All homes on Irving Place could be added to the town’s historic inventory. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s newly reconstituted Historic Preservation Commission begun mulling whether to add an entire street of homes to its portfolio Wednesday night.
Members also faced a quandary: what, if anything, to do about a Washington Street Historic District homeowner who removed a slate roof this week to replace it with asphalt shingles.
A work crew removing the slate roof at 99-101 Wallace Street Wednesday. (Click to enlarge.)
Seated in February and still wrapping their heads around a new ordinance they’ll administer, HPC members first heard a presentation by Fair Haven Historic Preservation Commission Chairman Art Pavluk, who said that body’s use of “informal applications” helps residents understand the review process before seeking a final OK.
“They come in, they have no idea what they have to prove, what they have to provide,” Pavluk said. “I find the informal application procedure to very helpful to at least get people to perfect their proofs.”
The HPC then took up a couple of suggestions from member and vice chairperson Marjorie Cavalier. One was to extend the borough’s the borough’s inventory of historic properties to include all 18 properties on Irving Place, between Broad Street and Maple Avenue.
Another was to add the Globe Hotel, on East Front Street, and the Red Bank Public Library, on West Front, to the inventory.
The Globe, whose bar and dining room were rebuilt after a fire in 1936, has roots in the 1840s, Cavalier said. The library was once home to local industrialist Sigmund Eisner.
“It’s a beautiful street, and the houses are of a similar era, but different,” Cavalier said of Irving Place. “And only three houses are designated on that street.”
Property owners would be notified and able to comment on the recommendation as it advanced, she said.
The inclusion of any properties under the aegis of the preservation ordinance would ultimately require approval by the borough council to go into effect, Donato said.
Irving Place homeowner Dan Riordan said his house is in the historic element of the borough Master Plan.
“I hope part of your review plan is to trust homeowners on Irving Place,” he said. “Having a historic home costs a lot of money.”
Community Planning Director Shawna Ebanks, who also serves as secretary to the HPC, said she would get the ball rolling on the proposed addition.
The commission also discussed a matter raised by Chairman Liam Collins: the removal, earlier in the day, of the slate portion of a roof at 99-101 Wallace Street.
The work, he said, had not come before the HPC. The house is owned by Robert C. Barrett of Freehold, according to property records.
Collins asked commission attorney Michele Donato how the commission might respond.
“First thing of all, you’re not an enforcement agency,” said Donato. “The unfortunate part is that somebody didn’t know, should have known, whatever they did, they did not come before you.”
Slate roofs, she said, are “perhaps the most difficult” issue of preservation, because they’re so costly. They came sometimes saddle an owner with a $150,000 bill, she said.
“What you can do, amongst yourselves, is try to decide: what would you do if they did come to us first?” she said.
Riordan said he’d had to spend “a ton of money” with a specialty contractor to replace the windows on his house. But if he had a slate roof that would have to be replaced with slate, “I’d sell,” he said.
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