Demo Approved For Cataumet Home
A request for demolition of a home in Cataumet has been approved by the Bourne Historical Commission, giving the owner permission to raze and rebuild the single-family home at 25 Mystery Lane.
Mark Hutker, founder of Hutker Architects, and his wife purchased the small triangular lot situated at the corner of Mystery Lane and Ocean Avenue in December 2021. Mr. Hutker told the commission that he and his wife bought the property, which is in their own neighborhood, and are looking to remodel the home. He appeared before the commission with his contractor, Mark Klint.
The house was purchased from the estate of the late Cyrus Kano. The Enterprise spoke with his daughter, Jennifer Kano of Cataumet, who provided some background information on the home. It was built by her uncle David Weinz in the early 1960s, she said, recalling that she and her family would visit the property to see how the house was coming along when she was around 10 or 12 years old. She estimates that the house was completed between 1962 and 1965, which would make it 61 years old at most.
There is, however, a discrepancy regarding when the house was built—town records list the home as being built in 1900, which placed it under the purview of the historical commission for a demolition delay review as a historic property older than 75 years.
Commission member Blanche Cody said it is interesting how town records are not always accurate; chairman Carl Georgeson concurred, saying that there are a number of houses with placeholder dates, inaccurately marked as being built in 1940 or even 1900.
“Who knows?” Mr. Georgeson said, “it could be off by a couple of decades or more, as in this case.”
Ms. Kano said that she knows her great-grandparents owned the property in 1900 but how the house built by her uncle got pinned with that date, she does not know.
“It’s a neat little house,” she said. “He built it in two stages. The original house is the lower part of it—the single-story part—and the addition that he put on it a number of years later is the part that’s two stories.”
It is unclear when the second story was added, but Ms. Kano said she remembers the lot’s small size being an obstacle even back then—her uncle obtained a variance to build the addition because the lot was too small to meet setback requirements.
The lot itself is just over 6,000 square feet, or 0.14 acres. Mr. Hutker told the commission that he and his wife plan to raze the current structure to build a two-bedroom home and that they have already received approval from the town’s zoning board of appeals to re-situate the house on the lot. By shifting it away from Ocean Avenue, the structure would be more compliant with setback requirements than it currently is, which is why the zoning board gave them permission, Mr. Hutker said.
The Hutkers have been in contact with Ms. Kano to learn more about the property’s history, Mr. Hutker said, and the neighborhood has been supportive of the couple’s efforts, which so far have consisted of clearing up leftover kindling and accumulated brush on the property. The proposed aesthetic of the new home, he told the commission, will be inspired by two carriage houses located on Thayer Lane across the street from the property. Brush has mostly grown over the narrow dirt alley—the road was never actually built—but the two carriage houses there, Mr. Hutker said, are made of white clapboard with a simple trim. The new home at 25 Mystery Lane will match those, he said, to add to the theme of the village.
“We tried to read the patterns and make it fit and complement where we are,” he said, later adding that they intend to build a “more handsome and simpler structure.” The Hutkers do not intend to make Mystery Lane their primary residence, but do intend to maintain the property as a quaint and cozy home.
A motion to accept the request for demolition of the home was unanimously approved by the commission in a 6-0 vote.