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Mary Fallon Reflects On Area Preservation Efforts
By Judi Berry
Covington's Mary Fallon offers an optimistic perspective on that city. Her civic involvement coupled with her thirty-plus years of real estate experience provide her the opportunity to evaluate where the community has been and where its future lies.
Old homes and their preservation figure prominently in her viewpoint. The home in which she grew up on 21st Avenue became her first office, now occupied by the Regina Coeli Headstart program. In the late 1960's, she purchased a home, built in the early 1900's by the Julius Heintz family, on Tyler Street and converted it into her office, a site which provides "room and surroundings more traditional to the area. I feel that perhaps I identify with the traditional," she says, preferring several factors characteristic to older residences, including their stability, their tall ceilings and the rewarding feeling that comes with their restoration.
Regardless of the amount of money spent to renovate an older home, she says, one of the most important features which should be maintained is the home's integrity, "its tradition and its ability to have withstood time."
Many of these homes have braved several damaging hurricanes, a fact that "constitutes a solidity that you might not find in some newer homes or buildings." Older homes, she says, seem to be particularly durable because they were constructed from the local longleaf yellow pine. "In many cases, this wood just does not deteriorate."
"People have become aware of the value of older homes," she says, "and they're sought after now." Consequently, few are left. In some of these homes the basic structure remains, yet ceilings have been lowered and original walls and floors have been covered. This treatment, she believes, conceals the home's individual tradition and character.
The conversion of her office from an old home required a few renovations. Though structural repairs were made to the roof and porch and some interior repairs were necessary, no remodeling was done, the beaded wooden walls remaining where they stood. Painting, cleaning and landscaping completed the work needed to accomplish the restoration.
Occasionally an old home requires more than just repairs. An approximately 150-year-old home on the riverbank at Rutland Street was marked for removal when she bought it and moved it to its present location behind her office. "We had to take the top floor off and put it back together again," she says.
Among those who settled the area, she notes, were craftsmen who left their indelible touches in the architecture found nearby. While Covington was more affected by the old Creole and New England styles, the West Indian influence is seen in Madisonville and Abita Springs, especially in the significant role of porches in the layout and ventilation of the home.
New asbestos and slate roofing materials invented since the 1920's, she says, have been partially responsible for the preservation of many of the older homes. Previously the source of heat was the fireplace and wood stove, and many homes were lost to fire when their wooden shingles ignited, compounded by the fact that a fire of that magnitude was unmanageable by the firefighting methods and equipment available at that time.
As to the future of the downtown area she says, "I have a lot of faith in downtown Covington." She favors the small local shops for their individualized attention to customers, product knowledge, variety and unique atmosphere, qualities which appeal to shoppers from New Orleans and elsewhere. "I think downtown Covington is something special," says Mrs. Fallon, "and I think it will come back. It's far less costly to lease down there right now than in a new building."
A street plan proposed for Covington between 20 and 30 years ago should, she believes, be resurrected in order to concentrate development more toward the city's geographical center at 21st and Tyler Streets. Widening Tyler, as this plan proposes, "is a community need," she thinks, and a situation which "can't be ignored any longer before any new construction is done.
Deciding to widen a major thoroughfare after further construction, she explains, will result in an increased tax burden, for it is ultimately the private citizen who will pay through taxes for some of these new buildings to be moved.
"The prettiest entrance and egress to Covington," she thinks, is Highway 21, for its development has included consideration for the natural beauty of the area. She also commends the Ladies' Auxiliary of
the Covington Chamber of Commerce for their part in improving and promoting the city through planting, clean-up projects and tours.
The city's tree ordinance, she suggests, should be supplemented by each family's planting a crepe myrtle, a dogwood or a cherry tree, all of which do not interfere with utility wires.
Because the amount of land is limited, care must be taken by each property owner to preserve the dignity of the area and to retain its appeal for the family-oriented resident who is attracted to Covington, a city which, she says, readily welcomes newcomers and possesses a "special quality aside from our pure air, good water and governmental services and excellent schools."
Published Sept. 12, 1985 in the St. Tammany Farmer
By Judi Berry
Covington's Mary Fallon offers an optimistic perspective on that city. Her civic involvement coupled with her thirty-plus years of real estate experience provide her the opportunity to evaluate where the community has been and where its future lies.
Old homes and their preservation figure prominently in her viewpoint. The home in which she grew up on 21st Avenue became her first office, now occupied by the Regina Coeli Headstart program. In the late 1960's, she purchased a home, built in the early 1900's by the Julius Heintz family, on Tyler Street and converted it into her office, a site which provides "room and surroundings more traditional to the area. I feel that perhaps I identify with the traditional," she says, preferring several factors characteristic to older residences, including their stability, their tall ceilings and the rewarding feeling that comes with their restoration.
Regardless of the amount of money spent to renovate an older home, she says, one of the most important features which should be maintained is the home's integrity, "its tradition and its ability to have withstood time."
Many of these homes have braved several damaging hurricanes, a fact that "constitutes a solidity that you might not find in some newer homes or buildings." Older homes, she says, seem to be particularly durable because they were constructed from the local longleaf yellow pine. "In many cases, this wood just does not deteriorate."
"People have become aware of the value of older homes," she says, "and they're sought after now." Consequently, few are left. In some of these homes the basic structure remains, yet ceilings have been lowered and original walls and floors have been covered. This treatment, she believes, conceals the home's individual tradition and character.
The conversion of her office from an old home required a few renovations. Though structural repairs were made to the roof and porch and some interior repairs were necessary, no remodeling was done, the beaded wooden walls remaining where they stood. Painting, cleaning and landscaping completed the work needed to accomplish the restoration.
Occasionally an old home requires more than just repairs. An approximately 150-year-old home on the riverbank at Rutland Street was marked for removal when she bought it and moved it to its present location behind her office. "We had to take the top floor off and put it back together again," she says.
Among those who settled the area, she notes, were craftsmen who left their indelible touches in the architecture found nearby. While Covington was more affected by the old Creole and New England styles, the West Indian influence is seen in Madisonville and Abita Springs, especially in the significant role of porches in the layout and ventilation of the home.
New asbestos and slate roofing materials invented since the 1920's, she says, have been partially responsible for the preservation of many of the older homes. Previously the source of heat was the fireplace and wood stove, and many homes were lost to fire when their wooden shingles ignited, compounded by the fact that a fire of that magnitude was unmanageable by the firefighting methods and equipment available at that time.
As to the future of the downtown area she says, "I have a lot of faith in downtown Covington." She favors the small local shops for their individualized attention to customers, product knowledge, variety and unique atmosphere, qualities which appeal to shoppers from New Orleans and elsewhere. "I think downtown Covington is something special," says Mrs. Fallon, "and I think it will come back. It's far less costly to lease down there right now than in a new building."
A street plan proposed for Covington between 20 and 30 years ago should, she believes, be resurrected in order to concentrate development more toward the city's geographical center at 21st and Tyler Streets. Widening Tyler, as this plan proposes, "is a community need," she thinks, and a situation which "can't be ignored any longer before any new construction is done.
Deciding to widen a major thoroughfare after further construction, she explains, will result in an increased tax burden, for it is ultimately the private citizen who will pay through taxes for some of these new buildings to be moved.
"The prettiest entrance and egress to Covington," she thinks, is Highway 21, for its development has included consideration for the natural beauty of the area. She also commends the Ladies' Auxiliary of
the Covington Chamber of Commerce for their part in improving and promoting the city through planting, clean-up projects and tours.
The city's tree ordinance, she suggests, should be supplemented by each family's planting a crepe myrtle, a dogwood or a cherry tree, all of which do not interfere with utility wires.
Because the amount of land is limited, care must be taken by each property owner to preserve the dignity of the area and to retain its appeal for the family-oriented resident who is attracted to Covington, a city which, she says, readily welcomes newcomers and possesses a "special quality aside from our pure air, good water and governmental services and excellent schools."
Published Sept. 12, 1985 in the St. Tammany Farmer
A phone book ad from 1959
