The
origins of this project date back to 2002 when the West Central
neighborhood council set aside $10,000 in community funds for the
preparation of a National Register District nomination when property owner
Metropolitan Mortgage entered into discussions with National Town Builders
to develop the Summit property, located on the southern edge of the West
Central neighborhood, south of West Bridge in Nettleton’s 1st
Addition. The council was concerned about possible speculative loss of
historic housing stock adjacent to the Summit site, and therefore
identified areas of lower property values where speculation would be of
greatest concern. National Register designation was viewed as a tool to
assist the neighborhood in planning for growth, and to promote its unique
character. Therefore, the neighborhood looked at justifiable boundaries
for a historic district, and through a windshield survey conducted with
assistance from the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation
(DAHP),
decided upon the original platted neighborhood pattern. Since the
neighborhood was interested in offering benefit to the largest number of
houses possible, Nettleton’s 1st and 2nd Additions
were chosen because they offered the largest geographic area, with
generally smaller lot sizes, and therefore a correspondingly higher number
of properties. Additionally, Nettleton’s Addition provided a range of
house styles and forms that offer insight into the history and development
pattern of the area. Though Metropolitan Mortgage’s deal with National
Town Builders unraveled shortly thereafter, in April 2003, the
neighborhood voted to proceed with the district in response to
Metropolitan Mortgage’s development discussions with Seattle-based
developer Nitze-Stagen. During
the summer of 2003, preservation consultant Diana Painter of Painter
Preservation and Planning, was hired to prepare a National Register
nomination for Nettleton’s 2nd Addition. At this time, it was
determined that an earlier 1991 historic inventory of West Central was
outdated and incomplete. During the fall of 2003, preservation planner
Chris Hansen, of the Spokane City-County Historic Preservation
Office,
started work on the historic resources inventory. With
the combined efforts of West Central neighborhood volunteers, West Central
Historic Preservation Committee Chair Kevin Brownlee, preservation
consultant Diana Painter, Spokane
Preservation Advocates (SPA), and the
Spokane City-County Historic Preservation Office, the inventory of
historic resources within Nettleton’s 2nd Addition was
completed in accordance with the guidelines established by the Washington
State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) in
Olympia, Washington. Following
public neighborhood volunteer meetings in April and May 2004, and
additional consultation with DAHP, it was determined at that time that
Nettleton’s 1st Addition should be included in the National
Register District nomination. Platted at the same time as the 2nd
Addition and by the same person, the inclusion of the 1st
Addition nearly doubled the size of the originally proposed historic
district. At that time, however, the West Central neighborhood council had
no additional funding to support the project. In
April 2004, West Central neighborhood volunteers and Spokane Preservation
Advocates volunteers began photographing every property in Nettleton’s 1st
Addition. These volunteers
met again in May 2004 to correlate the processed photographs with physical
street addresses. During
this time, Neighborhood Preservation Chair Kevin Brownlee and Historic
Preservation Director Teresa Brum began fundraising efforts to support the
second phase of the project. They
first met with Nitze-Stagen representatives who expressed interest in
working within a historic district. Nitze-Stagen
donated $5,000 as a matching challenge to the community.
The neighborhood used those funds to obtain a Spokane Preservation
Advocates Heritage Matching Fund grant of $5,000.
Teresa Brum then applied to the Office of Trade and Economic
Development, describing the neighborhood/developer/non-profit
collaboration, and received an additional $10,000 in funding.
From these funds, a $15,000 contract covering Nettleton’s 1st
Addition was secured with Diana Painter and $5,000 was reserved for
promotional activities and signage upon adoption of the district. Beginning in June 2004, Aimee E. Flinn, of the Spokane City-County Preservation Office, began the process of creating database inventory forms for each property in Nettleton’s 1st Addition, and additionally completing existing forms for the 2nd Addition. With an initial draft nomination and completed inventory forms for the 2nd Addition, Aimee E. Flinn and Kevin Brownlee met with the West Central neighborhood council to apprise them of progress in August 2004. The survey of every single property within Nettleton's 1st and 2nd Additions was completed in September 2004 and the corresponding inventory forms were completed by the end of 2004. On February 9, 2005, Diana Painter, Teresa Brum, Aimee Flinn and Kevin Brownlee presented the completed draft National Register District nomination for Nettleton’s Addition Historic District, including both Nettleton’s 1st and 2nd Additions, to the West Central neighborhood council. On April 20, 2005, the nomination was reviewed by the Spokane Landmarks Commission who forwarded it to the Governor's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). ACHP reviewed the nomination in June 2005 following a tour of the district by Advisory Council members. ACHP recommended the district for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Nettleton’s was listed on the Washington State Heritage Register on June 28, 2005. On March 22, 2006, Nettleton's was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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City/County
of Spokane Historic Preservation Office e-mail kmarshall@spokanecity.org |
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