LEBANON — City officials are considering whether to add several buildings to Lebanon’s Colburn Park Historic District as part of an update to the downtown neighborhood’s designation in the National Register of Historic Places.
A proposal put forward earlier this month would see structures such as the 1917 Carter Community Building, the pedestrian mall, built in 1970, and Lebanon Village Market, built in 1971. The new listings would join 19 others already in the district, including City Hall, Rogers Place and the Soldiers Memorial Building.
Rebecca Owens, an associate planner with the city, said Monday that the update is meant to include buildings that were either overlooked or not old enough for inclusion when the historic district was formed in 1985.
Since then, Owens said, the 1937 post office and fire station built in 1954 both became eligible as “contributing” properties.
The threshold to be part of the district — 50 years old — means that historians are actively looking into buildings constructed up to 1971, she said.
New additions would be “within virtual sight” of either Colburn Park or other properties already on the district list, according to Lyssa Papazian, a Vermont-based historic preservation consultant hired to plan the district update.
Papazian told the city’s Heritage Commission earlier this month that none of the possible additions are single-family homes, a reflection of how downtown has changed since 1792 when Robert Colburn sold what would become Colburn Park to the city for the site of its first meetinghouse.
“I actually think that change over time reinforces and contributes to the significance of this as a town common,” Papazian said. “It’s the way a town developed into a city around its common.”
Whether a building can be considered for “contributing” status within the historic district largely depends on two factors: age and whether it has been altered significantly since construction.
For instance, the Mascoma Bank building could technically make the list because of its 1950 construction date. However, Papazian said, the current structure is too far removed from its original design — a colonial revival facade with white-trimmed, multi-paned windows regularly spaced apart.
“It looks very post-modern now,” Papazian told the commission.
She acknowledged that her decision to add Lebanon Village Market could prove controversial, as many residents might not consider a defunct grocery store as historic.
“It’s kind of an odd building architecturally, but it is a mid-century modern style, which is gaining significance now,” she said.
Other buildings that require more research include the information booth and bandstand at Colburn Park. The latter was built in 1960 but didn’t have a roof until the 1990s, Papazian said.
She added that several nearby residential neighborhoods and remnants of Lebanon’s mills also could receive historic status on the National Register. But Papazian recommended that the city submit those separately because of their distance from Colburn Park and a history that sometimes diverges from the town center.
“You’ve got a lot of historic properties,” she said.
Heritage Commission members are expected to discuss Papazian’s proposal at their next meeting on April 14.
Fran Hanchett, president of the Lebanon Historical Society and a commission member, said Monday that she’s in favor of moving forward.
Hanchett said she’s especially pleased that some altered structures aren’t included.
“Right there on the mall, some of those buildings changed so drastically that I don’t think they should be put on the list,” she said.
Adding new properties to the historic district would not change how they’re regulated under city ordinance, according to Owens, who added that property owners would be notified before the update process wraps up this summer.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@ vnews.com or 603-727-3223.