Historic Zoning Commission
Old North Knoxville H: Level II
2-D-25-HZ
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends approval of Certificate 2-D-25-HZ as submitted.
Location Knoxville
1235 Armstrong Ave. 37917
OwnerSean Bolen and Trevor Stafford
Applicant Request
Deck; Doors; Guttering; Masonry repair/painting; Porch; Roofing; Siding; WindowsIn-kind replacement of roof cladding. Installation of gutters.
Remove vinyl siding from the south elevation of the house. Repair existing wood siding and replace damaged siding, when necessary, with in-kind wood lap siding.
Fully enclose the existing rear porch with either in-kind siding, cedar shingles, or board-and-batten. Removal existing non-original sunroom windows and full-lite door. Installation of two French doors in their place; applicant requests details to be approved by staff.
Remove two non-original aluminum windows on the side elevation. Install two 1/1 or single-pane wood casement windows in the existing openings. Removal of two windows from the rear elevation and one window on the side elevation of the rear addition. The existing window openings will be enclosed with in-kind wood lap siding. Repair all remaining original windows.
Removal of the original rear brick chimney from the dormer. The chimney was taken down below the roofline prior to 2001.
Removal of the non-original left column from the front porch. The column will be replaced with a wood column to match the original columns. Replacement in-kind of existing wood tongue-and-groove flooring, with additional in-kind repair to wood elements on front porch as needed.
Masonry repair and repointing on the foundation and porch stairs as needed.
Staff Comments
Craftsman, c.1915One and one-half story frame with weatherboard wall covering. Side gable roof with front gable dormer and asphalt shingle covering, rafters, knee braces, and sawn wood bargeboard on dormer. Double hung three over one windows. One story recessed full front porch with short truncated wood posts on weatherboard covered balustrade. Exterior end brick chimney. Brick foundation. Irregular plan.
A. Roofs
1. The shape of replacement roofs or roofs on new construction shall imitate the shapes of roofs on neighboring existing houses or other houses of the same architectural style. Roof pitch shall duplicate the 12/12 pitch most often found in the neighborhood or replicate the pitch of neighboring building. Roof shapes shall be complex, using a combination of hips with gables, dormers where appropriate to the style, turrets, or other features that emphasize the importance of Victorian-era or Craftsman styling.
3. Repair or replace roof details (chimneys, roof cresting, finials, attic vent windows, molding, bargeboards and other unique roof features). Use some of these details in designing new buildings.
4. Materials used in roofing existing buildings or new construction shall duplicate the roofing materials originally found in the neighborhood. Asphalt or fiberglass shingles can be appropriate, as are wood, slate, standing seam metal, or metal shingle or tile roof coverings. The color of roofing materials should be a dark green, charcoal gray, black or dark reddish brown to simulate the original roof colors.
7. Gutters shall be half-round if they are replacing half-round gutters; newly installed gutters may be half-round with round downspouts if they are installed on Victorian-era buildings.
B. Windows
1. Original windows shall be reused if possible. It will be much less expensive and much better historically to retain the original windows, and it is inappropriate to replace them with new windows that differ in size, material or pane division.
2. If replacement windows are necessary, they shall be the same overall size as the originals, with the same pane division and the same muntin depth, width and profile. They shall be the same materials as the original windows, which were generally wood.
5. It can be appropriate to design and install additional windows on the rear or another secondary elevation. The design must be compatible with the overall design of the building.
6. Windows may not be blocked in. They must retain the full height and width of the original opening.
8. Reuse existing, serviceable window hardware.
C. Porches
1. Historic porches on houses in Old North Knoxville should be repaired, or may replicate the original porch if documentation of its size and design can be discovered.
5. Porches and balconies visible from a street may not be enclosed unless the enclosure provides as much transparency as existed prior to the enclosure and is designed to be immediately removable.
6. A wood porch floor may not be replaced with a poured concrete floor, which will absorb and retain moisture and eventually damage the structure, as well as the appearance of the building.
D. Entrances
6. Service (rear) entrances may not be altered to make them appear to be formal entrances by adding paneled doors, fanlights, transoms or sidelights.
7. Secondary entrances must be compatible with the original in size, scale and materials, but clearly secondary in importance.
E. Wood Wall Coverings
1. Synthetic siding is inappropriate and is not allowed either as replacement siding on existing buildings or new siding in new construction.
3. Replacement siding must duplicate the original. Trim and patterned shingles that must be replaced must also duplicate the original material.
5. Wooden features shall be repaired by patching, piecing-in, or otherwise reinforcing the wood. Repair may also include limited replacement with matching or compatible substitute materials, when elements remain and can be copied.
6. Wood features that are important in defining the overall historic character of the building shall not be removed.
7. Replace only deteriorated wood. Reconstructing in order to achieve a uniform or "improved," "new" appearance is inappropriate because of the loss of good historic materials.
8. An entire wooden feature that is too deteriorated to repair or is completely missing shall be replaced in kind. If features are replaced, the materials they are made from shall be compatible with the original in size, scale and material. Replacement parts should be based on historical, pictorial and physical documentation.
F. Masonry Wall Coverings
3. Evaluate the overall condition of the masonry to determine whether more than protection and maintenance are required.
4. Identify and preserve masonry features that define the historic character of the building, including walls, railings, foundations, chimneys, columns and piers, cornice and door and window pediments.
5. Replace an entire masonry feature that is too deteriorated to repair. Use the remaining physical evidence to guide the new work, and match new to old. Examples can include large sections of a wall, a cornice, balustrade, columns, stairways or chimneys.
6. If historical, pictorial or physical documentation cannot be found about a masonry feature, a modern design sympathetic to the building would be more appropriate than a hypothetical historical one. A new masonry feature should be compatible in size, scale, material and color.
7. Match replacement mortar to the original mortar in color, composition, profile and depth. If necessary, analyze the original mortar to determine the proportions of lime, sand and cement. A "scrub" technique shall not be used to repoint. The width or joint profile shall not be changed unless the change will return the joint to its original appearance. Sound mortar should not be removed.
8. Never repoint with mortar of high Portland cement content, unless that is the content of the original mortar.
9. Historic masonry shall not be coated with paint, stucco, vapor permeable water-repellent coatings or other non-historic coatings.