HARB Meeting October 1, 2025: Certificates of Appropriateness Approved for 323 Midland Ave and 205 St. David's Court
HARB Meeting October 1, 2025: Certificates of Appropriateness Approved for 323 Midland Ave and 205 St. David's Court
The Historical & Architectural Review Board (HARB) of Radnor Township convened on October 1, 2025 at 6:30 PM in the Radnorshire Room. The board unanimously approved two applications for certificates of appropriateness: a two-story rear addition at 323 Midland Avenue and a single-car garage with courtyard at 205 St. David's Court.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of meeting minutes from August 6, 2025: Moved, seconded, and approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Cynthia Johnson (owner, 205 St. David's Court): Provided a detailed account of the restoration of the historic Waltham Stowe stable (built 1892 by Horace Trumbauer), including challenges such as removing hay-filled floors, a horse-washing pit, and an oil tank. She expressed gratitude to architect Melanie and builder McKenna Builders, and noted the house has no attic, basement, or garage. She sought the board's approval.
Discussion Items
HARB 2025-11 – 323 Midland Avenue
- Applicant representatives: Allison and Christopher Colmer (new owners) presented a two-story rear addition with kitchen, mud room, family room, open porches, and shed dormers. The design matches existing materials (clapboard, stucco, cedar shingles), roofline (14:12 pitch), and architectural style. The addition extends the cross gable but does not exceed the existing roof height. Setbacks comply: 35+ feet side yards.
- Board reaction: Members praised the design as "thoughtful," "fully sympathetic," and "in harmony" with the neighborhood. They noted similar additions on adjacent properties. A motion for a certificate of appropriateness was made, seconded, and passed unanimously.
HARB 2025-12 – 205 St. David's Court
- Applicant representatives: The architect (not named in transcript) and owner Cynthia Johnson presented plans for a single-car garage with staircase, removal of a circular driveway, and creation of a grass courtyard. The garage is designed to be "diminutive" to preserve the prominence of the historic stable. Features include a jerkinhead roof, board-and-batten siding (with reduced batten width), beveled siding, true divided-light windows, shingle roof, hand-forged copper, exposed rafter tails, and a search for an antique weather vane. The goal is to paint the garage a pea-green color to match the stable.
- Board reaction: Members expressed appreciation for the "barn-inspired form" and sensitive design. A motion for a certificate of appropriateness was made, seconded, and passed unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- HARB 2025-11 (323 Midland Ave): Certificate of appropriateness approved unanimously.
- HARB 2025-12 (205 St. David's Court): Certificate of appropriateness approved unanimously.
- Next Meeting: November 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM. Applications due by October 21, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
Uh to this meeting of the historical and architectural review board uh for Wednesday, October 1st. Uh first on the agenda is a call to order. Uh second is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands on nation under God, indivisible, liberty, and justice for all. Okay. Next on the agenda is the approval of meeting minutes for August 6. Uh do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Approved. All those in favor. Aye. Meeting minutes are approved. Now we can get into the applications for board review. First, we have HARB 2025-11, 323 Midland Avenue. I think this is the third time for this one. So if you'd like to come up, uh share the latest round of changes, um, specifically those details that are visible externally uh briefly, and then we'll discuss as needed. So as you noted uh here for 323 Midland, uh under new owners, Allison and Christopher Colmer. So previous two applications were under a previous owner. Oh gotcha. Okay. Different architect, different owner, different project. Um the uh proposed addition to the uh structure here is solely at the rear of the main uh massing of the existing uh dwelling. Um proposed structure is two stories. Uh first floor is going to be kitchen, mud room, and uh family room. On the first sheet, you can kind of see the dark shaded area. Oh, real quick, can you um put the plans on the table there and then we'll have the camera going? Yeah, that way we can there you go. And just yeah, just kind of walk through it as you're as you're describing it. Thank you. Uh so as mentioned, there's uh the proposed edition is at the rear of the main body of the house. You can see kind of the the original rectangle of the house here, and then to the rear, the dark shaded area is the uh proposed increased uh footprint to the first floor level there. Um the lighter shaded areas here and here are uh single-story open porches, and then the hatched area uh the diagonals is proposed second floor area there to the rear. So matching the existing uh side yards on the right, and then conforming to the 25-foot requirement on the left-hand side, and uh the existing front of the home would remain as is untouched. Moving to the next sheet, we look at the uh proposed rear elevation. Um so uh if you're familiar with the home, um the front of the home is has basically uh one large gable coming off of a gambrel um kind of cross uh roof uh with two uh gable dormers coming off. So we're trying to extend the second floor and first floor utilizing the same pitch of those front cables, which is about a 14 on 12, um, and extending those toward the rear, uh capturing that space above while also tying into the main massing of the two and a half story structure as it is now. Uh so looking at the left side here, we've got the open porch here on here, um outdoor fireplace with a chimney extending up, stone on the base to match the existing house. Uh first floor um is currently a mix of painted white clapboard and painted white stucco. Uh we're choosing to build the clapboard. I'm not sure. It's a little bit of an anomaly on this house. There's one on the front, uh, one side is stucco and the other side is clap board. Um try to match that on the base, and then the sidewall shingles will be painted to match uh the existing as natural cedar. Um all windows would match trim to match roofing would match, and then the proposal is on the porches to do more of a metal standing seam roofing on those units there. Uh and then as well, you can see kind of the detailing um along here with the um in this case I'd probably do PVC brackets versus you know a wood bracket, but the intent is to match um the overall existing style of the home and try and make a uniform uh uh um aesthetic out of the condition here. Um the dormer that sheds off of the main gambrel, the upper portion of the gambrel. Currently it is uh shorter in here, kind of this triple window that you see noted as existing in here. The proposal is to extend that across here, as with the second floor edition. We're taking some windows out of the current stairway, so we'd be adding some windows into the interior stair to keep some natural lighting within that space there.
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