CITY OF ARCATA HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT March 2012 Prepared by Prepared for: Guerra & McBane LLC Community Development Department Box 367 City of Arcata Bayside, Ca. 95524 736 F Street Arcata, Ca. 95521 City of Arcata Historic Context Statement Guerra & McBane LLC March 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter I. Executive Summary Chapter II. Historical Context Statement Chapter III. Historic Themes and Concepts Chapter IV. Bibliography APPENDICES Appendix A. List of Additions and Subdivisions in the City of Arcata 1889 – 1972 Appendix B. Sunny Brea Homes- Basic Models Appendix C. Preliminary Assessment of Specific Sub-Themes Appendix D. Architectural Forms & Styles City of Arcata Historic Context Statement Guerra & McBane LLC March 2012 INTRODUCTION Report Organization This Historic Context Statement is divided into four chapters. Chapter I. Executive Summary outlines the Project Description and Objectives, Methodology and Research. Chapter II, Historical Context Statement provides an analysis of the broad historical trends that led to the development of the City of Arcata. Established during the Gold Rush era, in historic Wiyot territory, Arcata was a successful provisioning station for the Northern Mines and an early competitor for the County Seat. Most housing and commercial activity was concentrated on the Plaza and in the surrounding blocks. Transportation was limited, with few all weather roads it was faster to ferry across the Bay, and the establishment of the logging railroad system provided both commercial and passenger service. Farming became important during the Gold Rush Era, but the diking of the Arcata Bottom around 1892 facilitated the growth of a commercial dairy industry which remained a major employer until the end of World War II. Well established residents began constructing new homes in North Arcata with lumber supplied by logging tracts in East Arcata. Soon working class homes began to sprout in this newly cleared landscape of stumps. The establishment of the State Normal School in 1913, and the establishment of Redwood Park adjacent to the college encouraged more residential development. Completion of the Redwood Highway in 1926 shaped the development of tourism services along the G Street commercial corridor. Commercial development was now spread north and south along G Street. Though the industry declined during the Depression and WWII, the postwar demand for new housing and a resurgent market in wood products resulted in the sale and conversion of numerous agricultural properties. The influx of veterans to work in the newly opened mills, in construction, and to attend Humboldt State College increased the demand for both family and multifamily residences. Large suburban tracts as well as apartments and trailer parks developed rapidly in the town and on adjacent county lands. The annexation of these areas would double the size of the size of the town and strain public resources. While the lumber industry had dominated the region for decades, the California Barrel Company was the principal employer in the City from 1906 to 1956 and the closure of the Company was an unexpected hardship. Fortunately, Arcata had developed a more diverse economic base was able to recover. In the following decades Arcata became the site of a number of agency offices and non- governmental organizations that benefit from their close proximity to the University. A number of 1 City of Arcata Historic Context Statement Guerra & McBane LLC March 2012 innovative projects were developed as a result of new collaborations, including the Arcata Marsh Project. The diversification of commercial enterprises and the diverse population that is attracted by the natural environment and opportunities found locally has turned what was once a cohesive rural community into the modern city. Chapter III, Historic Themes and Concepts, presents the historic themes and concepts that illustrate the historic context and are used to evaluate buildings, structures, objects, sites and landscapes . Chapter IV, Bibliography, contains the references used in preparing this document. Appendices, includes list of subdivisions, preliminary sub-themes for two neighborhoods and one transportation corridor, a list of models constructed in Sunny Brae and the representative architectural styles to be found in Arcata. Chapter I. Executive Summary Project Description and Objectives The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Preservation Planning (Standards) define three primary standards for historic preservation:1 1. Standard I. Preservation Planning Establishes Historic Contexts. 2. Standard II. Preservation Planning Uses Historic Contexts to Develop Goals and Priorities for the Identification, Evaluation, Registration and Treatment of Historic Properties. 3. Standard III. The Results of Preservation Planning Are Made Available for Integration Into Broader Planning Processes. Historic Context statements establish the historic patterns, themes, and associated property types that allow the next two standards to be implemented. The historic context organizes information based on a cultural theme and its geographical and chronological limits. Contexts describe the significant broad patterns of development in an area that may be represented by historic properties. development of 1 U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Preservation Planning, Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines 2 City of Arcata Historic Context Statement Guerra & McBane LLC March 2012 historic contexts is the foundation for decisions about identification, evaluation, registration and treatment of historic properties. According to federal standard expressed in National Register Bulletin 16A: How to Complete the National Register Registration Form, a historic context is defined as Information about historic trends and properties grouped by an important theme in the prehistory or history of a community, State, or nation during a particular period of time. Because historic contexts are organized by theme, place and time, they link historic properties to important historic trends.2 Historic Context Statements tell the stories that explain how, when, and why the built environment developed in a particular manner. In this study, the development of the built environment of Arcata is organized into a group of broad themes. Historic properties that are characteristic examples of each period have been identified Only a small percentage of buildings, structures and landscapes that may be considered potentially historically significant have been documented individually through surveys, studies, or other historic reports. This Historic Context is not intended to provide a complete history of Arcata or to identify everyone who designed, constructed, or inhabited the historic properties. Rather, this Historic Context Statement establishes the broad historic trends and patterns that influenced the built environment, and then to organize the context into a group of themes that may be illustrated by the property types. When considering what should be preserved and why, the average person may have difficulty accepting that a building constructed within one’s own lifetime could possibly be considered “historic.” In fact, an incredible number of buildings were constructed after the Great Depression, and up through the present time. Some have estimated that resources younger than fifty years old comprise roughly seventy percent of the built environment.3 Specific objectives of this Historic Context Statement are: Establish significant events and locational patterns in the development of the City of Arcata with a list of representative property types for the Modern era 2 U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register Bulletin 16A: How to Complete the National Register Registration Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1997), 3 Lambin, Jeanne, Preserving Resources from the Recent Past (Washington, DC: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2007), 1. 3 City of Arcata Historic Context Statement Guerra & McBane LLC March 2012 Develop a list of themes and contexts under which historical resources may be categorized . architectural styles representative of Arcata with a list of character-defining features for each architectural style for purposes of establishing historic integrity. Methodology This Historic Context Statement is intended to provide a broad framework for interpreting the social and architectural history of Arcata into the present era. A separate historical resources survey was conducted of the Bayview Neighborhood Conservation Area and a preliminary analysis was conducted of the Sunny Brae Subdivisions 1-7, an overview of each included in the Appendices. The Arcata Historical Resources Survey conducted in 1979 identified 200 properties of architectural significance from the founding of the settlement of Union through 1930. At that time, a historic context was not required as a standard practice and properties were evaluated only for their architectural significance. Subsequently, historian Susie Van Kirk contributed her project research and her knowledge of Arcata’s history to several publications which have become the basis for evaluating the built environment resources of that period. These publications expanded on the information contained in the survey records, and include: 1979 Reflections of Arcata’s History: eighty years of architecture, Bug Press, Arcata, Ca. 1988 Touring Arcata’s