Like many non-profit fields, supporters of historic preservation and preservation-based revitalization continue to be influenced by how they were made aware of the importance of historic resources. One typical avenue toward that awareness is the threat of demolition of an important local landmark, a place that contributes to a community’s sense of place – or, as noted urban advocate Ed McMahon calls them, “places of the heart.” When these demolition crises arrive, individuals and organizations mobilize and seek to influence owners to consider alternative paths. If that is unsuccessful, attention often shifts to encouraging local government officials to enact protections for historic resources.

The best advocacy, of course, is of the proactive variety. One of the key benefits of local historic preservation organizations is their ability to work toward creating “environments for preservation.” Such an environment is one where property owners are made generally aware of possible preservation financial incentives, of the importance of individual buildings and houses to downtowns and neighborhoods, and of the possibility of public outcry if they pursue demolition or insensitive renovation.

A real challenge exists when it is the local government itself that is the source of possible demolition. Such is the situation in Mansfield, where the city is pursuing an aggressive demolition program to combat blight, and local preservation advocates are seeking the opportunity to be a part of the process of evaluating the historic integrity and value of targeted structures. In fact, the ability to do so is written into federal law. Click here to read blog entries profiling this situation.

All over Ohio, local governments are using federal stimulus funds to combat the after-effects of the national foreclosure crisis – but in some cases, are doing so in a piecemeal fashion. Without paying attention to long-term neighborhood revitalization strategies, the net result may well be making the situation worse, not better. As the National Vacant Properties initiative has pointed out, simply creating a vacant lot can actually serve as a substantial long-term disincentive for investment in surrounding properties.

What is needed is a dialogue in Ohio communities on the best way to approach revitalization of traditional neighborhoods. What preservation and revitalization advocates can and should do is to seek ways to become a part of that conversation.

Preservation Ohio Executive Director Thomas Palmer takes a turn in sharing some observations on preservation and revitalization.

There’s an old adage that those working in historic preservation are always influenced by how their involvement began.

It is certainly true for me. I was sped along the path of preservation by my experiences while an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, chief among which watching a community come to grips with the future of an iconic historic building.

The Salt Lake City and County Building, which I usually heard referred to as the “City-County Building,” is a massive sandstone structure of Richardsonian Romanesque design located a few blocks south of the center of downtown Salt Lake City.  Built in the last decade of the 19th century, the unique structure housed the offices of both the Salt Lake City municipal government and Salt Lake County – and was built with room to spare. In fact, the City-County Building was used as the first capitol building for the new State of Utah in 1896, and served in that role until 1915.

It is hard to exaggerate the way that the building dominates the southern part of downtown SLC, or, for that matter, measure the impact that its loss could have on the community.  Nevertheless, when Salt Lake County built a sterile collection of new courthouse buildings twenty blocks south of downtown in the 1980s, Salt Lake City government officials were left with a $50 million question – should the building be preserved, or were its days of serving the community at an end?  Was it simply too expensive to preserve?  Making that decision all the more difficult was the need to conduct extensive seismic retrofitting – a process that would place the impossibly-heavy building on steel and rubber “shock absorbers’ that would move in case of earthquake – due to Salt Lake City’s location on the Wasatch Fault.

There was debate and more debate.  During that time, I first became aware of an organization called the “Utah Heritage Foundation.”  To be honest, at the time I had little to no idea what statewide preservation organizations did, or, for that matter, about the field of historic preservation itself.  All I knew is that was a group that was standing up and being counted in the process.  The Foundation conducted petition drives, facilitated the exchange of information, and championed the project from the start.  One of the very first petition signatures of my life was to support their efforts.

On the evening of the fateful final vote, I could not stay away.  I attended the meeting in the Salt Lake City Council Chambers, housed in the City-County Building, and I was the person that sat directly underneath the life-sized portrait of Brigham Young that still graces that room.  I was in the prime spot, therefore, to watch the Council courageously vote to tackle the massive project.

Many years later, and long after I had left Utah with my wife and newly-born son to return to Ohio for law school, I had occasion to watch the television broadcast covering the announcement of the location for the 2002 Winter Olympics.  The network provided a split-screen view of each candidate community, with a crowd gathered in hopeful anticipation, poised to cheer if their city’s name was read.  Imagine my great happiness when the camera showed the group from Salt Lake City, standing not before Temple Square or the Utah State Capitol, but rather in front of the Salt Lake City & County Building.  Of course, it was their turn to celebrate.

There is power in the built environment, my friends, to bind communities together and to provide a powerful sense of place of Olympic proportions.  I have witnessed similar stories of success in Ohio communities, large and small, as they come to an awareness of the value of their own historic resources.  Those scenes and stories never fail to inspire, or to remind me of what I witnessed many years ago.

Photo: Salt Lake City & County Building -- Shawn Econo/Creative Commons License

MyHometownOhio features occasional views written by Preservation Ohio Staff and Board members.  In today’s post, Preservation Ohio Executive Director Thomas Palmer takes the opportunity to pen a quick response to an editorial published in the March 11 online edition of the Marietta Register.

Some weeks ago, we took a brief timeout from Ohio-based stories to share with you a news item from the town of Albion, New York.  There, the mayor had launched into an attack on the city’s historic preservation ordinance, vociferously advocating removal of the community’s entire historic downtown area.  In a follow-up to this outburst, preservation developer Donovan Rypkema had shared his take on why the mayor’s views were not only misguided, but also objectively impractical.

MyHometownOhio included the Albion story as it typified a similar attitude we have heard in various parts of our own state – one which not only discounts the value of historic resources, but decries their existence as a purported barrier to “progress.”  In this light, this morning I was not surprised, but was nevertheless very disappointed, to read a lead editorial in the online Marietta Register entitled “Prisoners to History.”

“Prisoners to History” is an editorial that, quite frankly, needs to be read to be believed (click here to do so).  Ignoring obvious statements of exaggeration such as “One, (sic) hundred year old home or business building or government center is nice.  Ten shows a connection to the past.  A hundred or more of them shows a lack of investment in renewal and development.” or the equally broad “Those who value and are interested in history and the past tend largely to be those who are older and more set in their ways.  Those of us who are younger and more vital (let’s face it) are more interested in the newest and latest,” the core message of the editorial seems to be this – that Marietta is doomed to economic decline if it fails to jettison using its history as a tool for marketing and development.

There are many ways to respond to this editorial, among which are the following:

•    While the editorial’s point that differentiation drives economic prosperity is a valid one, it does not follow that Marietta’s use of its history cannot itself be a differentiating factor.  First of all, the history of Ohio’s oldest community is a highly unique and singular one.  Marietta is not just any community along any river.  Second, just because every city has a history, it does not automatically mean that city leaders know what that history is and how to effectively communicate it.  Like other heritage tourism attractions, cities can attract visitors and investment if they project the air of authenticity so valued in today’s marketplace, and do so in a highly interactive, engaging manner.

•    Just as with the mayor of Albion’s statements, there is an inherent impracticality to what is suggested by this editorial.  The fact is that Marietta is composed of more than hundreds of older structures – there are actually thousands of them, some 2,295 of them deemed to be contributing structures in National Register Historic Districts alone!  While replacing them is obviously a ludicrous proposition, even ignoring them to concentrate on other efforts risks the need to expend millions of public dollars dealing with the after-effects of blight and decay – a horrific proposition even in the best of economic times.

•    Like it or not, Marietta Register, the only proven viable and comprehensive downtown revitalization strategy that exists for your community is one which emphasizes assets which it already has.  After visiting hundreds of downtowns, Donovan Rypkema again stated, “….I cannot identify a single example of a sustained success story in downtown revitalization where historic preservation wasn’t a key component of that strategy. Not a one. Conversely, the examples of very expensive failures in downtown revitalization have nearly all had the destruction of historic buildings as a major element.”

•    Lastly, the State of Ohio, in the middle of the most difficult economy in a generation, still sees the inherent power of the past to generate sustainable investment.  Why else would the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit be one of the key elements of Governor Strickland’s job creation strategy?

The most telling observation is this.  In both Albion and Marietta, there are no alternative economic development philosophies being advanced – there is only opposition to one which already exists.  Perhaps the author of this editorial secretly wishes that Marietta looked more like a more temperate city in California or Arizona, and feels trapped in a place that falls short of his or her expectations – but the fact is that Marietta looks like it does because of more than 200 years of history.  Perhaps it’s a simple instance of someone or someplace with resources taking them for granted, based on the human tendency to overlook what we see most often.

Whatever that case, Marietta -- Ohio’s oldest community – deserves the tools it needs to generate revitalization in the toughest of times – including, finally, a historic preservation ordinance!

Thomas Palmer

Photo: Downtown Marietta - Preservation Ohio File Photo

MyHometownOhio will be taking a look over the coming weeks at some of the people involved in Ohio's statewide preservation movement.  Today our new Project Manager, Rachel Mendell, shares a conversation with Preservation Ohio's Director of Development, Marian Vance.

Marian Vance has been involved with the work of Preservation Ohio for many years.

“I admire the work of the organization,” she said, “which has done so much through the years – during a time it was all volunteer driven.” Marian admires the work and vision of past presidents.

“We look hard at every old building that comes down,” said Marian. She sited the example of the string of working class homes nestled in behind the Frank Lloyd Wright home in Springfield. These 1800s homes “really speak of how the neighborhood looked before the Frank Lloyd Wright home was built.” The homes are a snapshot of the era, and Preservation Ohio would like to see them saved.  

At the time Marian became involved, president Ann Antenen was instrumental in saving the Anthony Wayne Hotel in Hamilton, Ohio, now a senior citizens living facility. The hotel was donated to Preservation Ohio, which was able to find a developer to restore the historic building.

“I like the educational programming that Preservation Ohio has always been involved in,” said Marian. She mentioned two of her favorite programs the organization has put on: “Courthouse Revisited” and “Managing Change.” Many of these conferences have resulted in new preservation groups around Ohio that are still meeting today.

Recently, Preservation Ohio was able to salvage architectural details from homes that were scheduled to be demolished for the new hospital that is to be built downtown Springfield. The salvage is now being sold through the ReStore, which is run by Habitat for Humanity. The historic neighborhood, 144 buildings in all, was branded for demolition when Community Mercy Health Center decided to build.

Preservation Ohio was able to negotiate a contract with the city of Springfield and a group from Preservation Ohio was allowed to go into the historic homes and salvage pieces of historic value – pillars, windows, mantle pieces, doors, and trim.

“I also served on the City of Delaware’s Historic Landmarks Commission,” said Marian. “Dublin was really the first I had had a chance to work for the creative reuse of old buildings.”

Marian helped raise money to build the church in Ohio Village and served on the board of the Ohio Historical Society for nine years. She was also president for the historic preservation group Columbus Landmarks Foundation that served as an advocacy group to save the Masonic Temple on Third Street and three historic homes on Broad Street in Columbus.

“My husband and I restored an old home in Springfield three years ago,” said Marian, “at the same time that Preservation Ohio moved its offices there.”

Marian is excited about the New Year for Preservation Ohio. “I’d like to see the educational workshops put on across Ohio,” said Marian. “I’d like to get back to the educational focus that is the root of Preservation Ohio.”

“I’d like to see us raise enough money to help small communities with the revitalization of their downtown areas.”

“The board is really strong right now,” she said. “I think this will be an exciting year for Preservation Ohio.”

-- Rachel Mendell, Project Manager

Photo: Preservation Ohio's Marian Vance, right with Board Member Cyndie Gerken - taken at the ReStore in Springfield, January 2008

The planned changes here at MyHometownOhio are more than cosmetic.  As time progresses, we plan to bring a more relaxed and conversational approach to sharing news about the world of preservation, revitalization, heritage tourism and smart growth in Ohio.  In the two and a half years that we have been blogging, for instance, we have only infrequently mentioned any background information about the Preservation Ohio office -- who we are, what we do, and -- most importantly -- where we see Ohio preservation going.  From politics to pop culture, the Buckeye State is a unique beast, and we’re going to take the chance to share our take on what makes it tick.

We are launching, therefore, a regular feature called “Perspectives on Preservation.”  These segments will include everything from coverage of preservation events around Ohio to a “look behind the scenes” at our office, statewide events, and significant local issues.  We’ll make it easy for you to share your comments in response to our views, both on MyHometownOhio and also on The Ohio Preservation Network (coming soon at: www.ohiopreservationnetwork.com).

So -- go with us as we take an ongoing look at the people, places, news and views that make up the world of preservation in Ohio.

Photo: Tasumi1968/Creative Commons License