HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 04/01/2008 - SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE NO. 039, 2008, DESIGNA ITEM NUMBER: 12
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY DATE: April 1, 2008
FORT COLLINS CITY COUNCIL STAFF: Karen McWilliams
SUBJECT
Second Reading of Ordinance No. 039, 2008,Designating the Bradley House, 1609 Remington, as
a Fort Collins Landmark Pursuant to Chapter 14 of the City Code.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends adoption of this Ordinance on Second Reading.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Ordinance No. 039,2008,unanimously adopted on First Reading on March 18,2008,designates the
Bradley House, 1609 Remington,as a Fort Collins Landmark. The owner of the property,Timothy
Sharkey, is initiating this request.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Copy of First Reading Agenda Item Summary - March 18, 2008.
(w/o original attachments)
ATTACHMENT 1
ITEM NUMBER: 20
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY DATE: March 18, 2008
FORT COLLINS CITY COUNCIL TAIW: Karen McWilliams
SUBJECT
First Reading of Ordinance No. 039, 2008, Designating the Bradley House, 1609 Remington, as a
Fort Collins Landmark Pursuant to Chapter 14 of the City Code.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommend adoption of the Ordinance on First Reading.
At a public hearing held on January 23, 2008, the Landmark Preservation Commission voted
unanimously to recommend designation of this property, under Designation Standard Three.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Bradley House is eligible for recognition as a Fort Collins Landmark under Standard Three.
Constructed in 1926 by Isaac C. and Frankie M. Bradley, the house embodies many distinctive
characteristics of the Craftsman Bungalow architectural style of the early twentieth century. This
property contains a historic dwelling and a recently constructed garage. The garage does not
contribute to the significance of the property, and is not a part of the landmark application.
BACKGROUND
The origins of the Craftsman Bungalow can be traced to the American and English Arts and Crafts
Movements of the 1880s and 1890s. While England was embracing this new modest and practical
building type, Americans also began to adopt the building type and the principles behind it. The
Arts and Crafts movement was an explicit attack on the blatant materialism of the Victorian era.
The movement emphasized modest,a nt b ' 'ng tru ofal materials made to blend
relatively seamlessly with theirs undi The r s ow style was a derivative of
this movement. Bungalows made it first pear e Uni States on the eastern seacoast.
Initially they were popular as inex iv s c ott es. Ho er, it was not long before this
building form found a home on the west coast, principally in Southern California.
American Arts and Crafts as expressed in the Bungalow form and the Craftsman style spread
throughout the U.S. during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The most prominent
advocate for this movement in America was Gustav Stickley(1858-1942). Stickley was an architect
and furniture designer as well as the publisher of a monthly magazine called The Craftsman.
Stickley's ideas would become the guidelines for American Bungalows of all forms including the
March 18, 2008 -2- Item No. 20
Craftsman style. The buildings were to be modest in size and scale,holding true to the earlier Arts
and Crafts notion of Humanism versus blatant materialism. Typically the buildings were to be wood
framed and one to one-and-a-half-stories tall. However,some Craftsman Bungalows were originally
constructed as two stories. The seco f st , all ntained directly under the
roof which maximized living spac ut le l' a o r a c ce. buildings were to emphasize
their horizontal elements and re n grou ed w w pitche roofs and wide rectangular or
square footprints. Wide eaves with d r it deep r verhangs further contributed
to the illusion of a wide,grounded,and horizontal building. More often then not a large front porch
was included. Typically the exterior walls and gable ends were composed of different materials to
add contrast and visually break up the otherwise simple structure. The most commonly used
materials for this purpose were stucco,horizontal lap siding,or shingles. As a further holdover from
the early Arts and Crafts movement,Craftsman buildings were to be composed of regional materials
matching the colors and tones of the surrounding environment. With all or most of these features
included, the final result was to be a building which "stressed comfort and utility...and a lack of
pretension."(Colorado's Historic Architecture, pg 40)
Just as the rest of the country chose to embrace this form and style, Fort Collins was no exception,
and the city boasts many buildings of this type. The Craftsman Bungalow located at 1609
Remington holds true to many of Stickely's above mentioned criteria. Its moderately pitched roof,
wide eaves and overhangs,and exposed rafter tails serve as excellent intact examples of Craftsman
Bungalow architecture as derived fr C me . The use of horizontal lap
siding on the exterior walls and izont 1 apbo d di o gable ends are typical of the
Craftsman style's use of contras g mate Is to r up the tructure for the viewer. The
building's modest one-story height ct h ntally unded nature, combined with
its use of dark browns and whites, tie the building to the earth and allow it to blend with the
surrounding landscape. As Stickley explained,the Craftsman Bungalow is"a house reduced to its
simplest form, which never fails to harmonize with its surroundings because its low broad
proportions and absolute lack of ornament give it a character so natural and unaffected that it seems
to sing into a blend with any landscape." The modest home at 1609 Remington is just such a
building and should be formally recognized as historically significant. (Cigliano, 12)
According to the Larimer County Property Tax Assessor, the house at 1609 Remington was
constructed in 1926 by Isaac C.and Frankie M.Bradley. Isaac worked for the Fort Collins Express-
Courier newspaper as a printer. In 1927,the home was sold to Harold and Marie Leath. Harold also
worked for the Express-Courier, as a Linotype machine operator. In the printing industry, the
Linotype machine (pronounced"Line-0-Type")uses a keyboard consisting of 91 keys to create an
entire line of metal type at once, hence a line of type. The Linotype allowed for much faster
typesetting and composition than th od p ber which required composers
to assemble one pre-cast metal le , pun t tion or ac t time. The Linotype machine
revolutionized printing througho the wo , wi it greatest pact being felt in newspaper
publishing. _
Marie and Harold Leath lived in the home for six years. In 1933, during the depths of the
depression,they sold the house to Walter and Helen Tatum. Walter worked as the principal of Fort
Collins High School. Sometime in the mid-to-late 1930s,Daisy A. Wall purchased the home. She
used it as a rental until 1954, when it became her primary residence. City directories fail to show
who owned the home after Wall, but it appears the home was soon thereafter converted into a
rooming house for Colorado State University students. In May 2004,then-owner W. W. Ferguson
March 18, 2008 -3- Item No. 20
sold the home to the property's current owner, Timothy Sharkey, who is seeking landmark
designation.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Historic Landmark Designation Nomination form.
2. Staff Report, January 23, 2008.
3. Resolution 2, 2008, of the Landmark Preservation Commission recommending Landmark
Designation of the Bradley House, 1609 Remington Street.
4. Photos of property.
ORDINANCE NO. 039, 2008
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS
DESIGNATING THE BRADLEY HOUSE, 1609 REMINGTON STREET,
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO, AS A FORT COLLINS LANDMARK
PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 14 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS
WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 14-2 of the City Code, the City Council has established a
public policy encouraging the protection, enhancement and perpetuation of landmarks within the
City; and
WHEREAS,by Resolution dated January 23,2008,the Landmark Preservation Commission
(the "Commission") has determined that the Bradley House has significance to Fort Collins under
Landmark Designation Standard (3), because it represents the Craftsman Bungalow architectural
style in Fort Collins; and
WHEREAS,the Commission has further determined that said property meets the criteria of
a landmark as set forth in Section 14-5 of the Code and is eligible for designation as a landmark,and
has recommended to the City Council that said property be designated by the City Council as a
landmark; and
WHEREAS, the owners of the property have consented to such landmark designation; and
WHEREAS, such landmark designation will preserve the property's significance to the
community; and
WHEREAS, the City Council has reviewed the recommendation of the Commission and
desires to approve such recommendation and designate said property as a landmark.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT
COLLINS as follows:
Section 1. That the property known as the Bradley House, and the adjacent lands upon
which the historical resource is located, in the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado,
described as follows, to wit:
LOT 15, BLOCK 1, 1. C. BRADLEY ADDITION, FORT COLLINS
be designated as a Fort Collins Landmark in accordance with Chapter 14 of the Code of the City of
Fort Collins. In addition to the historic dwelling, the property contains a non-historic garage
building. This garage does not contribute to the significance of the property, and is not a part of
these designation proceedings.
Section 2. That the criteria in Section 14-48 of the Municipal Code will serve as the
standards by which alterations, additions and other changes to the buildings and structures located
upon the above described property will be reviewed for compliance with Chapter 14,Article Ql,of
the Code of the City of Fort Collins
Introduced, considered favorably on first reading, and ordered published this 18th day of
March, A.D. 2008, and to be presented for final passage on the y of April, A.D. 2008.
i
Mayor
ATTEST:
City Clerk
Passed and adopted on final reading on the 1 st day of April, A.D. 2008.
Mayor
ATTEST:
City Clerk