Local Historic District Proposed Peaceful Valley Working To Preserve Neighborhood’s Architectural Flavor

Peaceful Valley residents have signed on with a consultant in their efforts to become Spokane’s second local historic district.

The Peaceful Valley community received a $7,500 state grant last year. It will be combined with $2,000 of the community’s own funds to pay the Nashville, Tenn.-based consultant, Thomason & Associates.

Residents hope to preserve the character of Peaceful Valley, home to several turn-of-the-century houses. The area, once called “Poverty Flats,” was an immigrant neighborhood whose residents worked as laborers and servants to the wealthy families of nearby Browne’s Addition.

Peaceful Valley was named to the national historic register in 1984.

Many of the neighborhood homes stand out for their narrow build, lap siding and the trim around doors and windows.

Neighbors met Tuesday to discuss the guidelines for future homes built in the neighborhood.

“What I like is they just feel like homes,” said Charlie Greenwood, a 26-year Peaceful Valley resident and community development neighborhood coordinator. He lives in a house built in 1910.

“My fear is, we don’t want a geodesic dome, but we don’t want a little Bavarian village, either,” said neighbor Sali Combelic.

Combelic began looking into local historic status after a developer built a triplex on Clarke Avenue in 1996. She said that led to the realization that the whole neighborhood could be lost to new development.

Only one other Spokane area - Corbin Park in the North Side’s Emerson-Garfield neighborhood - has met local historic district status.

To qualify, a neighborhood must prove its historical significance either through its architecture, its people or its archaeology and historic events. Fifty-one percent of neighbors must vote in favor for local historic status to be approved.

Such status allows residents to draw up strict guidelines protecting the neighborhood from development deemed destructive to the historic character. This can mean everything from setback of the house to door and roof styles.

Residents may also qualify for tax incentives, including credits for making home improvements.

“The goal is to be able to do compatible new construction without getting into so many details,” said Teresa Brum, Spokane’s historic preservation officer. “You don’t want to tie the hands of the architects; you just want to guide them.”

The consultant likely will make two visits to the Peaceful Valley community to help establish guidelines for future building in the neighborhood, said Brum.

The visits probably will occur in April and May.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETINGS SCHEDULED The Peaceful Valley community will meet from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month through June at the Peaceful Valley Community Center, 214 N. Cedar.