Windows Forever Askew on Jefferson Street in Sag Harbor

[caption id="attachment_55010" align="alignright" width="408"] Contractor Declan Murray in front of a pair of (slightly) crooked windows at 16 Jefferson Street in the historic district of Sag Harbor. Douglas Feiden photo[/caption]

By Douglas Feiden

The Captain N. Forol House at 16 Jefferson Street is a one-and-a-half story, three-bay Federal-style frame residence that is nestled in the crook of one of the trickiest, quirkiest and most memorable hairpin turns in Sag Harbor.

It sports a pair of glorious 12-over-12, light-wooden sash windows in the front of the dwelling that are — ever so slightly — crooked. That’s not exactly a surprise: The clapboard-sheathed Forol House was built between 1785 and 1790.

But what did come as a surprise to Declan Murray, the general contractor who is working on a rather modest fine-tuning of the residence for homeowner Geraldine Gottesman, is that the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review, at its Thursday, August 25 meeting, determined that those two windows should remain, presumably forever, crooked.

Mr. Murray had applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness, which is needed to obtain building permits, to replace the cedar siding in the front of the house, paint the exterior, pull down the aluminum storm screens from the building’s facade, remove a pond from the rear yard — and repair the trim and square off the two existing front windows.

“The trim is a little crooked, it’s just got some age to it,” he told the ARB. “I’m proposing to reframe the windows, square them up, I’m not going to change the windows.”

And Mr. Murray added, “I’m not trying to change its profile, or do anything like that. We’ll just tweak the exterior trim a tiny bit, not do anything to take away from its character.”

But the captain’s old cottage is deemed a “contributing building” in the village’s historic district, and the ARB over the past year has repeatedly been sending the no-go or go-slow signal to property owners, builders and developers who seek to alter or tinker with such venerable structures.

Still, board members noted approvingly that, for the most part, Ms. Gottesman’s proposals were limited, incremental and small-bore. In fact, ARB Chairman Anthony Brandt later said, “What was most blessed about this project was that nobody wanted to add some sort of major addition.”

Nonetheless, there was one significant red flag for the board: “The windows are going to be a problem if the trim is old,” Mr. Brandt said.

ARB member John Chris Connor agreed, saying, “I’d rather see an odd shape to them as opposed to straightening them out.”

Mr. Murray posited that while the front door is “perfectly square and straight,” the two windows are “leaning,” one a lot more than the other. He added, “To me, I think it would just look a lot better if it was straightened, and I’d like to suggest that I don’t think that affects the historical look.”

Countered Mr. Brandt, “Well, I’m pretty sure what we’d like to suggest is that the windows not be changed.”

A brief back-and-forth ensued between the two men. “I would never change the windows,” Mr. Murray said. “It was just the exterior trim, that's all I was proposing to change. I just think it looks odd, with that one window in particular leaning.”

“But the house is over 200 years old. It’s a little treasure,” Mr. Brandt said.

“It is a treasure,” agreed Mr. Murray. “I just don't think that it complements that 200-year-old house to have one window…”

He then stopped in mid-sentence and conceded the point to the
ARB. “I will leave the windows alone, I won’t touch them. As is,” he said. “I have no problem with that. And I’ll take pictures before and after…We’ll make it just what is and nothing else — a cute little house in Sag Harbor.”

Sitting in the audience during the proceedings was Bob Weinstein, who lives at 20 Jefferson Street, and Mr. Brandt turned to him, as the next-door neighbor, to ask for his take on the proposal, which would now keep the windows slightly askew.

Mr. Weinstein said the only offending visual element in the house right now is the aluminum storm screens in the front, and that will be remedied since they’ll be removed and replaced with wooden storms.

“I have no problems with what you’re suggesting,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going to be done beautifully, tastefully and with integrity,”

With that, the ARB voted to approve Ms. Gottesman’s application.

By the way, after all that debate, exactly just how crooked are those two 12-over-12 pane windows at the Captain N. Forol House anyway? Mr. Murray was at the job site on Saturday, and he pulled out his level to take their precise measurements.

The trim on the left window leans a mere 5/8 of an inch to the left, and the trim on the right window leans all of ½ an inch to the left, he said. “Whenever you come down Jefferson Street, you will be able to see that profile,” he added.

As for Mr. Brandt, he summarized the philosophy of the board he helms through the prism of those two windows:

“With a house this old, we like to keep it as it is,” he said. “If a window is askew, that's part of its history, and its individuality. If the window works despite it's being askew, there's nothing to fix.”