Letter to the editor: Don’t harm historic area with church addition

Editor’s note: The Historic District Commission is scheduled to discuss the First Parish Church at its meeting on Thursday, Nov. 13.

To the editor:

The First Parish Church in Lincoln, built in 1842, a beautifully made Asher Benjamin design on the Historic Register, is the center of our Historic District. The First Parish has proposed an addition, much larger than the church. The Historic District Commission is evaluating the appropriateness of that proposal. The first consideration of an addition might be to limit expansion to the least distraction from the historic church on a tiny lot.

At the October Historic District Commission meeting, the First Parish actually made a case for the primacy of the integrity of the addition itself, versus the integrity of the historic church, as they proposed north and south extensions with increased heights and widths, distracting from all views of the church. (Also proposed are metal roofs and a veneer chimney.) First Parish members felt extensions were necessary for coherence of the exterior addition design.

A cruciform shape should be contraindicated. Simplicity is the beauty of the white church.

First Parish reasons to [partially] demolish and enlarge:

1. Providing disabled-access toilets
2. Creating more adjacent space following weddings, memorial services and Sunday services
3. Basement mold removal

1. The need for one or two regulation wheelchair toilets is certainly legitimate (the new ones at Massachusetts General Hospital are for either sex). For toilets, no addition might be needed with an elevator and a new lower floor, or alternatively, a small enlargement squaring off the existing addition (a plan the congregation preferred earlier). The disabled-access path, ramp and door are unchanged and a larger roof over the entrance is offered.

2. To accommodate more people in the Stearns room after services, this 15-person gain in their proposal would require much less space than proposed. The space proposed is larger than the church itself, including passageways, gallery, spare meeting room, and unusable enlargement to the south for the integrity of the addition’s exterior design. Neither the existing Stearns room nor the proposed Stearns room could hold the churchful of people who might attend memorial services, weddings or some Sunday services in the white church. The stone church auditorium will continue to be available for larger group gatherings.

3. First Parish mold removal, which is actually deferred maintenance, finally had remediation this year. The Stearns room has been used continuously since it was deemed an “emergency” years ago. The mold must not require demolition, even if a recommendation to do so were made. The White Church on its small pastoral site could not appropriately tolerate metal roofs, much more glass, a veneer chimney, and higher and larger projections offending all sides.

The white church makes our unique Historic District extraordinary. Why make the extraordinary Historic District ordinary?

Sincerely,

Gerry and David Lattimore
2 Bedford Road

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