At the March 12 Board of Selecmen meeting Anne Young presented a request to appoint the Greenwich Historic District Commission as a study committee to determine whether the Albert C Hencken House at 341 North Street should be designated a Local Historic Property (LHP).
The house is owned by Herbert S. Winokur and Dee Winokur, and the proposal was submitted by the Historic properties of Greenwich where Ms Young is the interim director.
The Tudor Revival style house is set on a 2.5 acre property. It was built from 1903 to 1904. The architect was John Russell Pope who was one of the country’s foremost architects in the early 20th century.
The US Commission of Fine Arts has described Pope as as “one of the most celebrated classical architects of the early 20th century for his design practice based in the Beaux-Arts tradition.”
Both the original owner of the house and its architect contributed to Greenwich becoming known as a cosmopolitan area attracting affluent New York businessmen looking to create their own grand estates.
Previously the HDC voted unanimously in favor for the owners of the property to begin the process and seek the Selectmen’s endorsement for the HDC to become the study committee.
The house exemplifies the early work of Pope on large estates, featuring stone and stucco, with later additions maintaining harmony with the original structure.
Pope’s projects included the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum in New York City, and additions to the British Museum and the Tate Gallery in London. Also, he is the designer of many monumental Beaux-Arts buildings in Washington DC including the National Archives, The National Gallery of Art and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. He also designed a house for Albert Hencken’s brother William Frederick in 1916 nearby on Doubling Road – an informal Georgian designed brick house.
The Albert C Hencken house was previously recognized by the Greenwich Historical Society as worthy of inclusion in its preservation program in 1994 and was plaqued.
According to a letter from current owners Herbert S. and Dee Winokur, Mr. Hencken was a longtime member of the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation and a partner in an insurance brokerage. The original property was about 14 acres but was subdivided into several one-acre lots.
“To the best of our knowledge the exterior of the main house has not been changed since its original building, apart from the addition of a screen porch,” the Winokurs wrote.
Ms Young said her group was excited to help the Wonokurs pursue the LHP designation.
She said the designation would mean the house could not be knocked down or altered in future.
“The key term here is local,” Young said. “This is a local historic property and any changes the homeowner wishes to do to the house does need a ‘certificate of appropriateness’ from the HDC. That ensures that a lot of the architectural elements recorded in the study report remain and any additions would be sensitive with the structure.”
She said the Greenwich Historical Society, for example, underwent changes but they went to the HDC and received certificates of appropriateness.
The item was a first read. The First Selectman said that prior to the second read the board would listen to any comments from the public.
