Board approves porch addition at South Perry Street to address recurring rot, preserve cornice details

The Cloverdale Historic Preservation Board approved a certificate of appropriateness for a porch addition at a house on South Perry Street after applicants Forrest and Rebecca Harris described recurring rot where the existing porch meets a patio.

The Harrises told the board they acquired the house because their family is outgrowing their Old Cloverdale home and want to “fix this reoccurring problem once and for all.” Forrest Harris said the existing corner where the porch meets the patio has rot that has been patched repeatedly and that the interior floor in that room has been replaced in the past. The proposal would cover the patio to create a continuous porch area, set back about 17 inches so the new roof is level with the patio deck and balances the house's existing porte-cochère on the left.

Harris said the addition would use the same entablature, molding and dentils as the existing porch and would be built with rot-resistant wood; he also noted they found columns in Coleman that he said match the original columns. Land use staff member Sean Rose asked how the new porch roof would intersect the existing cornice and dentils; Harris responded that the entablature would be continuous and form an L at the junction, with the new column placed about a half-diameter behind the existing column to follow traditional spacing.

An audience member who had drawn the project praised the applicants' presentation and offered support. After discussion, a board member moved to approve the project as submitted; the board voted in favor and the applicants were thanked for their drawings.

The board provided no additional conditions on construction details beyond the review that follows standard permitting and historic-review practice.