Good evening.

Welcome to the Tuesday seventeen June seventeen, twenty twenty-five.

Frederick City Historic Preservation Commission special hearing.

Frederick City Historic Preservation Commission uses the guidelines adopted by the mayor and the City Council.

And these guidelines are made a part of each and every case.

All cases were duly advertised in the Frederick News Post in accordance with Section 301 of the Land Management Code.

Introductions this evening on my left, the audience's right is HPC administrative assistant Anzi Creighton, and then Commissioner Ed McMahon, excuse me, Commissioner Ed McMahon, Commissioner Eva Soller, Commissioner Paul Fitzgerald, myself, Commissioner Robert Van Rennes, and Commissioner Anne Hart, and then Manager of Historic Preservation, Christina Martinkowski, and this assistant city attorney Iris Anon.

Everyone who has business before the Commission this evening or wishes to be heard, please rise and be sworn in.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the response is given and statements made in this hearing before the Historic Preservation Commission will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

If so, answer I do.

Thank you.

It is the purpose of the Historic Preservation Commission to safeguard the historical and cultural heritage of the City of Frederick by preserving such site structures or districts that reflect elements of cultural, social, economic, political, archaeological, or architectural history, to stabilize and improve the property values of such site structures or districts.

Excuse me, to foster civic beauty, to strengthen the local economy, and to promote the preservation and appreciation of such site structures and districts for the education and welfare of the City of Frederick, residents of the City of Frederick.

In order to be eligible to vote on an application, a commissioner must have made the required site visit and attended any and all meetings at which such an application was discussed in the event that a commissioner is absent from any such meeting.

The commissioner may satisfy the attendance requirement by reviewing the record of that meeting.

It is presumed if a commissioner makes no statement at this time that they have done so and are prepared to vote on the agenda this evening.

That being said, are there any commissioners with statements of eligibility?

All right, seeing none.

Are there any special announcements this evening?

No, none tonight.

All right.

We have no minutes to approve, and we have no uh no consent agenda or anything else.

So we will move on to the single case that is uh this evening's special hearing.

So if you would uh introduce case HPC 25-187 ZMA 12 Franklin, I'm sorry, 27 Franklin Street.

Thank you very much.

I want to enter the entire staff report into the record and um this uh PowerPoint presentation as well.

This is the Historic Preservations Commission application for historic preservation overlay zoning map amendment for 27 Franklin Street.

The stone building was constructed in 1924 and serves as a good example of ecclesiastic English Gothic architecture.

The property, the property historically served as St.

Timothy's Episcopal Church, which administered to the spiritual needs of the working class suburban community.

The property is comprised of a.84 acres of land situated on the east side of Franklin, the west side of Franklin Street in adjacent to Grove Park.

The Frederick Fairgrounds and East Patrick Street are located to the north.

This application was created as a result of a demolition review application, and the property is the property is zoned institutional with an airport overlay.

Per section 423B and C of the Land Management Code, City Council has the authority to designate boundaries for sites, structures, and districts that are deemed to be of historic architectural or archaeological significance.

In this process, the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning Commission serve as recommending bodies.

In short, all three criteria have to be met.

The site has to be at least 50 years of age.

And in this case, we know this building was constructed in 1924, so it meets this basic threshold.

Secondly, the building must retain historic integrity and it must hold significance.

And significance is defined as being associated with events or cultural groups if it's associated with significant people.

If it has archaeological significance that can provide information on history or prehistory, or exhibit significance in design or construction by embodying the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, representing the work of a master, or possessing high artistic values.

Over the next few slides, I'll be writing a historic context and an evaluation of its architecture and historic integrity that addresses the site's uh his eligibility for designation.

I do want to provide just a brief overview of the history of the Episcopal Church as it relates to the City of Frederick.

The church has been an important religious institution in Frederick since the very beginning.

The All Saints Parish was created before the City of Frederick was even founded in 1745.

And the earliest plat of Frederick highlights, shown here on this slide, the first two Episcopal Church sites in Frederick.

Now the Red Cross located in the lower right indicates the site of the very first church located on All Saints Street.

It was the English church of early Frederick, meaning that before the Declaration of Independence, before there was a constitution, whether or not you're a member of this church, you are taxed for its for the building's construction and its maintenance and the services that were held there.

However, this first building was a very undesirable site in a very undeveloped part of town with poor roads.

And by 1814, the church moved to the corner of church and court Street.

Now by this time, the American Revolution took place, and the Church of England England's congregations newly adopted name for themselves was the Episcopal Church.

However, this historical connection with the Church of England is often seen and their buildings as many episcopal churches embraced that early Gothic form and design that's so often found on English churches.

This connection, this historical connection can be seen on the church built in 1855 and still stands today, we're just feet from it, designed by noted architect Richard Upjohn, which is a stunning example of local Gothic revival architecture.

Now, again, this is absolutely expected from the Episcopal Church.

A real quick note this is the great 1841 map, which outlines all the public buildings in downtown Frederick.

And what's really interesting is that the vast majority of public buildings identified on this map are actually church buildings.

The Red Cross notes the location of the All Saints Episcopal Church, where the blue crosses represents other denominations.

One point I want to call out is the concentrated urban development and central location of churches.

People were centered downtown, and so were the churches.

However, I love this map because it also shows that a little bit of the Baltimore Turnpike running east from the city.