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MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A plan to remove brick pavers from a Martinsburg street as part of a streetscape project would have an “adverse effect” on the city’s historic district, West Virginia’s deputy state historic preservation officer said.
“We note that consideration was taken to evaluate ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate the adverse effect of the proposed (Martinsburg train station corridor) improvement project, however, we are unable to concur with the finding of no adverse effects,” Susan Pierce wrote in a Nov. 26 letter to Timothy Sedosky of the West Virginia Division of Highways’ planning division.
The Martinsburg Historic Preservation Review Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing about the proposed removal of the historic bricks from the 200 block of East Martin Street at a meeting Jan. 6 at Martinsburg City Hall.
The section of brick road, one of the few remaining in the city at the time it was listed as part of the downtown historic district in 1980, was deemed in 2015 by the West Virginia Historic Preservation Office to be a “contributing resource” for the designated area, Pierce wrote.
“We remain in concurrence with this assessment because the brick road retains a high level of integrity despite some patchwork repairs and subsidence issues,” Pierce wrote in a three-page letter to Sedosky. “Therefore, the brick road’s removal will result in an adverse effect to the downtown Martinsburg Historic District by removing a contributing element of the district.”
The scope of the grant-funded streetscape project on East Martin Street from Queen Street to White Avenue includes new lighting, sidewalks, crosswalks and paving.
The city also has said it intends to separately complete water, sewer and stormwater improvements in coordination with the streetscape project to reduce costs and minimize community impact.
Twenty percent of the project’s cost for the streetscape portion of the project, due to the award of federal grant funds for the work, is expected to be paid by the city, officials have said.
The city was awarded more than $910,000 in federal funding over three fiscal years for the project beginning in fiscal 2014, according to city records.
To offset the removal of the pavers from the street and address the current road conditions, the project’s scope has included a plan to salvage and reuse a portion of the brick for the creation of 8-foot-wide “parking strips” on the north and south sides of East Martin street in the project area.
Sedosky advised Pierce in an Oct. 18 letter that planned utility relocation work also would disturb about 18% of the brick pavers.
“Because of the efforts to minimize effects and in consideration to the utility relocation demolition work in the historic brick road, it is the opinion of the (highways division) that the Martinsburg train station corridor project will have ... no adverse effects on the (historic district),” Sedosky wrote.
The brick road also wasn’t originally identified as a contributing resource in the National Register nomination package, he wrote.
In her letter, Pierce told Sedosky that federal regulations stress the importance of involving the general public, local government representatives and organizations that have an interest in historic preservation.
Pierce specifically asked the highways division to consider forwarding project information to nearby residents, the Berkeley County Historic Landmarks Commission and the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia to request their comments or opinions on the matter.
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