Letter: Barrington needs to preserve historic homes

Posted 4/26/16

To the editor:

Last week's article on the impending demolition of the Elisha Potter House at 57 Clarke Road prominently featured a photograph of the house's plaque from the Barrington …

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Letter: Barrington needs to preserve historic homes

Posted

To the editor:

Last week's article on the impending demolition of the Elisha Potter House at 57 Clarke Road prominently featured a photograph of the house's plaque from the Barrington Preservation Society. 

Since our founding in 1965, Barrington Preservation Society (BPS) has awarded over 170 plaques to historic houses in Barrington. Unlike 18 other Rhode Island towns, Barrington has no Historic District Commission nor any statutory protections for historic properties. BPS is a non-profit, volunteer organization, and the plaques we award do not confer any obligations on owners of plaqued property.

The destruction of plaqued houses harms the community. 

Good old houses cannot reappear once they are gone. A neighborhood defined by a quorum of historic houses loses its charm as they disappear. In recent years the soft housing market gave us a respite from a prior wave of 

opportunistic teardowns, but it appears that this phenomenon is returning.

Two years ago, one of fewer than a dozen remaining pre-Revolutionary farmhouses in Barrington was demolished: the James Bowen House at 24 New Meadow Road. Victorian cottages like the Elisha Potter House are not quite so rare yet, but every loss makes them scarcer. The Elisha Potter house of 1873 is a local landmark with its charming wraparound bracketed porch. This small Victorian summer house was built on three lots of the Pardon Clarke Farm, "bounded southerly by the beach," laid out in 1855 when the introduction of railroad service to Barrington made our shore neighborhoods desirable getaways for city folk.

At different times Barrington residents have advocated for town-wide measures to encourage the preservation of historic houses. Perhaps the time is right for Barrington residents to consider such options again. 

One possibility, found in several Rhode Island towns, is a demolition delay ordinance for historic houses (either those plaqued by BPS, or those meeting other objective criteria agreeable to the town), which would encourage property owners to seek teardown alternatives, like working with others who might purchase and move a worthy structure if it is no longer wanted on-site. 

Another possible preservation incentive is a transparent assessment category resulting in a reduced tax burden for historic houses. Both measures would recognize the value to the town as a whole provided by well-preserved historic houses.

Barrington is a beautiful and desirable community, in part because of our diverse stock of historic houses. We need to work together to keep it so.

Nathaniel Taylor

Barrington

Mr. Taylor is president of the Barrington Preservation Society. 

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