South Broadway District gets the HPC Seal

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- If the house has a oval plaque on the front, don't think of painting the red bricks on South Broadway any color anytime soon unless you've got permission.

The New Ulm Heritage Preservation Commission officially handed out the plaques that will mark the city's first local landmark district -- South Broadway -- on Friday afternoon.

One of those homeowners, Bonnie Lantz, lives in a two-story red brick Victorian house at 224 S. Broadway with her husband, Dr. Fred Falentin, who operates Broadway Chiropractic in portion of the first floor that faces Broadway.

Lantz, who has lived at 224 S. Broadway for 15 years, said she decided to designate as historic the former Firle Funeral Home in order to protect it.

"I just kept it as original as I could," she said.

Like Lantz and Falentin, the other South Broadway residents who chose to designate their houses as part of the district got the official city plaques that will held shield the exteriors of their Victorian red brick houses from the ravages of bad decks and ugly paint jobs on Friday afternoon.

Although the oval metal plaques aren't a new sight around town, they will represent New Ulm's first established local historical district.

In the past, properties in New Ulm have listed on the National Register of Historical Places and individual property owners have given their consent for local designations, but the South Broadway district is the first actual local landmark district, said Historic Preservation Commission chair Anne Makepeace.

"It's important and it really isn't the city doing this, it's the town and not every city does this," Makepeace said. "Individual property owners have designated but this is the first local landmark district."

"The whole mission of HPC is to do this kind of thing," she said.

An earlier HPC study identified 14 houses along the south end of Broadway that could be nominated for a historical designation and nine houses are actually part of the district.

The designations only affect the exteriors of the South Broadway houses, which have to stay as they were in the 1890s unless owners notify and receive approval of additions or major changes from the HPC. The designations do not apply to the houses' interiors.

Development of Broadway didn't start until the 1890s -- a period of economic expansion in New Ulm -- and when it did, many of the New Ulm merchant class, including newspaper editor Emil Wicherski, hardware store owner Carl Engelbert, clothing store owner J. Anton Ochs, drug store owner Ole Olsen, grocer Frank Behnke, well driller Fred Hamann, Hauenstein Brewery executive Martin Hose and the Eagle Roller Mill's Charles Silverson, built their homes on South Broadway. Materials came from the brickyards in New Ulm and Springfield.

Makepeace said the commission is trying to make designating a house or a building as a historical property less bureaucratic and doesn't want people to have the impression that the HPC is a 'Big Brother' for historical properties.

She said a homeowner wouldn't need to meet with the HPC if windows on a designated property were being repaired but local laws would require any homeowner with a Queen Anne looking to add a new porch, new paint or an addition to meet with the HPC before going to the city council for permission to make the addition.

Property owners have to get a form from the HPC or the city manager's office and complete the form with the property's significance, history and construction. The HPC will then evaluate the property based on seven principles and either recommend designation to the New Ulm City Council or deny the application.

Any HPC reccomendation is then considered by the New Ulm Planning Commission and then reviewed by the city council, which will read the designation and schedule a public hearing date. If the recommendation passes sucessfully, the listing will remain until the HPC decides it would need to be removed.