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51 Homes in Proposed Manree Park Historic District
Asiyanbi, Heather. The Racine County Eye, January 6, 2015.
If city officials decide to apply for the designation, a good majority of Orchard Street and some of Russet Street in Manree Park will be the area's newest historic district.
An additional five homes are individually identified as historically significant but are not part of the proposed district.
Joe DeRose from the Wisconsin Historical Society and Rowan Davidson from Legacy Architecture Tuesday presented study results of the Manree Park area to a group of about 30 interested residents at Goodland Elementary.
DeRose explained that historic designation is an honorific title to identify significant properties and neighborhoods that might be associated with historically important people, events, architectural style or any combination of the three.
He also explained that homes can be identified as historically significant but not be part of a district. Likewise, a district may contain some homes that don't contribute to the designation, but the overarching rule is that walking in an historic district should feel like stepping back in time.
In the proposed Manree Park historic district, there are 47 contributing homes and 4 non-contributing homes.
The five homes identified individually range in age from 146 to 61 years old and are all located outside the proposed historic district. Davidson explained that they were chosen because they met one or more of the criteria.
The home at 4310 Washington, for example, is one of the only examples of the Italianate style outside of neighborhoods located near the center of the city. Davidson said it was built in 1868 and was the farm house for the area.
A home at 1001 Russet was built by John Randall McDonald, a renown architect from the early part of the 20th century, and the house at 4100 Haven is also on the list of individual properties because it's a great example of the mid-century moderne/minimalist style that took hold in the years following World War II.
Rounding out the list are homes located at 4001 Haven and at 3908 Washington.
Applying for and receiving historic designation can take six to 12 months.
Assistant Director of City Development Matt Sadowski said the study will be available on the city's website in about a week. A hard copy can be browsed at the Racine Public Library.