New York Times Article – A Protected Queens Bungalow Can Change Owners, but Little Else
Source: New York Times
A Protected Queens Bungalow Can Change Owners, but Little Else
APRIL 13, 2015
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The Ferrigno House, built in 1923, in the Broadway-Flushing section of Queens. Any major work, inside or out, must receive not only permits from the city but also the permission of the seller: the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The Appraisal
By MATT A.V. CHABAN
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Beneath the living room’s Hershey-hued oak coffers and beside its stately red-brick fireplace stood a small wooden side table, looking as old as the house itself. A sign-in sheet lay on the table, and a pile of thick, colorful folders.
Inside each folder were two thick packets. They contained professionally shot photographs, detailed floor plans and facts about the house, a 1923 bungalow, and its neighborhood, Broadway-Flushing in Queens, where suburban tracts were laid out in 1906.
This was not the average sales brochure, though, its contents as likely to scare off buyers as sell them.
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The documents detail what an owner can and — more often — cannot do to the property. The upper floor, really a half floor, may not be expanded. The shed, now a shambles, cannot be replaced; it must be rebuilt as it once was. No trees may be planted or fences erected that would obscure the view of the house. There are regulations for flagpoles and sanding the considerable woodwork, and even for tents (none can be pitched for more than 30 days).
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The stairs have sumptuous woodwork, but the upper floor, with two bedrooms and a half-bath, cannot be expanded. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Any major work, inside or out, must not only receive permits from New York City but also the permission of the seller: the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“We want someone who, the moment they walk in the door, falls in love with the house as it is,” said Shantia Anderheggen, director of the easement program at the trust. “If they love the home, they will be less inclined to want to change it, thinking, ‘Oh, where am I going to put the bathroom?’”
That may sound onerous, but the trust is fulfilling not only its own wishes but also those of the home’s previous owners, Nicholas and Marjorie Ferrigno. Local fixtures for half a century, they are among roughly 120 property owners in 24 states who have deeded their properties to the trust for continuing protection.
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A rusted ceiling fan on the back porch. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The arrangement ensures conservation in perpetuity through a “preservation easement” to which the buyer must agree. And the sale also creates a windfall for the nonprofit, based in Washington.
“It’s a great way to protect a historic property without having to own it,” Stephanie Meeks, the trust’s president, said.
The trust oversees properties as varied as Philip Johnson’s Glass House, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Davies firehouse in San Francisco and the Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate in Lenox, Mass. But a good two-thirds of the trust’s easements are for simple vernacular homes that are exemplary only of a particular place, time or style of architecture.
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A ground-floor room abutting the kitchen. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times
“We were actually drawn to the Ferrigno House precisely because it was so typical of homes built in the streetcar suburbs of the 1920s,” Ms. Anderheggen said. “It may not look special, but that’s what makes it special.”
Despite New York’s rich history, or perhaps because of it and the myriad preservation movements it spawned, the Ferrigno House is the first property in the city’s five boroughs to come under the aegis of the trust.
The Ferrignos moved into the home, at 33-37 163rd Street, on the day they were married in 1955, and less than a decade later founded the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association. It was created to protect the neighborhood’s character on the eve of the 1964 World’s Fair, when that familiar New York anxiety set in: a tourist invasion. Even today, homes must follow the Rickert-Finlay covenants, laid down by the original developer, that limit what can be done to a property, including prohibitions on fences and flat roofs.
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Some elements, like this midcentury light fixture off the kitchen, may be altered or removed. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The Ferrignos doted on the neighbors, and really their homes, as if they were the children they never had. “Nick was the nicest guy, but he had no reservations about approaching someone in their yard and telling them the dos and don’ts of the covenant,” said Robert Hanophy Jr., the current president of the homeowners association who lives two doors down.
Mr. Ferrigno died five years ago, and his wife three years later. Before they died, they got Broadway-Flushing added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, which provides recognition but not protection for the area. With no one to inherit the house, and more crucially to protect it, the couple donated it to the trust in 2007. They were especially worried about it being torn down for a modern McMansion, an increasingly common problem in the neighborhood.
“They wanted to lead by example,” said Sandi Viviani, a friend and past president of the homeowners association.
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A shelf and light fixture. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The Ferrigno House came on the market in March for $849,000 with Amorelli Realty, based in Astoria, Queens. That puts it below the neighborhood average of $1.25 million for a single-family house, according to StreetEasy.com. But it could also be a lot to ask for a property with many restrictions on it that simultaneously needs a thorough renovation.
Between those beautiful oak coffers are some light brown stains from a pipe that burst during the winter. The dining room and stairs have sumptuous woodwork, but the kitchen is woefully outmoded, and the electrical should be replaced. The only full bath is downstairs, next to the master bedroom, another peculiarity.
“I think it’s great what they’re doing to protect the house, but I can’t think of many modern families that would pay that kind of money and not have a full bathroom on the second floor,” said Paul Graziano, president of Associated Cultural Resource Consultants, a local preservation firm.
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The Sydenham House in Newark, built in 1712, is the oldest home in New Jersey. The trust let the owners update two bathrooms and add a third downstairs in the old pantry. Credit Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Ms. Viviani’s son expressed interest in the home until he learned he could not knock out the rear dormers to enlarge the two upstairs bedrooms and the half-bath. Ms. Anderheggen said that would diminish the property’s bungalow character.
“We’re not trying to turn these into museum pieces,” Ms. Anderheggen said, “but we do have an obligation to protect what makes them worthy of preservation.”
There are buyers who can appreciate such an arrangement — for the right price.
Stephen Olivier and his family left Brooklyn for an entrusted property in Newark in 2013. The Sydenham House, built in 1712, is the oldest home in New Jersey, with stone walls, beamed ceilings and five fireplaces all worthy of Colonial Williamsburg. The real clincher, though, was when the price was reduced to $385,000, from $438,000.
The trust proved quite flexible with such a historic property. It let the family update two bathrooms and add a third downstairs in the old pantry.
Whatever restrictions there might be, Mr. Olivier said, they are well worth it. “How cool is it to feel like you’re living in the period rooms at the Met or the Brooklyn Museum every day?”
A version of this article appears in print on April 14, 2015, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: On the Market: A House With Many Restrictions.
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