Resources for Old Home Owners

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is not only a civil rights law; it is also a historic preservation law. It explicitly includes particular and more flexible allowances for historic properties, so that accessibility modifications do not “threaten or destroy” architecturally and historically significant building elements.

 
• Sections 3406.0 of the BOCA National Building Code (1999 and earlier editions) exempts historic buildings, subject to certain conditions, by stating: “3406.1 Historic Structures Compliance: The provisions of this code relating to the construction, repair, alteration, addition, restoration and movement of structures shall not be mandatory for existing buildings and structures identified and classified by the federal, state or local government authority as historic buildings where such buildings are judged by the code official to be safe and in the interest of public health, safety, and welfare regarding any proposed construction, alteration, repair, addition and relocation.” [The Italics are in the published text of the code.]

 
• The New Hampshire state lead poisoning prevention rules include options for treatments of historic properties, to avoid or ameliorate damage or destruction to historic buildings and building fabric.

 
• Similarly, the state fire marshal’s office is very committed to helping historic buildings become fire-safe without destroying their character, and State Fair Marshal Donald P. Bliss and his colleagues are happy to be invited to meet with local officials and building owners and preservationists, to try to find mutually beneficial solutions. Their presence and their ideas seem to give local fire and code officials a much greater level of confidence when coping with code issues in historic buildings. As Don Bliss says, “we’re all trying to do the same thing: protect life and property.” On July 2, 1999, he included NFPA 909, Standard for the Protection of Cultural Resources Including Museums, Libraries, Places of Worship, and Historic Properties, 1997 edition, with its appendices, in the State Fire Code. A copy of the revised State Fire Code has been sent to every fire chief in New Hampshire. In addition, Don and State Architectural Historian James L. Garvin are members of a national committee which is revising NFPA 914, “Fire Protection in Historic Structures,” into a NFPA Standard that can be adopted by communities.

 
• FEMA criteria for floor-prone areas, and the NH model floodplain development ordinance, exempt work on historic properties from floodproofing requirements, so long as the alteration will not preclude the building’s continued designation as a “historic structure.”