A Neighborhood Stroll

A Neighborhood Stroll

Self-Guided Tours of Beloit Historic Districts

Another project undertaken by the Beloit Landmarks Commission and lead by Marge Fizzell along with J. Beckman has been the creation of an online self-guided tour of Beloit’s Historic Districts. A new website has been created and you can see A Neighborhood Stroll here. It’s a work in progress check it out and watch for further development.

Next NPA Gathering Mon. 9/28 – Historic Beloit Photo Essay

Rob Baller’s Historic Beloit Photo Essay

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Come out and join us for our next Beloit NPA gathering. We think you’ll enjoy it.

If you’ve not seen Rob Baller’s amazing slide presentation of historic Beloit you’ve really missed something. It’s a little difficult to describe. You just have to witness it.

What he’s done is gathered numerous historic Beloit photos. He then researched determine from  what exact location the various photos were taken from and then took contemporary photos from the same vantage point. Through various computer aided graphics techniques he’s been able to morph the old photo into the contemporary one. Its really amazing to watch the transformation.

Beyond being thoroughly entertaining it’s both informative and educational as to how our city has evolved over time and what some of the influences were for these changes. It’s sure to evoke a lot of conversation.

• - Date:  Monday Sept. 28th
  
• - Time:  7:00 p.m.
  
• - Location:  Vision Beloit Center – Conference Room (500 Public Ave.)

Beloit NPA Membership

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Ok, ok… so here’s the deal.

To date we’ve intentionally not bothered with membership fees and such as, well frankly we’ve not wanted to have anything that might hinder folks from coming out and joining us. Neither have we wanted to foster any sort of exclusionary aspect to this humble gathering of neighbors. And finally, there’s not really been any need for it, meaning, we’ve not been incurring any real expense beyond what folks have volunteered.

So what’s changed?

We still don’t want “membership” to get in the way. If you’re not a “member” you’re still very much welcome and we hope you’ll come out and join us and meet your neighbors. No bouncers at the door. We do though need to cover an upcoming expense beyond what we’d expect anyone(s) to shoulder themselves.

A few months ago Bob F. graciously worked out our incorporation as well as covered that expense. We’ve since formed our board of directors. And more recently Rick D. and John W. have been quietly preparing our not-for-profit application. While our predecessor, N.E.S.N.A. graciously bequeathed their remaining funds to us we’ve several hundred dollars to make up to cover the expense of NFP filing.

Why this is important?

In order for us to qualify for grant applications and take advantage of myriad other opportunities we need this in place. These in turn will allow us to build out programs and benefits we’d like to make available that we believe would be beneficial to the historic district(s) and surrounding vintage neighborhood. More about this under separate cover and your input is welcome.

Yeah, yeah… So what’s it gonna’ cost me?

We’re painfully aware of the current economic situation. And it would seem every organization, association, club, and worthy cause is asking for your financial help these days. So with that we’re asking folks to pony up just $5 for a year’s membership.

If enough folks participate that should get us where we need to be. If you’re willing/able we’d certainly appreciate your dropping in a few extra $. As you know we’re all volunteers. No one’s getting paid for any of this.

So, where, how do I do this?

On the right side of this page in the navigation you’ll see “SUPPORT BELOIT NPA BY BECOMING A MEMBER”. This is our Paypall account. Just put in $5 or whatever you’d be willing to help with and follow the directions. We’ll record your 1 yr. membership.
Thanks for your support.

Need Wooden Storm Window Help?

Wooden Storm Windows

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The seasonal chore of taking down wooden storm windows and swapping them with the screens in the Spring then reversing the process in the Fall was part of a discussion the other day.

Though these “old fashion” storms perform better and hold up longer then contemporary double-hung replacements perhaps you’d rather not deal with them any more.

An option to discarding your homes original and functional storms and buying new, lesser quality and not inexpensive storms is getting someone else to take care of this chore for you. We’re fortunate to have a campus right next door. One quick email elicited several students within hours willing to unburden you of this task.

If interested in having someone else do this for you let me know.

rick(at)BeloitNPA(dot)org

Neighbors Who Care – Meeting since 2002

Just wanted to help raise some awareness about a city-wide association of pro-active Beloit residents called “Neighbors Who Care”. They have been meeting since 2002 and focus on learning how to deal with neighborhood situations and providing support and encouragement for Beloit residents. Their meetings are open to the public.

They meet on the 4th Tuesdays of the month at 6:30 p.m. over at the Neighborhood Housing Services Building (520 West Grand).

Joseph and Kathy Vickerman head up the group. Just last month was the first time Ana-n-I were able to catch up with them. They’re a very knowledgeable,  plugged in and active group of folks. It was very informative and time very well spent. I would encourage you to mark your calendar and stop by next month Sept. 22nd. We’ve added their meetings to the BNPA calendar here.

National Neighbors Night Out – A big hit!

The National Neighbor’s Night Out at Horace White Park was a big hit! Looked like we had ~40 folks show up over the couse of the afternoon with neighbors from Church, Chapin, Park, Bushnell, Emerson, Sherwood and Pleasant Streets showing up. Especially nice was that there were several new neighbors we’d not had a chance to meet before.

City reps stopped by as well including city manager Larry Arft, city councilman Charles Haynes and Sheila De Forest, several PD officers along with a fire truck and firemen (big hit for the kids). Lots of great conversations and connections made.

The kids seemed to be enjoying themselves in spite of nothing plugged in or with buttons. A big tree. A big rope, bean bags, watermelon and each other. Seemed to do the trick.

The rest of the pics on the BNPA Flickr page.

We’ll have to do this again next year. Hope you’ll be able to join us.

The Beloit NPA New Neighbor Welcome Pac

Among the primary purposes of the Beloit NPA is to facilitate communication and information exchange. Additionally we’d like to welcome new neighbors to the neighborhood. With these in mind among the earliest ideas proposed when we first started getting together was to provide a form of “Welcome Wagon” for new neighbors.

We now have a Beloit NPA New Neighbor Welcome Pac.

In it we provide a range of useful information particularly for those living within the historic districts.

• - A welcome note from the BNPA.
• - A welcome note from the Landmarks Commission.
• - A copy of the city reminder about COA’s along with an application.
• - Historic Preservation – A guide for property owners. A great publication produced specifically for Beloit historic district residents.
• - College Park Historic Colors – A collection of colors, designed and created by Murmac Paint Co. in conjunction with Beloit College Park Historic District.
• - A page introducing the WI State Historic Home Owners Tax Credit program.
  
• - A copy of Old House Journal Magazine – The single best resource of it’s kind and a gift from us.

All this in addition to information from…

• - Visit Beloit
• - Friends of Riverfront
• - Downtown Merchants
• - City of Beloit

While there’s  quite a bit here the expectation is not that anyone would try to read all this. More, it’s hoped that they’ll have it available for reference if and when needed. Additionally, presenting this affords a good excuse for a neighbor to knock on the door and introduce ourselves.

We’ve delivered several already as some new folks have moved in recently. If there’s a new home owner on your block let us know and we’ll get an NPA New Neighbor Welcome Pac to you.

info (at) BeloitNPA (dot) com

Hey Hey! Another Great Old House SOLD!

And we’ll be welcoming some new neighbors!

Just heard yesterday that the Preserve Beloit home at 617 Harrison has sold and folks are moving in!

This is great news from multiple perspectives. If you don’t know the story this was a “problem” house on the block. At one time perhaps even the worst on the block. It was in bad shape and there were those who wanted to see it demolished.  Who knows what we could have ended up with as far as infill?

Thankfully Preserve Beloit LLC (a Hendricks co.) in partnership with the First National Bank & Trust Co. were willing to invest in our neighborhood and turn this house around. Virtually all of the original woodwork, doors and trim was saved and restored making for beautiful interiors and classic period charm. Thank you to Preserve Beloit LLC and First National Bank & Trust Co. for having the sensitivity not to gut it and engage in wholesale rip-n-replace.

We’ve been inside this home and they’ve done a wonderful job for the new home owners. Importantly, they’ve also done us all a favor having provided a wonderful service to the neighborhood and Beloit’s historic district. They took on a tough project any individual “flipper” would have either avoided or done with considerably lower standards IMO.

THANK YOU to Preserve Beloit LLC and First National Bank & Trust Co. You’re great Neighbors to have.

Express Yourself! — New. No member login to comment

Among the things we’ve been meaning to get around to is simply removing the member login to post a comment.

This is done. Try it out!

Hopefully this will encourage greater participation and exchange of ideas and opinions here online among neighbors. You’ll see the comment field below each post. You’ll also see that (if not logged in) it asks for a name and email (required) and website (optional). While the name you provide IS displayed with your comment your email is not. We ask for this to encourage personal accountability as we still do not want to foster disrespectful exchange or SPAM.

At any rate members still have rights to post topics of their own and we encourage you to do so. Soon we hope to provide a brief tutorial on how to do so for those wanting that assistance. Until that time you’re more then welcome to contact us directly at info(at) BeloitNPA(dot)org and we’d be happy to walk you through the menu to get your post up.

First ever B.N.P.A. National Night Out Picnic!

Tuesday August 4th is National Night Out. And given that we’re always looking for an excuse to get together with neighbors and friends anyway this is a great occasion to do so.

• Where: Horace White Park. We’ll be gathering by the band shell.
  
• Time: 5:30-9:00
• What: It’s a picnic. While you’re certainly welcome to bring something to pass it is not expected, it’s not a “pot luck”. So simply bring what you would enjoy for a picnic.
  
• Bring the kids: We’ll have games and prizes!
• What else to bring: There are approximately eight picnic tables available though you may want to bring chairs or otherwise plan for this.
• Grills? There are no grills there. You’re welcome to bring one along though if you’d like.
  

Please invite your neighbors and friends who may not see this web posting.

BTW, there’s a small fee for reserving the park. As such we’ll be passing the hat to cover this.

Thanks to Marge F. for pulling this together for us!

Photo credit: Mark P.  (any excuse to showcase Mark’s pics and this HW park pic is among my favorites)

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