Historic Preservation Crime and Punishment

Among the applicants who appeared before the Historic Preservation Commission on Friday morning seeking certificates of appropriateness was Phil Gellert, who was there for another reason. He was responding to a notice of violation which he received for removing the Victorian doors and covering up the Greek Revival door surrounds at 223-225 Allen Street.

Gellert told the HPC that the Victorian doors had "very high lead content," and the Board of Health had ordered him to remove them. He could have had them stripped, repainted, and rehung, but instead he threw them out and replaced them with cheap mismatched metal doors. According to the historic preservation law, a building is in violation until it is returned to the state it was in before the violation, so Gellert will be required to reproduce the doors that he discarded.