St. Charles Pushes to Get Recognition for Historic Areas

A survey of parts of the Midtown and Commons areas of St. Charles has found 11 structures that could apply to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

The survey was the initial step in a four-phase process to getting Midtown and Commons neighborhoods listed as National Historic Districts. Two other areas of the city, Main Street and Frenchtown, are already on the federal list.

Karen Bode Baxter, a preservation consultant hired by the city, presented the results from the first part of the process to the Landmarks Board Tuesday night. 

Study Finds Most Buildings Have Historic Significance

The Phase One area of the survey was bordered on the north by Clark Street running between Fifth and Third streets but at Jefferson, the area shifts to between Fifth and Seventh streets.

The survey examined 160 principal buildings and found that 115 of them were “contributing” structures that might help the area gain the national status, most of them single-family homes. Another 40 secondary outbuildings were found to be contributing as well.

Factors looked at revolve around such areas as architecture and construction, historical significance and archaeological significance.

Baxter did sound a note of caution for the Landmarks Board. She said as much as 30 percent of the surveyed area was non-contributing already, an important fact since it puts the city close to the cutoff point used by the federal government.

“It’s not written in stone but normally if you’ve got one-third of the properties that have lost their historic integrity or one-third of the properties are no longer historic-looking then you no longer really have continuity to have an historic district,” she said after the meeting. “We’re right at that, either because of alterations to buildings which are hiding the historic character or because they’ve been replaced with modern buildings, additions or parking lots.”

Common alterations of concern include new siding or replacement windows as well as changes to decorative elements, rooflines or wall materials

Demolitions are also an issue as modern buildings go up on the former sites of historic structures thus creating noticeable gaps in the historical significance of the area.

“You can really see that on First Capitol,” she said. “There are a lot of ‘missing teeth.’”

Landmarks Board Works to Protect Historic Area

Board member Tom Kuypers also noted the problem of demolitions.

“It was interesting that back when I first started on this board we were losing one 19th century building per month,” he told the group. “We’re now losing one per year so we’re getting better.”

Baxter warned that the city should be vigilant in protecting its architecturally historic heritage.

“If we don’t hold the line on some of these design review issues and look at what’s authentic to these buildings, then we’re going to lose the potential to have an historic district,” she said. “That not only affects that one individual property owner who may want to put up some non-historic siding or non-historic windows. It impacts everybody else in the neighborhood.”

Home owners who live in the historic or extended historic district must get approval from the Landmarks Board to make changes to their homes, such as painting, adding fences, expanding a porch or adding new siding. If the Landmarks Board fails to approve a proposal, the applicant can plead his case to the City Council, which can overrule the Landmarks Board's decision.

Board member John Hanneke said the council and the Landmarks Board didn’t always see “eye-to-eye” though he said much of that tension was normal.

“We have a charter to do one thing and that’s to preserve historic integrity of buildings in the city,” he said. “The council has a much broader thing they have to do. They have to look at economic development and all kinds of things.”

Baxter recommended to the board that the city should wait until at least two more phases of the project are done before applying for federal designation. Phase Two of the effort is already underway and slated for completion by next summer.