HPS takes another step toward National Register

Monday, August 9, 2010

GREENCASTLE -- The Heritage Preservation Society (HPS) of Putnam County sponsored effort to add three Historic Residential Districts to the National Register (NR) will reach an early milestone Wednesday evening.

The expert hired by HPS, John Warner, will provide insight into what is involved with the process to develop nomination packets at a presentation to be given at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Greencastle City Hall.

Warner has conducted background research into two of the three proposed districts, the Eastern Enlargement and the Northwood Districts. He will provide anecdotal examples of homes that would qualify as contributing and ones that would not and provide some elaboration on those definitions.

This public session is the first of two public sessions for each of the districts. A second session will be conducted sometime in early 2011, after he has concluded his assessment and prior to submission of the NR packets to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology (DHPA).

Between now and the finalization of the NR packets, Warner will be looking at every building in each district and authenticating each contributing structure. He will only be looking at the outside of each building from public access areas. He will not need to look at or document any inside details of the buildings for this project.

The Eastern Enlargement Historic District is the largest of the proposed districts. It contains approximately 243 resources. It is roughly bounded by Locust and College Streets on the west, Washington Street on the north, Wood Street on the east and Anderson Street on the south. The final boundaries are still to be determined.

This historic district was identified in the 1982 Putnam County Interim Report. The area currently proposed includes a few additional blocks adjacent to and northwest of the area that has been traditionally referred as the Eastern Enlargement.

This neighborhood consists of late 19th to early 20th century residential homes and buildings of prominent professional, business and academic citizens of Greencastle.

This area basically encompasses a four-block wide and five-block long stretch of housing that lays between the center of DePauw University campus on the west and the university president's home "the Elms" on the east.

Many of the homes are large with high ceilings, large porches, iron fences and carriage houses.

Another of the three proposed districts and the second to be addressed at Wednesday evening's session is the Northwood Historic District, which contains approximately 163 resources and is roughly bounded by Hillsdale Avenue and Northwood Blvd on the west, Shadowlawn Ave on the north, North Arlington Street to the east and East Franklin Street to the south.

This district was not identified in the 1982 Putnam County Interim Report, but several individual homes were noted as "scattered sites" eligible for listing.

During a site visit by the Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology (DHPA) it was noted that this area retained an extremely high degree of integrity and bore resemblance to the Fall Creek area in Indianapolis.

This neighborhood consists primarily of early to mid-20th century residential resources of various period-revival styles.

National Register listing is a rigorous process. Nominations must clearly demonstrate that the neighborhood is historically significant. Numerous studies have shown that such listing generally encourages both current residents and future residents to preserve the historic fabric of the neighborhood.

National Register status makes tax credits available to owners of contributing properties and makes it easier to market the neighborhood to people who want to invest in a historic community.

This project is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service's Historic Preservation Fund administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.

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