Charnwood District Added To Nation's Historical Places
Tyler Morning Telegraph - Friday,October 8, 1999
By GREG JUNEK, Staff Writer
More than four years of work paid off for Charnwood neighborhood residents, as they saw their residential area accepted to the National Register of Historic Places.
Janie Chilcote, Historic Tyler Inc. executive director, said she received a letter Thursday from Texas Historical Commission Executive Director Larry Oaks that verified the National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, approved the status for Charnwood.
She said the status "puts us on par with the Swiss Avenue historic district in Dallas, King William district in San Antonio and probably the Strand in Galveston."
Ms. Chilcote said the vote was taken at the federal level in August, and the results were posted on the Internet, but she wanted to see the official letter before making an announcement.
"We are thrilled that it has been officially done," she said. "It's been a long time coming. We've been planning this. We started the survey in 1994."
Boundaries of the historical district are South Broadway Avenue on the west, East Dobbs and East Wells streets on the south, South Donnybrook Avenue and railroad tracks east of South Oakland Avenue on the east and East Houston Street on the north.
The National Register is the official federal list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects important in American history, archeology, engineering, architecture and culture. Although the register is a national program, its listings can be significant to the history of local communities, states and the nation, according to information from the Texas Historical Commission's State Board of Review.
That board, meeting in Tyler last November, unanimously voted to recommend the Charnwood neighborhood for the National Register.
The process of nominating the neighborhood for National Register status began in the mid-1990s with a Historic Tyler-initiated survey to identify, document and research all historic structures 50 years old and older. Private donations paid for the study.
Preservation consultant Diane Williams continued her study with in-depth research in 1997 to determine the feasibility of the neighborhood becoming Tyler's first National Register historic district. Mrs. Chilcote said private monies were used to match a state grant, which funded this research.
The neighborhood, Historic Tyler and local foundations supplied $7,500 for work in 1998, she said, which allowed Ms. Williams to write the nomination report that helped convince the THC State Board of Review to nominate it to the federal level.
"Really it was the neighbors who funded this," Ms. Chilcote said, " ... but really I think it's the kind of thing that will benefit the whole city."
Ms. Chilcote said property values tend to rise 5 to 20 percent when neighborhoods are named to the National Register of Historic Places. The status causes an increase in heritage tourism and crime tends to decrease in such designated districts, she said.
Charnwood residents will celebrate the status during a Nov. 9 ribbon-cutting and festivities, Ms. Chilcote said.
