Historic Designation Sought for
Bernardsville’s Olcott District
By LISA MARTONE, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, August 29, 2008 7:34 AM EDT
BERNARDSVILLE – It’s a neighborhood designation that at first may make some homeowners a little uneasy.
From the misconception of state historic officials looking over the shoulder of homeowners making minor repairs, to the thought that any home improvement must be approved by a plethora of municipal and state boards, homeowners tend to be hesitant to support proposed historic designations of their neighborhoods.
But that doesn’t seem to apply to residents of Olcott Avenue, whose homes are among an area currently under consideration for inclusion on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
“I supported this from the beginning,” said Olcott Avenue resident Robert Baker. “It is going to keep the street the same way it is now and has been for 100 years.”
Olcott Avenue residents Dan and Kate Lincoln are especially eager to see all their efforts and research pay off.
“We are not sure exactly when we will hear back from the state,” said Dan Lincoln, president of the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills (THSSH) since 1993. “We are hoping soon.”
Applications are reviewed by the Historic Preservation Office of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The couple is anxiously waiting to hear from the state to see if the turn-of-the century neighborhood surrounding Olcott Avenue will be accepted.
“When I grew up, I walked up this street (Olcott Avenue) constantly,” said Kate Lincoln, who is also running for Borough Council this fall.
“I have an appreciation for what the streetscape has been my whole life. Bernardsville is beautiful and has rich heritage and people don’t even know. We are hoping this may help them see where they live and how special it really is.”
The area will include the Somerset Hills Regional School District’s Olcott Building, the United Methodist Church Parsonage, the church itself, and 46 properties. It will include properties on Olcott, Childsworth and Highview avenues.
If accepted by the state, it would be the first historically designated district in the borough.
Significant Structures
The area is significant due to the architecture of the structures, the history of the Olcott Building, and for being the first mapped out middle class in the area, according to Dan Lincoln, who also serves as vice chair of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC) of Bernardsville.
“There are many reasons why this area is special, but most significantly this was the first planned out middle class street,” he said.
According to Ann Parsekian, a consultant with the Port Murray historic firm Dennis Bertland Associates, who was hired to draft the designation proposal, the need for a middle class neighborhood in Bernardsville came about in the late 1890s.
“You had all these rich people come and build fabulous estates on the mountain, attracting service people and merchants,” she said. “Some of them lived on the estates but most lived in the center of town. So now all the sudden you have this group of very prosperous merchants who were outgrowing the center of town.”
Parsekian, a Basking Ridge resident, said this pushed merchants to create a neighborhood that would appeal to the middle class, forming the Olcott area.
She also noted that this was one of the first areas that had restrictions on homes.
“There was no zoning back then, but the interesting thing about this neighborhood was it was in place there,” she said. “They set up rules like how set back the homes had to be and things like how they couldn’t have fences in the front yard.”
The neighborhood rules came about some 30 years before zoning regulations were put into effect in most areas of the state.
Renowned architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who resided in Bernardsville for some time, completed the design of some of the buildings. He is the designer of the Plaza Hotel near Central Park in Manhattan and the Copley Plaza in Boston.
He also designed the 1905 Olcott Building that is currently used as an administrative building for the school district.
“The Olcott Building is significant for its architecture,” Parsekian said. “Extremely modern and extremely expensive back then.”
Lengthy Process
Discussions to seek historic designation began back in 1996. At this time, meetings took place with the neighbors to discuss the pros and cons of historic district status.
It wasn’t until three years later, in 1999, that residents began to look into the procedures of the application process.
Discussions continued on and off for another eight years until the spring of 2007.
The Lincolns, with the help of volunteers from the borough and members of the HPAC of Bernardsville including Chairman Philip Kennedy-Grant, began to gather deed research and census information.
“Everyone really did a great job in helping us research the information we needed,” Kate Lincoln said. “It was thousands of man hours. But we all learned so much more than we had known by investigating the area and homes.”
The HPAC of Bernardsville then hired Parsekian to draft the proposal in the fall of 2007. A fund-raising effort began to raise the $8,500 to cover the consultant fee, complete the documents for submittals and to cover reproduction and postage.
Any neighbor who donated at least $250 would be provided with a copy of the material collected about their home. This would include past deeds, early photographs, census information starting from 1910 and copies of maps dating from 1909.
With Parsekian beginning the process and research pouring in from volunteers, the Lincolns and HPAC members met with the neighbors in March and June to answer any additional questions.
“It has been very well received by the neighbors,” Dan Lincoln said. “They are all on board.”
The application was submitted in July. Parsekian said it takes an average of six months to hear back from the state.
Benefits
The National Register of Historic Places is an official list of resources considered worthy of preservation.
Inclusion on the National Register enables the owner of a property to take a 20 percent income tax credit on the cost of significant rehabilitation work for industrial, commercial or rental residential purposes, according to the state.
Inclusion in the New Jersey and National Historic Registers provides a certain degree of review and protection from public “encroachment,” according to Dan Lincoln.
A review is required of any state, county or municipal undertaking involving properties listed on the State Register. These reviews are designed to prevent destruction or damage of historic resources by public agencies.
“Anything that’s to be done, any kind of project publicly funded or licensed - for instance something with the streets - must be reviewed,” Parsekian said. “Anything that could effect the look of the neighborhood has to be reviewed by the historic preservation office as well. That is the protection the homeowner gets.”
Protection longtime Olcott Avenue residents Denis Dooley and his wife, Katie, appreciate.
“We support it because it protects us,” Katie Dooley said.
Denis Dooley, a Borough Councilman, agreed, noting that preserving the historic street in the condition it’s in is most important.
“The older things shouldn’t be cast away but cherished and protected,” he said.
Under the designation, the Olcott Building and United Methodist Church would be eligible to receive historic preservation grants from the county and state for repairs.
In a struggling housing market, homes located within historic districts are holding their value at a greater rate, according to Parsekian.
“Demonstrated houses in historic districts outperform similar houses that are not,” she said. “People also consider it an honor to have their neighborhood recognized for something significant like this.”
The Lincolns and members of HPAC of Bernardsville are hoping to see more areas of this historic borough designated and preserved for future generations.
“There is a hope that the Olcott district would be followed by more areas in town,” Dan Lincoln said. “That’s something we would like to see.”
From the misconception of state historic officials looking over the shoulder of homeowners making minor repairs, to the thought that any home improvement must be approved by a plethora of municipal and state boards, homeowners tend to be hesitant to support proposed historic designations of their neighborhoods.
But that doesn’t seem to apply to residents of Olcott Avenue, whose homes are among an area currently under consideration for inclusion on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
“I supported this from the beginning,” said Olcott Avenue resident Robert Baker. “It is going to keep the street the same way it is now and has been for 100 years.”
Olcott Avenue residents Dan and Kate Lincoln are especially eager to see all their efforts and research pay off.
“We are not sure exactly when we will hear back from the state,” said Dan Lincoln, president of the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills (THSSH) since 1993. “We are hoping soon.”
Applications are reviewed by the Historic Preservation Office of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The couple is anxiously waiting to hear from the state to see if the turn-of-the century neighborhood surrounding Olcott Avenue will be accepted.
“When I grew up, I walked up this street (Olcott Avenue) constantly,” said Kate Lincoln, who is also running for Borough Council this fall.
“I have an appreciation for what the streetscape has been my whole life. Bernardsville is beautiful and has rich heritage and people don’t even know. We are hoping this may help them see where they live and how special it really is.”
The area will include the Somerset Hills Regional School District’s Olcott Building, the United Methodist Church Parsonage, the church itself, and 46 properties. It will include properties on Olcott, Childsworth and Highview avenues.
If accepted by the state, it would be the first historically designated district in the borough.
Significant Structures
The area is significant due to the architecture of the structures, the history of the Olcott Building, and for being the first mapped out middle class in the area, according to Dan Lincoln, who also serves as vice chair of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC) of Bernardsville.
“There are many reasons why this area is special, but most significantly this was the first planned out middle class street,” he said.
According to Ann Parsekian, a consultant with the Port Murray historic firm Dennis Bertland Associates, who was hired to draft the designation proposal, the need for a middle class neighborhood in Bernardsville came about in the late 1890s.
“You had all these rich people come and build fabulous estates on the mountain, attracting service people and merchants,” she said. “Some of them lived on the estates but most lived in the center of town. So now all the sudden you have this group of very prosperous merchants who were outgrowing the center of town.”
Parsekian, a Basking Ridge resident, said this pushed merchants to create a neighborhood that would appeal to the middle class, forming the Olcott area.
She also noted that this was one of the first areas that had restrictions on homes.
“There was no zoning back then, but the interesting thing about this neighborhood was it was in place there,” she said. “They set up rules like how set back the homes had to be and things like how they couldn’t have fences in the front yard.”
The neighborhood rules came about some 30 years before zoning regulations were put into effect in most areas of the state.
Renowned architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who resided in Bernardsville for some time, completed the design of some of the buildings. He is the designer of the Plaza Hotel near Central Park in Manhattan and the Copley Plaza in Boston.
He also designed the 1905 Olcott Building that is currently used as an administrative building for the school district.
“The Olcott Building is significant for its architecture,” Parsekian said. “Extremely modern and extremely expensive back then.”
Lengthy Process
Discussions to seek historic designation began back in 1996. At this time, meetings took place with the neighbors to discuss the pros and cons of historic district status.
It wasn’t until three years later, in 1999, that residents began to look into the procedures of the application process.
Discussions continued on and off for another eight years until the spring of 2007.
The Lincolns, with the help of volunteers from the borough and members of the HPAC of Bernardsville including Chairman Philip Kennedy-Grant, began to gather deed research and census information.
“Everyone really did a great job in helping us research the information we needed,” Kate Lincoln said. “It was thousands of man hours. But we all learned so much more than we had known by investigating the area and homes.”
The HPAC of Bernardsville then hired Parsekian to draft the proposal in the fall of 2007. A fund-raising effort began to raise the $8,500 to cover the consultant fee, complete the documents for submittals and to cover reproduction and postage.
Any neighbor who donated at least $250 would be provided with a copy of the material collected about their home. This would include past deeds, early photographs, census information starting from 1910 and copies of maps dating from 1909.
With Parsekian beginning the process and research pouring in from volunteers, the Lincolns and HPAC members met with the neighbors in March and June to answer any additional questions.
“It has been very well received by the neighbors,” Dan Lincoln said. “They are all on board.”
The application was submitted in July. Parsekian said it takes an average of six months to hear back from the state.
Benefits
The National Register of Historic Places is an official list of resources considered worthy of preservation.
Inclusion on the National Register enables the owner of a property to take a 20 percent income tax credit on the cost of significant rehabilitation work for industrial, commercial or rental residential purposes, according to the state.
Inclusion in the New Jersey and National Historic Registers provides a certain degree of review and protection from public “encroachment,” according to Dan Lincoln.
A review is required of any state, county or municipal undertaking involving properties listed on the State Register. These reviews are designed to prevent destruction or damage of historic resources by public agencies.
“Anything that’s to be done, any kind of project publicly funded or licensed - for instance something with the streets - must be reviewed,” Parsekian said. “Anything that could effect the look of the neighborhood has to be reviewed by the historic preservation office as well. That is the protection the homeowner gets.”
Protection longtime Olcott Avenue residents Denis Dooley and his wife, Katie, appreciate.
“We support it because it protects us,” Katie Dooley said.
Denis Dooley, a Borough Councilman, agreed, noting that preserving the historic street in the condition it’s in is most important.
“The older things shouldn’t be cast away but cherished and protected,” he said.
Under the designation, the Olcott Building and United Methodist Church would be eligible to receive historic preservation grants from the county and state for repairs.
In a struggling housing market, homes located within historic districts are holding their value at a greater rate, according to Parsekian.
“Demonstrated houses in historic districts outperform similar houses that are not,” she said. “People also consider it an honor to have their neighborhood recognized for something significant like this.”
The Lincolns and members of HPAC of Bernardsville are hoping to see more areas of this historic borough designated and preserved for future generations.
“There is a hope that the Olcott district would be followed by more areas in town,” Dan Lincoln said. “That’s something we would like to see.”
Submitted: September 2, 2009