Deciding whether to replace 11 original windows on the third floor of downtown Oneonta’s oldest brick building could set a precedent for future historic renovation projects.
Marcela Micucci, executive director of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society, debated Monday, March 10 with the members of the city’s Landmarks and Historical Preservation Commission about whether to replace or restore the GOHS’s third-floor windows as part of a renovation of the third-floor ballroom.
The commissioners believe the windows should be original and are weighing restoration versus replacement, but Micucci is strongly in favor of replacement due to the high cost of restoration.
“We are a little bit at odds with the Landmarks Commission right now,” Micucci, who is also chairperson of the city’s Planning Commission, said Thursday. “This is the first case for historic window replacement-slash-restoration that has come to the Landmarks Commission, so this decision for them will likely set a precedent for window restoration replacement, not only in historic downtown, but in any historic district in Oneonta.”
The roughly 2,000-square-foot third floor currently under construction will feature a kitchenette and ADA-compliant bathrooms, as well as space to display large objects in the society’s 10,000-item historical artifacts collection. Micucci said the space also could be used as a community gathering space.
Micucci advocated for replacing three windows on the Main Street side of the building and eight on the Dietz Street side — one of which is already broken and patched with blue painter’s tape — to ensure the third floor’s future functionality and to create an energy-efficient and climate-controlled environment to store artifacts.
The windows in poor condition — with broken rope pulley systems and rotted frames — may cost thousands to restore, which is financially challenging, Micucci said. Replacement would have minimal effect on the historic aesthetic, she added.
“As a preservationist myself, and as many of our members are, it’s not like we want to get rid of the original windows, but we have to do what’s best for the purposes of the third floor,” she said.
Construction started in late January, focusing on cleaning out the third floor and removing oversized objects. The original plaster from 1865 is still present, though it is paper-thin and in poor condition. The original bandstand will be refurbished and remain a significant historical feature of the third floor, Micucci said.
The GOHS building at 183 Main St. was built in the 1860s and added to the National Historic Registry in 2003. The third floor is accessible by elevator and stairs from a door on Main Street.
The basis for the commission’s concern is whether the windows are a character-defining feature of the building and if the changes would adversely affect the historical significance of the building. The commission tabled the decision until the April 14 meeting, awaiting additional restoration estimates.
The windows on the second floor, which contains the library, object and archival collections and is not open to the public, have been replaced with one-over-one rectangular windows. The third-floor windows would be in the same two-over-two style and look nearly identical, Micucci said.
“I think blocking us from being able to potentially move forward with the renovation of our third floor,” she said, “because of windows that will look nearly identical, despite being functional and energy efficient, I just think that that’s a disservice to the community in general.”