Galveston Landmark Commission Annual Project

“I’m Michael Culpepper and I’m a Landmark Commissioner.”

When I’m speaking with someone who’s not completely familiar with the Landmark Commission (LC) and what we do, I feel like I’m in an AA meeting and saying something that I should be embarassed about. Well now we are doing something that everyone can be proud of. If you’re not following me, let me give you a little background:

The LC oversees and regulates exterior changes to structures in the local historic districts, conservation districts, and designated Galveston Landmarks. The local historic districts are: Strand/Mechanic, East End, Silk Stocking, and Lost Bayou. Our lone conservation district is San Jacinto. Galveston landmarks number about 15 or so and are structures that the owner applied to have landmarked and fall under the same design standards as buildings in the historic districts. If you’re not asleep by now, let me explain it in laymen’s terms.

Let’s say you want to put a new door on your house and you are in a historic district…. we look at how appropriate your current door is to your house, how appropriate the new one would be, and most importantly how our “design standards” address these issues. At this point, we let you know whether you’re good to go, we tell you no, or often we give you an alternative option.

Lots of people think we are the Galveston Historical Foundation, more think they are us. There is a lot of confusion about what can and can’t be done and to try to explain it all in a blog is only going to add to the confusion. Needless to say, some are perterburbed by our decisions. However, this weekend, we have a project that all will agree with….. well hopefully.

This Saturday, May 12th, starting at 8:00 am at 1005 Church Ave. we will be replacing a chain-link fence with a new white picket fence at a beautiful house that is well maintained. We simply want to replace the fence with one that is more compatible with the district. We will get the project done by the end of the day. Here’s a before picture: (I will update with an after picture after the project is done.)

1005 Church Ave.

We could still use a few hands on Saturday. If you are available to volunteer, please email me at mikie@ibcgalveston.com. We will supply all tools and will have jobs for all skill levels.

Please let me know if you’d like to help.

I’d also like to thank our sponsors: Ideal Lumber has donated all of the wood to be used for the new fence, IBC has paid for costs such as hardware, permits, the event banner, and incidentals. Devoe Paint on Broadway is our official paint supplier, and Tom Schwenk a Realtor with The House Company has provided paint supplies. Thank You to all of our sponsors!

As promised… here are some during and after pictures!