Historic Seattle has a long history of programs designed to educate owners of historic properties. True Colors, a new program scheduled to launch on September 27, will help these property owners better understand historic color schemes, and raise general awareness about colors from other eras. The idea came from our neighbors to the north.

The Vancouver Connection

True Colors is modeled on True Colours, an incentive program of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation intended to assist heritage homeowners with the exterior maintenance of their buildings. It is a heritage color research and paint-granting program that restores heritage hojmes to their authentic exterior paint colors. Research is done to find the original colors, the building is prepared for painting using good conservation and maintenance practice, and the new color scheme is authentic to its architectural style and its urban context.

The program is undertaken with government support and the corporate sponsorship of Benjamin Moore. That company provides the paint for five heritage residences each year. In addition they provide technical support and color matching. The Vancouver Heritage Foundation provides a small grant toward the cost of painting and underwrites the cost of heritage consultation to determine the original colors.

The success of the program has been in supporting homeowners who are making efforts to be good stewards and to "restore" rather than simply "renovate" their homes. As a result, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation has assembled accurate research on historic colors in Vancouver that translates into a regional exterior color palette that has not been available to the public before. The organization currently has approximately 35 colors documented as authentic.

The program has also brought broad public awareness of the value of restoring older homes and appropriately painting them. Homeowners who are not part of the program drive by, see the "true colors" and opt to paint their house these colors. It has a much broader impact on neighborhood revitalization. It has even encouraged property owners to nominate their buildings for heritage status. For the heritage foundation, the impact of True Colors has been unprecedented and far broader than the group could have imagined. Donald Luxton, one of the founders of the True Colors program, says, "It's been an absolutely phenomenal success. Homeowners are very interested in the program, which attempts to select houses in scattered locations throughout the city. What surprised us is how much publicity we've gotten. We receive 35 to 40 applications per year. We require municipal designation for participation and we are always surprised that people will come forward to legally protect their houses for 30 to 40 gallons of paint."

Sympathetic in Seattle

The Vancouver program is an exciting model that Historic Seattle plans to follow. Many Seattle homeowners looking to restore their houses to their original appearance get clues from black-and-white tax assessor's photographs from the late 1930s. These give an idea of the darkness or lightness of colors and whether the trim differs significantly from the body color. But only a color analysis can demystify what is under layers of paint.

To demonstrate the value of this program, Dearborn House, the 1907 First Hill headquarters of Historic Seattle, will be restored to its original color scheme during summer 2002 with the corporate support of Benjamin Moore Paints. The Dearborn House will be visible evidence of the value of this innovative incentive program.

Tickets for a September 27 kick-off lecture, by color experts Susan Buck and Donald Luxton, are $20 for members or $30 for nonmembers. Call 226-3949 to register.

View last month's Techniques & Technology article

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