Peak's Addition Homeowners' Association

• 1207 Annex Avenue—new door in existing front location, add wood one-over-one window
• 4711 Gaston Avenue—new signage in front yard, relocate accessory building
• 4724 Worth Street—between driveway and front walkway: remove oak tree, move/repair/paint picket fence, move brick walkway, new concrete runner
• 4807 Swiss Avenue—new front landscaping, new brick walkway, a/c units on side of accessory structure
• 5800 La Vista Court—install 3’ black aluminum extruded railing for patio on top of attached garage roof

Autumn is here--I know because there is a definite increase in the amount of home improvements going on in our neighborhood!  THURSDAY OCTOBER 4th is the due date for October CA applications to Mark Doty, our representative at City Hall. Last month, I printed the first half of the “Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation”.  These ten principles are the foundation upon which all historic preservation in the U.S. is based.  Here are the last five tenets:

1. Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced.  Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials.
2. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.
3. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible.  Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.
4. Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place.  If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.
5. New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property.  The new work will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment. New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.

These tenets, once again, are to preserve our history.  Dallas has had so much of its glorious past “erased.”  Historic buildings continue to be mowed down for progress, or it is greed?  So please, repair first.  Yes, it usually is much slower and much of the time it is more expensive.  When you are forced to replace, do so with intelligence and sensitivity.  Before starting any exterior work in the PSAHD, you are required to apply for a CA.  In doing so, you will receive free advice from several professional architects!  Gone are the days when our houses were considered cheap fixer-uppers.  Our historic district overlay has caused a dramatic rise in our home prices, but more importantly, each one of us, through our hard work in improving and preserving our own historic homes, has made our neighborhood a much more beautiful place in which to live.