We’re back from Christmas break, and ready to hit the ground running in the new year. The end of December is a great time to give our readers a sneak peek at some of what is coming with MyHometownOhio, Preservation Ohio and the statewide preservation and revitalization movement during the coming twelve months.

Earlier this month, we added our new Clipmarks Feature Box to MyHometownOhio, which allows us to feature articles concerning Ohio and Ohioans – as well as preservation stories of national interest. Clicking on the “from” link takes you to the full article. And, if you want to take the Feature Box with you to your own website or page, just click on “Embed” on the bottom left of the box, copy the code, and paste away! Later this Spring, MyHometownOhio will add new social networking features that will bring Ohio preservationists together in new and effective ways.

Preservation Ohio has recently joined the ranks of non-profit organizations using brand-new “Facebook pages” as a way to communicate with a broader set of individuals, and to attract a younger generation to the potential of the state’s historic resources; click here for a sneak peek. Our new Ohio Heritage Traveler website is also poised for launch in the coming weeks.

This Fall, a statewide preservation conference for Ohio is scheduled to make a return after a multi-year absence. The date for the event will be announced shortly.

A Call for Nominations for the 2008 List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites goes out in January. This year, final decisions will likely be made on properties already included in the list, including the Seneca County Courthouse.

Another edition of Statehood Day is set for March 5 in Columbus. This annual event brings together a number of statewide organizations and supporters to meet with members of the Ohio General Assembly and other state officials, and to advocate for passage of measures that promote funding and policy initiatives that support Ohio history.

As always, all of these events – and more – will be chronicled on MyHometownOhio. Our best wishes to you and your community for preservation-related success in 2008!

In a December 13 press release, the office of Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher announced that six communities statewide were successful in receiving grants under the Ohio Department of Development’s annual Comprehensive Downtown Revitalization Tier II program. Four of the six recipient communities are located in Northwest Ohio.

In Van Wert, the money will be joined by Transportation Enhancement grant funding and other public and private investment totaling some $1.6 million. The result will be building and code improvements for over 20 local businesses, street and sidewalk repair and other paving projects.  Click here for local coverage.

In the village of Leipsic in Putnam County, local officials are eagerly looking forward to 2008 to use their newly-obtained grant funds. The effort will effect some 22 businesses, and will involve sewer repair, street lighting, sidewalks and curbs.  Click here for local coverage.

Defiance will receive a $400,000 grant that is designed to leverage ten times that amount in total public and private investment. 25 of 51 property owners eligible have signed up for grant-funded projects, and code work will also be completed.  Click here for local coverage.

Lastly, the City of Bryan in Williams County received funding to assist 39 property owners, and the City will complete both infrastructure and decorative streetscape projects.

Photo: Courthouse Square, Downtown Bryan - Google Earth

H.R. 2764, the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, passed in the United States House of Representatives last night, and is presently pending in the United States Senate. As of 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening, passage looked promising after key planks were added concerning funding for the Iraq action.

If passed, the bill currently calls for an increase in appropriations for several key preservation-related programs. Those include the following proposed increases over Fiscal Year 2007:

State Historic Preservation Offices would receive $39.379 million, an increase of $2.159 million;

Tribal Historic Preservation Offices would receive $6.399 million, an increase of $953,000;

Save Americas Treasures would receive $25 million, an increase of $16.58 million (subject to a 1.5 percent reduction applicable to Department of the Interior programming);

Preserve America would receive $7.5 million, an increase of $2.46 million ((subject to a 1.5 percent reduction applicable to Department of the Interior programming);

Please consider contacting the offices of Ohio’s two US Senators on Wednesday to express your support for the budget bill and these increases for preservation programming.

Here’s a sampling of recent YouTube videos that showcase the best in Ohio preservation and revitalization efforts:

From Mount Vernon, the Woodward Development Corporation has produced a video to highlight recent work on the Woodward Opera House. One of the most significant preservation stories in Ohio in the last decade, the Woodward is best known for two things – first, its relationship with Daniel Decatur Emmett, composer of “Ol’ Dan Tucker” and “Dixie,” and second, its status as the country’s oldest authentic nineteenth-century theatre building. Take a look – its well worth the four minutes! Click here.

Remnants of the Ohio and Erie Canal are included in the video tribute to “The Canal Diggers.” The video looks at the work done by laborers who hand-dug and line the canal for meager pay, but who nevertheless helped to make the interior of Ohio ready for settlement. Click here.

A resident of Middletown, Ohio recently took a walk through her community, and chronicled her results in a video she entitled, “A Picture Show of the town I call Home.” Part photo essay and part social commentary, the result is powerful and speaks to the heart of preservation and revitalization issues. Note that the Carnegie Library, pictured in a series of shots starting at 01:20 in the video, has recently been purchased and awaits hopeful renovation/restoration. Click here.

Visitors to Historic Kirtland can see a reconstructed sawmill and ashery in operation. Several of the structures at the site are original to the 1830s Mormon settlement. Click here.

And, while not in Ohio itself, this video includes a visit to a restored monument that commemorates a well-known Buckeye -- the Harding International Goodwill Memorial, located in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. The monument honors the first visit of a United States President to Canada, which occurred during President Warren G. Harding’s ill-fated westward trip in 1923. Click here.

Preservation Ohio is pleased to announce that its innovative HometownOhio program has come to the beautiful town of Mechanicsburg in Champaign County, which is also a new Preservation Ohio Affiliate Community. Just 30 miles from Columbus, the village is blessed with 24 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a wonderful history, and an outstanding collection of physical and human resources.

Over the next few months, Preservation Ohio will be working with our local partner, Our Towne Mechanicsburg, to create a local revitalization and marketing strategy based on use of existing historic resources. The program will provide hands-on advice and assistance in the community by working with both building and business owners. This effort will also include the creation of new tools to promote the community and its downtown and to generate visits and investment.

HometownOhio brings a unique set of services to communities across Ohio, all provided on-site and all at a highly affordable cost. Each participating community also qualifies as a Preservation Ohio Affiliate, which extends Affiliate membership benefits to residents. For more information about HometownOhio, please click here.

Photo:  Downtown Mechanicsburg/Preservation Ohio File Photo

At its meeting on November 30, the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board voted to recommend the following nine properties for listing on the National Register of Historic Places:

Colonel Joseph Taylor House (1878) – Cambridge, Guernsey County
Chardon Post Office Building (1940) – Chardon, Geauga County
German Evangelical Protestant Cemetery Chapel (1884) – Cincinnati, Hamilton County
Cleveland Club (1930) – Cleveland, Cuyahoga County
Grafton School (1936) – Grafton, Lorain County
Brumberg Building (1906) – Ironton, Lawrence County
Marlow Theatre (1920) – Ironton, Lawrence County
Pleasant Hill – Milford, Clermont County
Historic Associate Reformed Church and Cemetery (1825) – rural Preble County

For more information on these listings, click here.

Photo: Colonel Joseph Taylor House, Cambridge - Public Domain

There has been much written about the loss of older school buildings across Ohio in the last few years. “Ohio’s Historic Schools” have had a secure place on the list of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites since 2002, and rightfully so – the listing represents the greatest systematic loss of historic resources in Ohio since the days of urban renewal. And, in many ways, the loss of school buildings is more insidious, as it takes place in urban settings and rural crossroads alike. Schools are falling victim to a massive building program that wastes money by discounting opportunities for renovation, and which then subsidizes demolition. Outside of Ohio’s largest cities, few historic school buildings are being renovated, and most are succumbing to the wrecking ball.

MyHometownOhio takes a two-part look at this ongoing crisis, first focusing on the magnitude of the issue, and then taking our readers into the middle of a community coming to grips with the probable loss of its most iconic building.

Actually, in conveying the size and pervasiveness of the loss of Ohio’s historic schools, we believe that pictures can say more than words. So, rather than try and describe the situation, or the quality of architecture that is at issue, we invite you to visit a new website we have discovered. The folks at www.oldohioschools.com have collected an outstanding collection of photographs of Ohio’s school buildings – those that are endangered, those that have already been lost, and also a collection of former schools that have found new life through adaptive re-use.

A warning, though – these pictures "tell it as it is."