Boston Partners in Preservation Site Unveiled: Lowell’s Boat Shop First to Complete Preservation Project
by Guest Writer on October 2nd, 2009Written by Michael DeKoster
This week, Lowell’s Boat Shop wraps up the preservation work made possible through our participation in Partners in Preservation (PiP) Grant Program. We rose to the call that PiP sounded and were rewarded with not only full funding but a better understanding of the program’s tenants: partnerships and preservation.
This week, we celebrate the completion of our physical preservation project. Being a 216 year old continually-working boat shop means we have an abundance of preservation needs. While our task of putting on a new roof, restoring 95 double-hung wooden windows, installing new shakes, painting the building, and installing heat in our teaching room answers a structural need; it goes well beyond that. The preservation of our physical structure speaks volumes of the issues that matter deeply to us as a community. This preservation will also allow our historic building to be a sounding board for future generations to discover what matters to them.
This week, we also celebrate the partnerships that were demonstrated during the grant process; PiP gave us an opportunity to connect with countless others. It was not just voting and special events, but contractors donating time and materials toward a common goal, friends talking with friends about preserving an historic site, organizations rallying their members for our cause, blogs being written, websites created, and newsletters generated. (And don’t forget learning what the heck a Twitter was!) Partners in Preservation gave people the chance to demonstrate their appreciation for our site and recommit to our mission. To watch that commitment develop into action and then grow into a world-wide community was reinvigorating.
So what happens in life after PiP? Continuing the call for “Partners in Preservation” means creating sustainable partnerships that support the preservation of sites that matter. For us, one such opportunity is the opening of our new satellite location in the Charlestown Navy Yard this month. Initially a pilot program, Lowell’s Boat Shop Boston will advance our mission of “preserving and perpetuating the art and craft of wooden boat building” through educational workshops to the community at large. Doing it in collaboration with another historic site is just an added bonus.
The Partners in Preservation challenge engaged much of our resources over the past year and I, for one, cannot thank them enough. We have new friends, new stories, new resources, new attitudes and a wonderfully preserved site to house them all.
Michael DeKoster is the vice-chairman of Lowell’s Maritime Foundation.
Support the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Donate now.
