Friday Roundup: Grants and Recreating the Colored Sanborn Maps

Before our weekly update, we wanted to share that the National Park Service has several grant deadlines approaching. The Underrepresented Community Grant Program grants are due March 31. Learn more about URC or Apply to URC via Grants.gov. The Historically Black Colleges & Universities Grant Program is also due March 31. Learn more about HBCU or Apply to HBCU via Grants.gov. Last, the Tribal Heritage Grant Program deadline is approaching May 5. Learn more about THG or Apply to THG via Grants.gov.


An original portfolio page.

As some of you may know, when we returned to the Hexagon House in 2006 we uncovered a treasure trove of PHW articles that had been left behind in the move to the Kurtz Building. One of those items was the portfolio of colored Sanborn Fire Insurance maps that were used in our presentation to City Council lobbying for the creation of the Historic District. The maps languished forgotten in the basement at the Hexagon House in a damp spot and have been very badly damaged. In addition, the rubber cement used to mount the maps to display boards has also greatly discolored the paper and made the color-coding hard to discern.

Coloring of the assembled map commences.

During one intern program several years ago, we assembled the individual 1897 Sanborn map pieces into one larger map. At long last, we have unrolled this assembled map and begun the task of recreating the color-coding from the portfolio sheets on the wall-sized map. While it will not have quite the same feel of a portfolio of individual pages, we hope the fully assembled and colored map will provide the same impact of seeing the amount of historic building stock left in the historic downtown. (We must note, however, that we are exactly recreating the color-coding from the portfolio, and that work in itself was preliminary before the more in-depth architectural surveys of 1974-1976 took place. The color-coding is only for historic purposes and not intended to be a 100% accurate representation of the age, building material, or significance of any property colored or uncolored in the maps.)

Friday Roundup: Easter Edition

While the PHW office is closed for the holiday, we still have a few bits of reading for you to enjoy over your weekend.

Are you wondering what historic preservationists do? Jeremy Wells created a short document detailing his findings of what career paths historic preservation training might lead to. If you are curious about working at a place like PHW, staff here would have to be versed in every one of his points as we are often the first line of contact on a variety of topics, but we work most with the “regulatory compliance” and “historic site” categories. While working as a single staff-person is challenging, it can also be incredibly rewarding if you enjoy learning new skills to expand your resume. You can also check out the blog post at the National Trust and the continuing discussion on the Forum for other perspectives on working in this field. Several comments point out how student interns are often looking for research opportunities. If you are a student looking to get experience typical of historic preservation fields in a self-directed format, PHW may be a great option for you. We would love more in-depth deed/will/tax record research for some of our historic district properties. While hunting down a chain of owners might seem inconsequential when you are in the midst of it, putting the chain together has helped countless people who needed a starting point for future research. Keep that in mind if you are a student needing some hours and wanting a nice point on future resumes!

While looking into the history of the John Mann Church on East Cork Street, we found a small article from 1914 on the parsonage, called “Pastor Too Tall for Parsonage.” We’re not sure from this little article if they were able to raise the roof 313 South Kent Street for their pastor, but if so, finding an article like this is a nice historic documentation of a change to the building and the reasoning behind it.

In many of the discussions around new construction in the historic district, we’ve seen a trend towards “all or nothing” thinking, with no medium option on the table. If you’re wondering why, you might be interested in “The Death of the Suburban Fourplex” at Strong Towns. While it focuses on Michigan, it is a great overview of how the fourplex (a building constructed to resemble a suburban split level but with four housing units) rose to prominence, became loathed, and were zoned out of existence.

Last, and most important, there are some proposed changes to the National Register process that are extremely troubling. In essence, large landowners input would be weighted more heavily than individual property owners, federal agencies would have unprecedented “pocket veto” powers on nominations, and Section 106 review would be stripped from certain properties. We suggest reading “Dire Consequences for the National Register,” “Proposed Rule Changes to National Register of Historic Places Nominations,” and “Proposed Regulations on the Listing of Properties in the National Register of Historic Places” and making comments on the proposal before April 30. Several of the links will take you directly to forms where you can submit comments online or provide the address for physical letters to be delivered. Most of our larger success stories of preservation in Winchester are because we have a National Register Historic District which enables the use of historic tax credits to make otherwise impossible preservation tasks attainable, like the George Washington Hotel and the Lewis Jones Knitting Mill. Millbank in Frederick County was spared from demolition in the 1980s in part because of the Section 106 review for mitigation on the Third Battle of Winchester. The original 1980 historic district listing also helped avert a potential insurance crisis for the Old Town area, thanks to the exemptions historic recognition can provide for historically flood-prone properties. We are also extremely troubled at the potential impacts on nominations for tribal lands. While we recognize this is not a likely impact for our area, you can find examples of how such proposed changes will produce a negative impact at Living Landscape Observer. Again, we hope that you will review the proposed changes and submit your comments before April 30.

Friday Roundup: Photos, Webinars, and Internships

Friday Roundup Happy Friday! This week we have added 41 photos to our Flickr account. These images were in our Revolving Fund file cabinet, which is getting a good spring cleaning. These files were primarily for properties PHW participated in or surveyed as potential purchases. The highlights include a number of houses on South Kent Street, the old B&O train station on East Piccadilly Street, and a number of 8 East Cork Street photos and bits that were recorded when PHW’s office was located there. Catch all of them at the top of the photostream.

124 E. Germain St.

The National Trust is hosting the webinar “Telling Women’s Stories at Historic Sites” on Wednesday, March 14, 3:00–4:00 p.m. The Preservation Leadership Forum’s next webinar focuses on “Including Women in the Sequel: Re-Interpretation and Telling the Full History at Historic Sites.” Panelists from Belle Grove, the Oneida Community Mansion House, and the Pauli Murray House will discuss their work telling women’s stories—including identifying source materials, developing interpretive plans, and building narratives that tell a broader American story. Register for the webinar at the Forum website or see what webinar topics interest you in their archives.

Teachers and students, are you looking for a summer job opportunity in history, architecture, or landscape architecture? Heritage Documentation Programs, NPS seeks applications from qualified students for 2018 summer employment documenting historic sites and structures of architectural, landscape, and technological significance throughout the country. Duties may involve on-site field work and preparation of measured and interpretive drawings and written historical reports for the HABS/HAER/HALS Collections at the Prints and Photographs Division of The Library of Congress. Projects last 12 weeks, beginning in late-May or early-June. Applications are due March 16, 2018. Learn more and find the application instructions at Facebook and NPS.



Looking for an Internship at PHW?

We’ve received a few inquiries about internship opportunities at PHW. While we love the chance to introduce students to history and preservation careers, we do need to limit ourselves to just one intern a semester.

If you’d like to apply for a fall internship (August-December 2013) please send a short letter detailing your expectations for your internship and your resume to us at phwi@verizon.net. The cutoff date is April 30, 2013. Good luck, everyone!