The Rockville Historic District Commission will consider the historic significance of a property at 500 Great Falls Road at its next virtual meeting, scheduled for February 17, 2022 at 7:00 PM. 500 Great Falls Road is a single-family home in the Rockville Heights subdivision. It was nominated for historic status by historic preservation non-profit Peerless Rockville.
Peerless Rockville nominated the home last year after it noticed the owner beginning significant renovations to the structure. The City of Rockville has asked the owner to state his position on the nomination, but has not received an indication of his approval or opposition to the proposed inclusion of the property in an historic district. However, the owner did request a certificate of approval from the HDC last year for the renovations. He told the commission that moisture retention by the stucco applied to the home was damaging the interior, and rendering the foundation unstable.
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| The original home at 500 Great Falls Road flanked by HDC-approved additions now under construction |
The HDC ultimately granted approval for the owner's proposed changes to the property. However, it did not render an official judgement as to the home's designation as historic. Dr. Clara Bliss Hinds Finley, a nationally-known female physician who founded multiple organizations and lectured on women's and children's health, resided in the home during summers between 1916 and and her death in 1940. She is buried in Rockville Cemetery.
City of Rockville Preservation Planner Sheila Bashiri has determined that the property meets the following criteria for historic designation: It represents the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the city, as the home of a women who was a pioneer in her field, Dr. Clara Bliss Finley, and her daughter, a prominent suffragist. Second, it embodies distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, as it is already listed in the city's Historic Buildings Catalogue as a prime representative of the Colonial Revival style. Finally, it is an established visual feature in the Rockville Heights neighborhood. Its surrounding lot, house footprint and massing are intact, and its Colonial Revival architecture and placing on the large corner lot have made it an established visual feature in that community.
For these reasons, Bashiri is recommending the HDC find that the home does meet the criteria for historic designation, and that the commissioners forward a recommendation to the Mayor and Council to place the property in the historic district zone.
Photos courtesy City of Rockville
...so would the designation stop the current Frankensteining of the house or is this all irrelevant?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the owner would want to ruin the original house in the first place. The new additions obviously looks like shit; if you have a large family and need more bedrooms then why not just move rather than turn the current house into something so ugly?
From my understanding of the case, these additions were approved by the HDC last year, as a separate issue from historic declaration. The owner had said limiting expansion to the rear of the house was not viable. So rezoning it as historic now would probably just ensure that the property doesn't become a tear-down in the future, or suffer facade alterations that do not fit the Colonial Revival style.
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