Washington Trust for Historic Preservation Announces “List of Endangered Properties”, & Includes Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern Homes
Yesterday, on May 26th, 2009, the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation (WTHP), a 501(c)3 non profit organization, announced at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle their “List of Endangered Properties”.
The “list” is essentially a list of historic resources in Washington State, that the WTHP has determined to be architecturally and historically significant enough to merit inclusion.
The designation is solely to raise awareness and advocate for preservation, and does not have any regulatory bearing on anyone’s property (in other words, property owners may do whatever they wish with their properties, including adding a room or redeveloping their property).
By listing particular properties, the WTHP commits to efforts to raise awareness about the historical resources, and to advocate for and work to preserve and protect the resources for one year, after which, they are placed on WTHP’s “watch list”.
The Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern homes were placed on the WTHP list due to the recent development that they could be the largest contiguous collection of Mid-Century Modern homes in Washington State.
See the list at (click here): http://www.wa-trust.org/MostEndangered/index.htm
Additionally, the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) recently determined that the M/N homes are “eligibile” to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
Another determining factor for the listing was the potentially negative impacts, including right of way acquisition (or condemnation), and other major impacts from some of Sound Transit’s potential alignments for East Link light rail.
Seattle City Council members Sally Clark and Dow Constantine spoke in support of historic preservation at the announcement, as did Bellevue City Council member Conrad Lee, who read excerpts from the City of Bellevue’s June 21, 2007 Proclamation that specifically mentions the architectural and historical significance of the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern architecure.