Area Preservation and the Beacon Hill Bill EDITORIAL NOTE: During the 1955 ses- ment of the city a board, known as the Beacon sion of the Massachusetts Legislature two Hill Architectural Commission, consisting of five commissioners appointed by the mayor of bills were enacted which should be of the city as follows:-one from two candidates particular interest to the readers of OLD- nominated by the Beacon Hill Civic Associa- TIME NEW ENGLAND and to all those tion, Inc., one from two candidates nominated whose interest centers on the increasing- by the Boston Real Estate Board, one from two ly important matter of “area preserva- candidates nominated by The Boston Society of Architects, one from two candidates nomi- tion.” These bills established historic dis- nated by the Society for the Preservation of tricts in Nantucket and on Boston’s Bea- New England Antiquities, and one member se- con Hill and may well serve as a model lected at large by the mayor. for future legislation of a similar nature. * * * * * * The significant provisions of the Beacon Hill Bill are as follows: SECTION 7. Certificate of . Appropriateness. -No person shall construct any exterior archi- Chap. 616. AN ACT CREATING THE HISTORIC tectural feature in the historic Beacon Hill dis- BEACON HILL DISTRICT IN THE CITY OF BOSTON trict, or reconstruct or alter any such feature AND ESTABLISHING IN THE BUILDING DEPART- now or hereafter in said district, until such MENT OF SAID CITY THE BEACON HILL ARCHI- person shall have filed with the secretary of the TECTURAL COMMISSION AND DEFINING ITS commission an application for a certificate of POWERS AND DUTIES. appropriateness in such form and with such SECTION I. Creation of the District.-There plans, specifications and other material as the is hereby created in the city of Boston a district commission may from time to time .prescribe to be known as the Historic Beacon Hill Dis- and a certificate of appropriateness shall have trict, bounded as follows [limits as defined been issued as hereinafter provided in this sec- take in about twenty-two acres on the south tion. slope of the Hill, Beacon Street frontage op- As soon as conveniently may be . but in all posite the Public Garden, and a section along events within twenty days. after the filing of Charles Street which includes the Charles Street the application for the certificate of appropriate- Meetinghouse]. ness . the commission shall determine whether SECTION 2. Purpose.-The purpose of this the proposed construction, reconstruction or al- act is to promote the educational, cultural, eco- teration of the exterior architectural feature in- nomic and general welfare of the public volved will be appropriate to the preservation through the preservation of the historic Bea- of the historic Beacon Hill district for the pur- con Hill district, and to maintain said district poses of this act, and whether, notwithstanding as a landmark in the history of architecture and that it may be inappropriate, owing to condi- as a tangible reminder of old Boston as it ex- tions especially affecting the structure involved, isted in the early days of the commonwealth. but not affecting the historic Beacon Hill district SECTION 3. Definitions.-As used in this act, generally, failure to issue a certificate of appro- the following words shall have the following priateness will involve a substantial hardship meanings: . “Exterior architectural fea- to the applicant and such a certificate may be ture”, the architectural style and general ar- issued without substanial detriment to the pub- rangement of such portion of the exterior of a lic welfare and without substantial derogation structure as is designed to be open to view from from the intent and purposes of this act. In a public way, including kind, color and tex- passing upon appropriateness, the commission ture of the building material of such portion shall consider, in addition to any other perti- and type of all windows, doors, lights, signs, nent factors, the historical and architectural and other fixtures appurtenant to such por- value and significance, architectural style, gen- tion. eral design, arrangement, texture, material and SECTION 4. Beacon Hill Architectural Com- color of the exterior architectural feature in- mission.-There shall be in the building depart- volved and the relationship thereof to the ex- 106 Area Preservation 107 terior architectural features of other structures York’s Manhattan Island, for example, in the immediate neighborhood. one of our oldest cities, there remain to- . If the commission determines that a cer- day fewer than a dozen buildings built tificate of appropriateness should not issue, the commission shall forthwith spread upon its before 1800. Expansion of industry and records the reasons for such determination and business, incoming flights of population, may include recommendations respecting the and characteristically American impa- proposed construction, reconstruction or altera- tience with the out-of-date have kept tion. New York and many of our American SE!CTION 8. Notice of Demolition.-No per- son shall demolish any exterior architectural cities in a restless state of change and up- feature now or hereafter in the historic Beacon heaval. Hill district until he shall have filed with the For this reason it is pleasantly startling secretary of the commission on such form as to find at the very heart of another of the may be from time to time prescribed by the commission a written notice of his intent to Seaboard’s oldest cities a residential dis- demolish such feature and a period of twenty trict which has changed but little in one days . or such lesser period as the commis- hundred and fifty years. At least seventy- sion, because the feature is not historically or five per cent of the buildings remaining architecturally significant or otherwise worthy within the area now known as the His- of preservation, may in a particular case de- termine, shall have expired following the filing toric Beacon Hill District date from the of such notice of demolition. Upon the expira- Federal or Greek Revival periods and an- tion of such period the secretary of the com- other five per cent are twentieth-century mission shall forthwith issue to the person filing reproductions of its predominant style. the notice of demolition a certificate of the expiration of such period. This survival owes much to the physical character of the Hill itself which did not * * * * * * naturally attract business, and to the fact SECTION I o. Appeals.-Any applicant ag- that after the Civil War more fashionable grieved by a determination of the commission building sites were developed in the South may, within thirty days after the making of such determination, appeal to the superior court End and Back Bay. Later, at the turn of sitting in equity for the county of Suffolk. The the century, against a background of the court shall hear all pertinent evidence and shall Colonial Revival, houses on the Hill not annul the determination of rhe commission if only came back into architectural favor it finds the reasons given by the commission to but were found to be better planned for be unwarranted by the evidence or to be in- sufficient in law to Warrant the determination twentieth-century living than the more of the commission or make such other decree formal Victorian homes in other parts of as justice and equity may require. the City. * * * * * * Perhaps only the very glaring contrast between the city at large, traditionally in The two words “area preservatim” process of change, and some one neigh- have come to have special meaning in re- borhood, which has stubbornly resisted cent years for those who are concerned any innovation could appeal so forcibly with the vanishing American scene. to architects, antiquarians, and roman- Without an extraordinary architectural ticists-and, one might add, to men of tradition or impressive remains of earlier business as well. It is interesting at any epochs each generation in America has rate that our earliest efforts at “area eagerly cleared away the “debris” of the preservation” in this country have heen last and built anew. Nowhere has this centered in cities and have been initiated been more true than in cities. On New with the coiiperation of business men and 108 Old-Time New England chambers of commerce. Charleston, S. C., in relation to its own integrity of charac- was among the first with a law which es- ter or its relationship to neighboring tablished “historic zoning” as early as houses. 1924. New Orleans, La., Alexandria, This is not a negative approach in the Va., Winston-Salem, N. C., George- long run. Actually, it is an extension of the town, D. C., and Annapolis, Md., have various forms of zoning for business,in- followed suit, these four securing their dustry, and residence which have been legislation within the last ten years. fully accepted in most cities and towns In each case it has been recognized for a good many years. It is by such zon- that the preservation of historic monu- ing regulations that property interests are ments involves wider responsibilitiesthan safeguarded, and it has been a matter of saving the single surviving old building, critical importance where “historic zon- forlornly hemmed in on all sidesby later ing” is under consideration that the whole structures and completely shorn of any community recognize the sound potential meaningful context. The value of being advantages to be gained from the stabili- able to see individual buildings in a set- zation of an existing pattern and conse- ting which is as nearly like the original quent appreciation in real estate values. as possible has nowhere, perhaps, been Businessmen and small retail merchants more sharply pointed up than in Charles- who find themselves in a zoned area for ton, S.