Home Improvement

From the National Register of Historic Places to local historic districts and commissions, navigating rules around your old home

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When Rob Hardy bought his most recent home in Topsfield, known as the French-Andrews House, the purchase and sale agreement required he return the three jacks being used to hold up its structure. The current timberframe saltbox was built in 1718, with its oldest elements dating to 1675.

Hardy, who formerly “figured out how to make things work” alongside process engineers at the Campbell’s Company, realized that his professional experience translated well to figuring out the workings of historic home restoration — this one is his seventh.

The home, one of the oldest properties in the country, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In a state with a housing stock as old as Massachusetts, owners and hobbyists such as Hardy may be buying into such designations, but not all lists and registries are the same.

From homes entered on the National Register to local historical society programs that offer a dated display plaque, there are different ways to connote a home’s history — and a range of responsibilities that may or may not come along with them.

What you can and cannot do to modify a historic home can be ambiguous territory, but Hardy said there was very little required of him by the National Register. Locally, he has worked with Topsfield’s local historical commission while managing the current restoration, and he said it has been positive working partnership.

“If you wanted to take a 1690s farmhouse and turn it into a Swedish white box, that’s not going to go, right?” he said. When the local commission suggested cedar shakes, he pointed out it was going to cost him $90,000; he pitched a $35,000 alternative, which they accepted.

“They grumbled a little bit and said, ‘Yeah, but you’re going to do the right thing to preserve the rest of the house, so OK.’”

Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, which was created in 1966 and is maintained by the National Park Service, are supervised in Massachusetts by the state’s Historical Commission. There are thousands of Massachusetts properties on the National Register. They have limited protections from federal or state projects, and are generally recognized as important.

But it’s local commissions that are more involved in what restoration looks like. Local historic districts, usually designated by local commissions that are established by town and city councils, may review proposed changes and likely provide more protections (and restrictions) to changes that may alter character of the home. Interiors are exempt from these conversations, and some exterior features may be negotiable, such as paint colors or temporary structures.

“The biggest thing I learned early on is figure out who your team is,” said Hardy. For him, that meant an architect experienced with very old structures and a highly specialized stone mason. “It’s a matter of finding the different players that will work and play well together,” he said.

No federal or state programs assist in restoration work, but Community Preservation Act funds may offer resources at a local level.

In Duxbury, residents may apply to the local historical commission for their home to be voluntarily placed in a historic district, which may be as small as the property itself, said commission chair Pamela Campbell Smith, who also works as an architect. As neighbors join in, the collective effort can help preserve what Smith described as a cohesive streetscape. So far, 14 districts have been established in town, representing 43 properties that are at least 60 years old. Historic preservation conversations are ripe for ambiguity, so the commission maintains a list it calls Myth Busters to help provide some clarity.

“That’s where it says, ‘Am I allowed to have an air conditioner in the window?’ And we’ll say, ‘Yeah, you know, we want you to be comfortable,’” said Smith. “‘Am I allowed to paint my house purple?’ We would say that probably wouldn’t be our choice; We probably wouldn’t encourage it, but if in the end there’s a hardship and we want that house painted and you want to paint it purple, you can deal with your neighbors. In the end, we’re trying to preserve Duxbury’s architecture.”

That’s different from a “dateboard,” which is issued by the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society, for homes older than 75 years. Participants in that program create a home history kept on file, and no restrictions are placed on properties.

Dateboard markers and signs are often offered by local historical societies — sometimes as fund-raisers — to acknowledge a home’s age, but usually omit the requirements and conversations that might be required of a home in a formal historic district (although it is certainly possible that someone might have one and also be located in a historic district). Check with your local historic society for their guidelines; In some cases, modifications may impact how you qualify, but often not.

“Most marker programs grew out of the historic preservation movement of the ‘70s and the ‘80s, and they were meant to promote preservation,” said Lisa Dady, director of Historic Newton. “They figured if we put plaques on things, it will incentivize people to take care of their homes.”

Newton has four local historic districts — Auburndale, Chestnut Hill, Newton Upper Falls, and Newtonville — that acknowledge “historic or architectural value.” But Historic Newton allows any house to apply for a house marker sign, regardless of year built or location in the city.

“We decided to do something differently, which is to acknowledge that every building has history, and even if it’s covered in vinyl, or even if someone took off their wood railing and put on the metal railing,” said Dady. “It doesn’t mean that the people who lived there when there was a wood railing weren’t important, and it doesn’t mean that the people who live there now aren’t important, and it doesn’t mean that that physical structure doesn’t embody the history of the city.”

So far, about 900 homeowners have chosen to participate. Just five of the 955 total signs they’ve given out were built in the 20th century; most were built between 1870 and 1920, which represents a building boom period in Newton. The earliest marker they’ve issued is for a house built in 1729, and the most recent is 2010.

“We will not discriminate,” she said. “All of the people who have markers on their houses are kind of like curators of Newton’s history.”