HomeMy WebLinkAboutHCD-1.10DATE: July 10, 1995
TO: Historic Landmark Commission and City Council
FROM: Stephen C. Richardson, Planning Director
SUBJECT: Request to consider an application for a historic preservation loan for exterior
rehabilitation of a residential structure with an HC-L Designation.
FILE: HCD-1.10
STAFF REPORT
The Planning Director recommends approval of this request in the amount of
$112000.
The applicants have requested $37,546.50. This request is for exterior work only.
i The property received an HC-L designation in March, 1994. The applicants will need
to acquire a certificate of appropriateness for restoration of the exterior of the house.
At the time of the designation, the work that was proposed was within the
specifications of state guidelines.
The house is known as the Stewart Smith House and was constructed circa 1902,
shortly after the second Spindletop Boom by one of Beaumont's most prominent
businessmen. The structure is of the Colonial Revival style and is a good example
of that style.
Provided the loan amount is approved at $11,000, the rate of repayment will be
$305.55 monthly for a period or thirty-six (36) months.
Exhibits are attached.
i
SPARE BEAUMONT
DESCRIPTION NO. D--11
DIVISION D MAP NO. SE 2-4
ADDRESS 1792 Broadway —
ORIGINAL USE. 10 residential
® single
❑ multiple
❑ commercial / institutional
❑ industrial
PRESENT USE : ® residential
❑ commercial / institutional
❑ industrial
CONSTRUCTION: ® Frame
❑ masonry
❑ veneer
❑ other
INFORMATION : available
STATE HISTORIC RESOURCES INVENTORY
I' PERIOD SUBDIVISION VT
THEMATIC LISTING AAV
EVALUATION
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
ARCHITECTURAL
RELATION TO N
MODIFICATIONS
❑ national
20
❑ state
13
® local
10
STYLE
❑ excellent
40
® good
30
❑ Fair
20
❑ non- descript
0
EIGHBORHOOD
❑ residential grouping
30
❑ commercial grouping
30
® individual
10
® minor
10
❑ moderate
S
❑ extensive
0
TOTAL 60
OTHER See Supplemental Information
BKH :669
a
Inventory
j NO. D-11
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION s
1792 Broadway -(Stuart Smith Home)
r -
When the Stuart Smiths moved to Beaumont from Tyler,
Texas in 1900 or 1901 they built a small cottage where
the large 2-story home now stands. The cottage was
moved next door around 1910 when the larger home was
built. Mr. Smith was a prominent attorney and politician.
Mrs. Smith, a naturalist, designed the house and land-
scaped the grounds with plants native to East Texas. All
of the fireplace mantels in the house were designed by
a Norwegian cabinetmaker.
SOURCE: Beaumont Journal, July 14, 1961
Beaumont Enterprise, July 1, 1973
Beaumont Enterprise, March 22, 1933
BEAUMONT, TEXAS HISTORIC SI7IES INVENTORY FORM - BEAUMONT HISTORICAL LANDMARK COMMISSION
JEF
1. County JEFFERSON 5.. USGS Quad No. 3094-111
City/Rural BEAUMONT BMT
6. Date: Factual 1902
2. Name Stuart Smith House
Address 1792 Broadway 7. Architect/Builder
Contractor
Site No. 435
Est.
3. Owner Birdwell, Jesamine B. Style/Type Colonial Revival
Address 2395 Gladys. Beaumont 77702-1314
4. original Use DOMESTIC Sin le Dwellln
4. Block/Lot McFaddin 2 Lots 4-6 Block 11 SE 2-4 Present Use COMMERCE AND _TRADE/Warehouse
10. Description:
Two-story gable end front with asphalt shingle roof, two corbelled brick exterior end chimneys. Two symmetrically
spaced pedimented dormers with rounded arch, multipane sash windows. Central pedimented portico supported by four
massive Doric columns, two Doric pilasters. Fanlight (boarded) in pediment. Central wood door with twelve -light
sidelights, fanlight (boarded), and paneled wood surround. On either side of the portico on the first story is one
set of three windows in a Palladian motif: one nine -over -nine sash with fanlight between two six -over -six sash.
Quadruple six/six sash on second story above entry. Two symmetrically spaced nine/nine sash on second story on
either side of portico.
11. Present Condition Good. The house is structurally sound and aenerally well maintained. Interior architectural detail
are reportedly intact, but the building's use as a local funeral home's casket warehouse is regretable
12. Significance:
The house is a very good early example of the Colonial Revival style and is representative of hones built by wealthy
Beaumont families at the turn.of the century. Built by one of Beuamont's most prominent businessmen after the first
Spindletop boom, the house remains in the original owner's family.
13
14
Relationship to Site: Original Moved Date (Describe Original Site)
Bibliography 15. Informant
16. Recorder D. Bush Date 08-02-8
PHOTO DATA
Black and White 35 mm negative
YEAR DRIRt ROIL FREE ROLL FREE
84 1 1 14 1 21 to 14 1 22
VIEW:
RECORDED BY: D. Bush
DATE:
GENERAL INFORMATION
} APPLICANT: Rette W. Browning and Les E. Warren
PROPERTY OWNER: Same
LOCATION:
1792 Broadway
EXISTING ZONING: HI (Heavy Industrial)
EXISTING LAND USE: Single Family Residential
SURROUNDING LAND USES:
NORTH:
Commercial
EAST:
Residential
SOUTH:
Residential
WEST:
Residential
SURROUNDING ZONING:
HI
HI
HI
HI
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: Conservation and Revitalization
WiROMM SeAe
Mr. Steve Richardson, City Planner
Beaumont Landmark Commission
Post Office Box 3827
Beaumont, Texas 77704
Dear Mr. Richardson:
605 PRINCE STREET
ALEXANDRIA. VIRGINIA 22314
703.649.6521 / 4086
- FAK- 7M-544-1720
74
June 28, 1995
-JUc 3"Ons,
This is written in support of granting the Stuart Smith House on
Broadway Avenue, Beaumont, landmark status, which would make it
an appropriate object of grant funding in its current restoration.
The Smith House has long been a familiar Beaumont landmark. I have
been aware of it surely for forty --five of my fifty-five years and
have never known it to be maintained. Yet it is a beautiful house.
Architecturally it ranks with the old Norvell House 'on Fifth Street
and the Hinchee House on Park Street, in being ahead of its time in
Beaumont. Designed in the formal Colonial Revival-- which one might
call Southern Colonial-- it lacks the Victorian reflections of the
McFaddin House or the vanished Frank Keith House or even the most
remarkable of all, the Valentine Weiss House.
One might expect the Smith House for its building year of 1910 to
be along a street in Atlanta or Richmond. Unlike any other house of
its period in Beaumont, its incorporation of the motifs and romance
of the past takes a traditional, academic course; there is an
effort in the design of this house to actually look like a house of
the 1820s or 1840s. It is therefore architecturally ahead of its
time, for it would not be until the 1920s that we knew this in
Beaumont, in such houses as the two Priddie houses (one still
stands at 675 Fifth Street). Undeniably it is one of the most
significant examples of residential architecture in Beaumont.
Add to this the fact of its remarkable resurection. To be frank, I
never thought it would be saved. We looked at in 1966 as a possible
project for the Beaumont Heritage Society, but it seemed too big a
bite for us.
Historically the Stuart Smith House is a worthy monument, for its
occupants Mr. and Mrs. Smith were fascinating people and even
fascinating Beaumonters. Smith himself was the sort of smart man
Beaumont attracted in the early oil days. Intellectual and
scholarly, he had a large library that filled the left hand rooms
of the house, dark, mysterious law tomes that nestled behind ripply
William m Seale
Page 2, to Mr. Richardson
Beaumont, Texas
glass doors. This learned gentleman was known all over East Texas
as a brilliant lawyer. He named among his friends and associates
such men as Colonel Edward House, advisor and "king maker" of
Woodrow Wilson, and of course, all the luminaries of,the Spindletop
era.
Mrs. Smith joined her husband in an interest in books, antiques,
and history. They collected Federal and early Victorian furnishings
for the house on Broadway while most Beaumonters were still buying
new Golden Oak and overscaled mahogany. Horticulture was a great
hobby of Mrs. Smith. She owned a "colonial" log cabin on Village
Creek (long before that was popular) and in the woods collected
wild plants for her cabin garden and also for her house on
Broadway. Her weekly trips "to the woods" began in the 1920s and
extended into the early fifties, at which time, because of her
health, she rented the cabin to some of her younger gardening
friends. She survived Mr. Smith by many years.
The house stood empty for awhile after her death. It was rented at
one point, then for many years Williams Funeral Home used it for
the storage of coffins. On the death of Mrs. Smith's niece,
Jessamin Birdwell, it was slated for demolition. In response to
warm public protest, it was reluctantly put on the'market, but to
everyone's surprise, sold at once, to be restored.
I can't think of a place better qualified in Beaumont for the
highest status of historic site. Moreover, if money is available to
help with this project, it would be well -spent.
I'll be in Jasper for most -of August and would be delighted to
speak with you further about this, should you be interested.
Sincerely,
In Jasper (409) 384-5269
cc. Mrs. Jack B. Osborne
Mr. Rette Browning