I sent this note to CMs Frey and Bender.
Hello CMs Frey and Bender,
I'm sure you're inundated with messages about the Doran Dinkytown hotel
proposal. I live in the Wedge so what I have to say is from a city-wide
perspective and I hope brings something a bit new to the conversation.
Generally, I'm ambivalent about the development itself. Maybe a hotel
would be good for Dinkytown, maybe not. I'm also ambivalent about
demolition of the two commercial buildings. I don't think they're in
any way historically significant, though I admit I'd rather see
development of other parking lots/empty spaces first before we go tear
down a lot of stuff. That's more a general statement than a critique of
this particular project.
My attention is on the house on 13th Ave. SE. There's a good picture of
it here:
http://tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/01/2 ... eservation
Apparently it is 127 years old, which in itself is not noteworthy from a
preservation perspective. However, I believe the design is unique in
the city and we're certainly lost most of our housing from that area.
While we have a lot of Four Square houses in the city, none look quite
like this one with its wide eaves, steeply pitched front gable, paired
corbels and original windows. The latter in particular are quite rare
even for a house 40 years newer than this one.
I think the property deserves some investigation. I'd like to know if
the exterior moldings are original. If so, that's a *very* rare find in
our housing stock. If the interior trim and detailing is mostly intact
I think this house is absolutely worth saving. Perhaps Doran can move
it somewhere if they can't work around it.
As an owner of a 100+ year-old house, I know how rare it is to find
something intact and how difficult it is to restore things that have
been lost. I'm not saying we definitely should save this house but we
should absolutely do some research and find out what's there before we
tear it down.