South Hill was awarded historic district status in November 2009 in order to preserve the historical uniqueness of the neighborhood.
South Hill is known by Bellingham residents to be diverse in ethnicity, economy and architecture. A school, churches, parks and hundreds of homes make up the neighborhood. Some houses date back to the early 1900s and show off a variety of styles including the Arts and Crafts, the Tudor Revival and Queen Anne.
Many people from South Hill recognized the uniqueness of the neighborhood and decided that they needed to do something to keep it intact. “This is gorgeous and needs to be preserved,” South Hill Neighborhood Association (SHNA) member Sue Hynes said about South Hill. Sue explained how others around her loved the neighborhood, too.
Together, the neighborhood decided that it wanted to gain historic district status. Lynette Felber, chair of historic preservation committee for the neighborhood association, explained that the neighborhood had to go through several steps before historic district status was granted. The first step was approval from the Historic Preservation department through the City of Bellingham, second, being passed through the Washington State Advisory Board and finally going to Washington D.C. and becoming registered through the Keeper of National Registry.
The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation also required an extensive 429-page application. This application included zoning and areal maps, and building and house descriptions which described the style and construction dates. Also included were demographics, statistics and photos of the neighborhood.
A grant was needed to complete all of these steps. Katie Franks, project manager for the Planning and Community Development Department in Bellingham and Felber were two of the major leaders in this process. Franks directed the application for a grant from Preserve America to complete a historic resource survey and inventory for South Hill along with the York and Lettered Streets neighborhoods. The grant for $150,000 was awarded in 2007 to complete the survey, inventory and hire consultants.
“At least one hundred people worked on the project for two years,” Hynes said. This included consultants, photographers and many volunteers. After all of their hard work, South Hill was awarded historic district status in October 2009. However, even with this status, all homes will not be protected. “There is less strenuous protection than people think,” Felber explained. People have property rights to their private homes, but development is now allowed with federal money. This includes development on roads and parks using money from the government. These decisions would have to go through the city first.
The neighborhood has been cooperative with preserving their homes, but there has still been a huge growth in development over the past few years. Franks expressed how she was nervous about massive tear downs by over-excited developers. This is one of the reasons that the community wanted the title of historic district. Having the historic district status will limit what the developers will be able to do so that the people of South Hill will have a say in what will be constructed in their neighborhood.
Hynes was able to co-chair a historic neighborhood home tour with Anita Ballweg in 2010. The tour allowed people to view five of the 300 historic homes in the South Hill neighborhood. SHNA also put on a historic neighborhood home tour in 2007.
South Hill is known by Bellingham residents to be diverse in ethnicity, economy and architecture. A school, churches, parks and hundreds of homes make up the neighborhood. Some houses date back to the early 1900s and show off a variety of styles including the Arts and Crafts, the Tudor Revival and Queen Anne.
Many people from South Hill recognized the uniqueness of the neighborhood and decided that they needed to do something to keep it intact. “This is gorgeous and needs to be preserved,” South Hill Neighborhood Association (SHNA) member Sue Hynes said about South Hill. Sue explained how others around her loved the neighborhood, too.
Together, the neighborhood decided that it wanted to gain historic district status. Lynette Felber, chair of historic preservation committee for the neighborhood association, explained that the neighborhood had to go through several steps before historic district status was granted. The first step was approval from the Historic Preservation department through the City of Bellingham, second, being passed through the Washington State Advisory Board and finally going to Washington D.C. and becoming registered through the Keeper of National Registry.
The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation also required an extensive 429-page application. This application included zoning and areal maps, and building and house descriptions which described the style and construction dates. Also included were demographics, statistics and photos of the neighborhood.
A grant was needed to complete all of these steps. Katie Franks, project manager for the Planning and Community Development Department in Bellingham and Felber were two of the major leaders in this process. Franks directed the application for a grant from Preserve America to complete a historic resource survey and inventory for South Hill along with the York and Lettered Streets neighborhoods. The grant for $150,000 was awarded in 2007 to complete the survey, inventory and hire consultants.
“At least one hundred people worked on the project for two years,” Hynes said. This included consultants, photographers and many volunteers. After all of their hard work, South Hill was awarded historic district status in October 2009. However, even with this status, all homes will not be protected. “There is less strenuous protection than people think,” Felber explained. People have property rights to their private homes, but development is now allowed with federal money. This includes development on roads and parks using money from the government. These decisions would have to go through the city first.
The neighborhood has been cooperative with preserving their homes, but there has still been a huge growth in development over the past few years. Franks expressed how she was nervous about massive tear downs by over-excited developers. This is one of the reasons that the community wanted the title of historic district. Having the historic district status will limit what the developers will be able to do so that the people of South Hill will have a say in what will be constructed in their neighborhood.
Hynes was able to co-chair a historic neighborhood home tour with Anita Ballweg in 2010. The tour allowed people to view five of the 300 historic homes in the South Hill neighborhood. SHNA also put on a historic neighborhood home tour in 2007.
