevents demolition of the buildings while they are being considered for landmarking.
SECOND EMPIRE HOUSE
The nominated buildings include an 1880s Second Empire house on Bayview Avenue, Prince’s Bay; an 1850s Gothic Revival-style home on Amboy Road, Pleasant Plains; an 1850s house on Arthur Kill Road, Tottenville; a 19th-century villa on Meisner Avenue, Lighthouse Hill, and an 1840s farmhouse on Amboy Road in Great Kills. A tiny turn-of-the-century Victorian storefront on Main Street in Tottenville and the large factory on Richmond Terrace in Elm Park, the former Standard Varnish Works, also were nominated.
A few of the seven buildings to be reviewed by Landmarks were identified by historian Barnett Shepherd, a former director of Historic Richmond Town, who was hired by the Preservation League of Staten Island to survey historic homes in Tottenville.
The town became the touchstone for a debate on the landmarking process after a builder who bought a 19th-century home in 2005 vandalized the house upon learning the commission was considering designating the house a city landmark. The builder later apologized for his bad behavior and won Landmarks approval to restore the house and build homes at the rear of the property. Landmarks, which identified the house in its survey before the builder bought it, promised to be more proactive in designating homes.
Despite that, the 1860s Amboy Road house, now a city landmark, remains in serious disrepair today.
“I feel for the neighbors who live there,” Tierney said yesterday. “Landmark properties do not generally create those kinds of issues, and it’s very unfortunate it happened. We are addressing it as much as we can and as intensively we can and [are] trying to work it out.”
Tierney said Landmarks plans to nominate other houses and is also likely to consider another historic district for the borough, although he declined to say where.
James Ferreri, president of the Preservation League of Staten Island, welcomed the attention but said the commission had still declined to landmark several significant homes here. Most recently, the commission rejected a request to landmark a house on Jewett Avenue in Westerleigh that was built by the founders of Prohibition Park there. A developer bought the house and plans to tear it down to make way for four, two-family homes.
“I think they should listen to Staten Islanders who live here and know the significance of the buildings. We don’t capriciously send them [nominations]. We send them buildings that have vital significance to the neighborhoods they are in,” said Ferreri, who has accused Landmarks of being afraid to take on developers.
It’s a charge Tierney denies.
Robert R. Wakeham owns a house on Lighthouse Hill described by the commission as a rare and fine example of the mid-19th-century villas that once dotted the Island’s hillsides. Wakeham agreed, saying yesterday he hoped his house of 29 years, one of the seven under consideration, would be landmarked for posterity.
Joseph Diamond, owner of the 1840s farmhouse on Amboy Road in Great Kills, felt differently. Diamond said he was concerned that landmarking would mean added regulations — changes to the exterior of a landmark must be approved by the commission — without any help in the form of tax abatements or compensation. He said he was sympathetic to the preservation movement, but concerned that his home was being singled out.
“If the developers are doing this to Staten Island or the city, why is the burden [being put] on me and other homeowners?”
Karen O’Shea covers real estate news for the Advance. She may be reached at [email protected] .
© 2007 Staten Island Advance
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