Historic District Property Guidelines
This Post has been archived and its content might be outdated. If you are looking for recent content, please check this Committee's Homepage.
All residential housing that is within the Town of Sudbury Historic Districts must abide by the following guidelines when improving their property.
Historic Districts Commission Guidelines
Town of Sudbury, Massachusetts
1. Windows: muntins in windows may be only authentic divided lite or fully simulated divided lite
2. Siding: neither vinyl nor aluminum siding is allowed.
3. Shutters: all shutters should be of wood, hung on working hinges, proportioned to the window and, if louvered, hung so as to shed water when closed.
4. Chimneys: should be constructed of either brick, stone or stucco
5. Colors: exterior paint color should be white by right or appropriate historic colors as approved by the HDC
6. Molding and trim: should be proportioned to the scale and period of the house
7. Brick: should be water-struck, sand-struck or wire-cut in colors ranging through oranges, reds and browns.
8. Steps and porches: materials and scale should be appropriate to the age of the structure
9. Gutters: should be wood or half-round metal
10. Skylights: …should not be visible from a public way
11. Dormers and cupolas: …should be proportioned to the structure and period. Generally the width of a cupola should be 1 /12 of the length of the ridge beam
12. Indigenous stone walls: …should be preserved
13. Paving: …Bituminous paving should be minimized
14. Fences: …should be of wood, stone or other period-appropriate materials. Vinyl and other synthetics are not allowed.
15. New construction: …should be sympathetic to the pre-twentieth century local vernacular in line, detail and scale.
If your property is in the Historic Districts and you are planning new construction, renovations, alterations, painting, rearrangement of landscaping or demolition or removal at your property you must first fill out an Application for Approval form which is submitted to the Sudbury Historic Districts Commission for approval.