Franklin Historic District Design Guidelines

DRAFT FRANKLIN HISTORIC DISTRICT DESIGN GUIDELINES 39 chapter 2 Porches, Stoops, and Porte Cocheres • Design new porches and stoops to rear or side elevations with minimal visibility. • Avoid adding porches or stoops to front facades or highly visible facades if they did not exist historically. If architectural or historical evidence exists which supports the previous existence of a porch, it may be reconstructed. • Consider adding Porte cocheres to historic buildings only if documentation exists demonstrating that they existed historically. • Avoid altering the size of historic front porches. • Design the scale, proportion, and character of porch elements, including columns, corner brackets, and railings and pickets, to be compatible with yet less elaborate than the historic building. • Design porches so that the height and slopes are compatible with the historic building and the roofline does not interfere with second story elevations. • Use wood materials and simple wood rail designs with square balusters. Brick and metal may be considered if appropriate to the historic building. Avoid contemporary materials and do not use cast concrete steps where visible from the street. • Design screened or glassed porch additions with the minimum number of vertical and horizontal framing members needed to support the screening. Use wooden frames only. Decks • Place new decks on rear or obscured facades with minimal visibility from the street. • Use wood materials and simple wood rail designs with square balusters. Foundations • Design foundations and piers to be compatible those on the historic building. If the historic building is masonry and concrete blocks are used for the foundation, paint the addition foundation a color to match the