PreservationNation

Written by Fiona Lawless

Just a few days ago, Save America’s Treasures (SAT) announced a $200,000 federal challenge grant to conserve the now-iconic “Last Column”—the final steel structure removed from Ground Zero during the 9/11 rescue effort.  At 36 feet tall, weighing 58 tons, and covered in spray-paint and tributes from rescue workers, construction teams and family members, it has become a major artifact reflecting the sacrifices of so many, and the strength and resilience found in unity during the aftermath. The column will be a major element of the new National September 11 Memorial and Museum.  Since its removal from Ground Zero in 2002, the steel column and each of the 82 photographs, notes, memorial posters and Mass cards have been stored and protected in a climate-controlled facility at Hangar 17 at New York’s JFK Airport. This past August, the “Last Column” became the first artifact returned to the museum site for installation within a special encasement where it will be assessed, conserved and monitored.

Save America’s Treasures is a national public-private partnership dedicated to ensuring a brighter future for our past.  It includes the National Trust for Historic Preservation as principal private partner, and the National Park Service, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the two National Endowments, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.  This grant to the “Last Column” is one of 42 nationally significant historic structures, artifacts and collections selected to receive a 2009 award through Save America’s Treasures.

Administered by our federal partners, on December 11th Save America’s Treasures announced $9.5 million in grants to address the preservation/conservation needs of some of our nation’s most storied places. The “Last Column” joins the Old Naval Hospital on Washington’s Capitol Hill, Newport’s Stanford White Casino Theatre, Tufts University’s “This I Believe” Collection, Raices Latin Music collection, Santa Fe’s San Miguel Chapel and many others. In just 10 years, this national partnership has awarded over $350 million in federal matching grants and private contributions to address the enormous preservation backlog.

Having worked closely with the 9/11 Museum on this and other important projects, we at the National Trust’s SAT program were especially pleased to learn of this recognition and support for the “Last Column.”  Back in 2002, Save America’s Treasures partnered with the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) and ALCOA to fund the conservation of the Yamasaki World Trade Center architectural model—the last authentic 3-dimensional representation of the complex. Last year, the AAF announced its loan of the model to the Museum, where it will occupy a central place in the exhibition that tells the World Trade Center story. Save America’s Treasures secured a pledge of the required funds from its partner organization Tourism Cares, for the model’s encasement, presentation and interpretation.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation also joined with its preservation partners to save the stunning Vesey Street Staircase, down which hundreds of people escaped during the attacks.  Known as the “Survivors’ Staircase,” it was threatened with demolition until the National Trust named it to its 2006 list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  As with the “Last Column” and the World Trade Center model, the Vesey Staircase will hold a special place in the new Museum.

Save America’s Treasures at the National Trust is honored to partner with the National September 11 Memorial and Museum where artifacts, oral histories, documents and displays will pay tribute and convey the tragic 9/11 story of loss and recovery.

Fiona Lawless is the program manager for Save America’s Treasures at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Written by Elizabeth Beckley

As the Eastern Shore Field Director for Preservation Maryland, I cover a beautiful and fragile region known as Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Known as the ‘Bread Basket of the Nation’, in Washington’s day, it is one of the few remaining places where one can literally walk through the colonial landscape as it was seen hundreds of years ago. There are many small ‘cross road’ vernacular towns and an abundance of colonial era farm and manor houses that dot the broad landscape.

As a rural agricultural region, it faces many threats, primarily development pressure from the surrounding cities of Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia. We serve as a tempting resource for developers as well as utility companies, who see the opportunity to capitalize on the incredible growth projected for the region over the next twenty years. What ensues is a hard fight from conservation and preservation organizations to protect and conserve as much of our landscape as they can and help guide our local governments to construct comprehensive plans and employ cutting edge land use policies that reflect the goals of sustainable development and Smart Growth.

When I began my position in February of 2009, I immediately began working on one of the most pressing issues facing the Eastern Shore in Dorchester County, the Maryland Power Pathway Project or MAPP for short. The national utility company Pepco is proposing a massive extra high voltage 150 foot, 75-foot wide transmission line that would originate at the nuclear power facility at Calvert Cliffs, travel underneath the Chesapeake Bay and surface at Taylors Island in Dorchester County. These transmission towers will then proceed to cross 27 miles of pristine countryside and require rights-of-ways that will consume 650 acres of Dorchester’s agricultural, forest and rural lands.

Unfortunately, the enabling legislation that was passed by Congress as a provision of the 2005 Energy Act “precludes meaningful federal protection for historic resources as mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act.” In 2007 the National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized this incredible and ominous threat and nominated the ‘Historic Places in Transmission Line Corridors” to their 11 Most Endangered List.

As I write this there is a proposal moving through Congress to establish the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park in Dorchester County. It is one of two ‘sister’ parks, the other being in Auburn, New York, where Harriet Tubman established her home base from which she conducted many return trips via the Underground Railroad in and out of Dorchester County to emancipate over 70 other souls from bondage.

A Special Resource Study completed by the National Park Service in 2008, has determined that the proposed park area meets all the criteria as a National Historic Landmark based on the significance and integrity of its cultural landscape. The stunning part is, that what you begin to realize, is that the proposed route of the MAPP transmission line is going to walk clear across the heart of this national treasure. The National Historic Landmark designation is important, because is by far the most powerful tool for requiring the utility company to have to potentially jog the line to avoid directly impacting the cultural resources.

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Written by Adam Szymkowiak

There’s encouraging news for advocates of historic windows, energy efficiency, and sustainability from the City of Baltimore. The city is helping qualified residents with high utility bills save on energy through a federally funded weatherization program. Baltimore projects that the $15 million in weatherization funds will help 700 families per year lower their monthly energy bills. The program provides energy audits as well as building improvements such as fixing malfunctioning furnace and water heaters and adding insulation to areas where energy is commonly lost like attics. Baltimore’s program is using stimulus dollars to support preservation objectives, create jobs and save energy — a central message of the ongoing Perfect Storm effort .

Importantly… what the program will not do is use the funds for replacement windows. The city has found the energy saving benefits of replacement windows to be misleading. Michael A. Lafferty, a city Department of Housing and Community Development buildings superintendent, says, “It takes 90 years on average to pay back the cost of a replacement window.”

Congratulations are in order for Baltimore for recognizing that replacement windows are often not the solution to improving energy efficiency in older buildings. Unfortunately too many are still in the dark about the important role original windows have in the operating efficiency of buildings. This is why efforts have been made on our part to launch programs such as the Weatherization Guide to educate homeowners on ways to improve energy efficiency in their homes without sacrificing the historical integrity.

Baltimore’s program is a step in the right direction for both historic preservation and sustainability — here’s hoping this is the beginning of a trend.

Adam Szymkowiak is an intern in the State and Local Policy office at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.