JOINT TESTIMONY OF HISTORIC TAKOMA, INC., FAITH WHEELER AND SARA GREEN

6811, 6825, 6829, and 6833 Piney Branch Road, NW

635 Aspen Street, NW

January 18, 2006

Historic Takoma, Inc, Faith Wheeler and Sara Green are here to ask the HPRB to approve the existing windows as installed on the Education Building on 635 Aspen Street and take no enforcement action against the Takoma Park Baptist Church on the Education Building Windows in the context of our settlement agreement. A photograph of these windows is provided as the first photograph in your packet attached to this testimony.

This request is made in exchange for consideration of your approval of the significant preservation commitments made by the Takoma Park Baptist Church as part of our settlement agreement that preserves a portion of the historic windows on 6825, 6829 and 6833 Piney Branch Road, NW, three of the four residential properties owned by the Church (circled in the attached photographs).

These contiguous residences are contributing resources and particularly important because they are located at the gateway (boundary) of the Takoma Park Historic District (see photo 2). The windows and the buildings themselves are largely unaltered and thus provide significant historic context for our Takoma Park Historic District. The loss of original windows of such great variety and character would have seriously degraded these substantially intact historic resources.

In an effort to find a balanced solution to this very difficult issue, we began working with the Takoma Park Baptist Church, and together we have achieved a remarkable solution that will preserve important historic fabric. This solution required that difficult compromises be made by all parties and that all of the parties involved provide some financial commitment toward the repair and preservation of the windows involved in the settlement. Historic Takoma, Inc. has donated $5,000 to the Takoma Park Baptist Church toward the repair and preservation of the windows, and the Takoma Park Baptist Church has agreed to spend at least this amount in the repair and preservation of these windows.

As you see from your third photograph, the remarkable windows on 6825 Piney Branch Road, NW, will be largely preserved. The windows on this single house show remarkable integrity and unusual mix, with 8/8, 6/6, 4/4 and 2/2 pane configurations, an unusual variety. Five windows in the back of the house will be lost including the 2/2 casement window, but we did manage to also save the rear window on the one-story portion of the house, thereby keeping this room entirely intact. The original crescent attic windows will also remain intact because these windows were not slated for replacement.

The fourth photograph shows 6829 Piney Branch Road, NW, a very early bungalow that again has unusual variety in the window styles, with large vertical 4/1 and 3/1 windows and two 9-pane colored art glass windows that we believe are “special windows” under your standards. A picture of these colored art glass windows, with their textured glass, is included as the 5^th photo in your packet. Although we are losing all of the 3/1 windows that are located on the sides and rear of the resource, together with dormer windows on the rear, we have managed to save all of the large vertical 4/1 windows, which are located on the front and sides of the house, as well as the two colored art glass windows.

The 6th photograph shows 6833 Piney Branch Road, NW, which again has an unusual 9/1 configuration as well as two large casement windows, one in the front and one on the south side of the building. While we will be losing all of the 9/1 windows on this house, we are saving the two large casement window sets on the front and south side of the house, which are important and unusual. The curved attic windows were not intended to be replaced.

Finally, we have included a photo of 6811 Piney Branch Road, NW. Because this resource has the least unusual pane configuration (6/1) within our historic district and has the least variety of window styles of the four structures, we have chosen to save windows on the other structures and hence all of the windows on this building will be replaced.

These windows that we are saving and preserving with our settlement agreement, with their original wood material and character glass, are important to the historicity of our Takoma Park residences and the integrity of our Historic District. They are character-defining architectural features that are vital to preserve. We greatly appreciate the efforts of all involved to find a balanced solution to this difficult situation, and we particularly wish to thank the Takoma Park Baptist Church representatives Hugh Brown and Joe Hairston, the Window Place, and Jack Simmons of the District of Columbia for their hard work on this settlement.

Only because of what we have achieved with this settlement, we request that you take no enforcement action against the Takoma Park Baptist Church on permit violations at 635 Aspen Street. While we wish to state for the record that there may be some inaccuracies in the staff report regarding 635 Aspen Street, we agree with staff’s underlined recommendation only within the context of this agreement.