The Atlanta Preservation Center is delighted to report that the 2015 Phoenix Flies Celebration of Historic Sites will introduce APC’s regularly scheduled walking tours of historic Westview Cemetery!  Come learn about the lives of many important Atlantans like Joel Chandler Harris, Lemuel Pratt Grant, Henry Grady, Asa Candler and Harriett Harwell Wilson High while enjoying beautiful sculptures and historic structures.  Tours will include the 1890 Gate House and the World War II era Mausoleum and Chapel.  Prepare to be awestruck by the beauty and many layers of history this site represents. 

When Westview opened in October of 1884 with nearly six-hundred acres of land, it was designed to be the premier cemetery in the Southeast. It is still an active cemetery with more than 108,000 interments.  Westview remains the largest cemetery in the Southeast and one of the largest non-profit cemeteries in the United States.

The APC is currently working with the cemetery to conceptualize a preservation plan for the historic gate house from 1890.  Half of the proceeds from each tour ticket will go towards this preservation effort.

More photos are available here.

For cemetery information visit – www.westviewcemetery.com

On September 15 the Atlanta City Council will consider proposed Ordinance Amendment 14-O-1366, which will affect the future of preservation in Atlanta.  The Atlanta Preservation Center has sent the following comments to the City Council for its consideration. Please contact your Council member now, as a decision will be taken in this afternoon’s session.

Atlanta City Council members’ email addresses are:

Dear Council Members:

The Atlanta Preservation Center (APC) strenuously opposes passage of Howard Shook’s proposed Ordinance Amendment #14-0-1366.  Specifically, the APC’s opposition lies in the redefinition of historic neighborhoods as only those which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Existing ordinance sections 15-06.001(t) and 15-08-005(d)(6) of the Subdivision Ordinance of the City of Atlanta currently provide for historic assets which are eligible for the National Register.

Eligibility for the National Register is a national standard. It means that the historic resource meets a national criteria as part of the nation’s cultural heritage. Eligibility can be determined by an assessment from the State Office of Historic Preservation based on these national standards. Listing on the Register is dependent on the will and economic ability of a community to follow through with the Register process but makes no additional distinction as to the historic value of the asset.  The proposed ordinance change will place an unfair disadvantage on those communities which have eligible historic resources but do not have the economic resources to execute the listing process.  This will place them in a different category of consideration with the City regardless of the equal value of their historic assets. This proposed action could also have the potential of limiting the creation of new National Register listed districts within the City of Atlanta and thus limiting access to State and Federal tax incentives.

Nationally, progressive communities are focusing on the possibilities of redevelopment utilizing federal tax programs. Mid-Century Modern assets, historic resources built as recently as 1964, can now take advantage of the available incentives for revitalization through historic preservation. This was a period of expansive growth for our City. To disregard the potential of these assets rather than planning for their intelligent use and revitalization is an enormous missed opportunity.  The proposed ordinance change would disregard the potential of a vast array of historic assets throughout the City, discounting their intrinsic value as reflected in the term “eligibility.”

The Atlanta Preservation Center urges Council members to reach out to the State’s Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation Division’s Program Manager Stephanie Cherry-Farmer for the technical expertise necessary to ensure proper legislation which would encourage both redevelopment and new development. Neither the APC nor the State office has been involved in the current proposed changes.

The Atlanta Preservation Center respectfully asks that this legislation be opposed.

Sincerely,

F.H. Boyd Coons

Executive Director

Atlanta Preservation Center

 

cc:

Stephanie Cherry-Farmer, SHPO: Stephanie.cherry-farmer@dnr.state.ga.us

Leslie Cannan: lcanaan@atlantaga.gov

Christian Olteanu: colteanu@atlantaga.gov

UPDATE 8/27/2014: The Atlanta Housing Authority has halted demolition of the Trio Laundry, indicating that it will reach out to the preservation community for options.  Thank you to everyone who called and emailed — it worked.  However, it’s not over yet. We are going to look at the root causes of this issue, so please stay tuned and help us follow through.  Click here for more information.

For continuing updates please visit the Save the Historic Trio Building Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/triolaundry

The Trio Laundry Dry Cleaning Building at 20 Hilliard Street, built in 1910 and having survived the Great Fire of 1917, is a contributing structure in both the local MLK Jr Landmark District and the National Register’s MLK Jr Historic District.  This area has been on the APC’s Most Endangered Historic Places List since 2005. 

The property was purchased in 2009 by the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) with no plans for redevelopment beyond remediation of soil and water contamination. By 2011 part of the building’s roof collapsed. Because the roof was not repaired or the structure stabilized, the building has continued to deteriorate to the point that the City of Atlanta condemned it in December 2012 due to “immediate hazardous conditions to neighboring properties and the general public.” In June 2014 AHA applied for a demolition permit and, without any public notification or community engagement, the City issued a demolition permit in August 2014. 

Demolition is currently taking place as of Monday August 25, 2014

As a contributing structure in both the local MLK Jr Landmark District and the National Register’s MLK Jr Historic District, we believe its demolition should have been put before the Atlanta Urban Design Commission (AUDC), so the Atlanta Housing Authority would have had to make a case for demolition to the public and a commission of appointed building and preservation professionals.

Statute Sec. 16-20.008d states plainly:

To prove the existence of a threat to public health and safety, the applicant must establish, and the commission must find, the following:
(i) Demonstrate through independent analyses and supporting information that a major and imminent threat to public safety exists;
(ii) Present all reasonable alternatives for rectifying the threat and analysis of all such alternatives; and
(iii) Demonstrate that the costs associated with rectifying the threat would create a condition whereby the investments in the project are incapable of earning a reasonable economic return.

We ask that you immediately call your councilperson, the Atlanta Housing Authority and the Mayor’s office and demand that demolition stop immediately and that the process to go through the AUDC.

Click here for more photos and to view architect and preservationist Kyle Kessler’s notes of public documents that have transpired concerning this issue.