The following is a portion of a Press Release received this morning from Heritage Ohio.
“Heritage Ohio announced its Top Preservation Opportunities List for 2008. The preservation & revitalization organization chose ten buildings located throughout the state. The ten brick & mortar opportunities represent a variety of building types and a variety of opportunities to investors and communities alike.
Heritage Ohio’s Top Preservation Opportunities List, in its second year, has partnered with the Durable Restoration Company, to provide the technical support communities may need in: prioritizing rehabilitation work; finding appropriate adaptive reuse options; or understanding how their historic assets contribute to the economic vitality of each individual community….Top Preservation Opportunities show the public that what may appear as a vacant building today, may be tomorrow’s hot spot: offering a location that may provide loft housing, the latest restaurant or retail establishment or a new center of commerce. Communities should look at their historic assets as “OPPORTUNITIES”; buildings that are under-utilized or await redevelopment can create destinations as opposed to the generic America of contemporary strip centers, shopping malls, and office parks….
The Top Ten Ohio Preservation Opportunities List includes: Elk’s Lodge—Wapakoneta; Fife & Bosworth commercial building—Wilmington; Bethany Hall at Otterbein—Lebanon; Fairborn Performing Arts Theater—Fairborn; Marsh Hotel—Van Wert; Longwood Manor—Macedonia; Eli Kinney House—Portsmouth; Keller Building—Sandusky; Town Hall—Edgerton; and the Seneca County Courthouse—Tiffin. Information about Ohio’s Top Preservation Opportunities will be available on Heritage Ohio’s Web site at: www.heritageohio.org and Durable Restoration’s web site at www.DurableRestoration.com….”
In addition to feeds from Ohio newspapers and media sources discussing preservation and downtown revitalization, we now bring you a news feed centering on heritage and cultural tourism. You can find the feed in the left column, underneath those for preservation and downtowns.
Heritage tourism is not only one of the fastest-growing segments of the tourism industry. Tourism is big business for Ohio; in Appalachian Ohio alone, for instance, it accounts for a direct economic impact exceeding $600 million annually. Increasingly, the marketing of historic and cultural attractions in Ohio has also led the state in the move toward experiential tourism - enhancing visitor experiences through the creation of multi-sensory ways to communicate stories of a given Ohio place.
Like the others, this feed will be updated automatically as items are published online.
We are also now bringing you regular updates from BuckeyeLine, which covers news from the Ohio Division of Tourism. Although geared primarily to tourism industry professionals, BuckeyeLine also provides insights into opportunities for local heritage tourism efforts.
At a time when historic theatres and auditoriums - particularly in traditional school buildings -- are being demolished in large numbers across Ohio, here’s a great example of how an existing theatre can be brought back to productive life.
The video below shows the interesting story of the re-birth of the 55-year-old “Main Street Theatre” in downtown Columbiana. The renovation project shows obvious attention to highlighting period details, while providing updates that appeal to the modern movie customer. Films shown at the theatre include both modern blockbusters (Batman: The Dark Knight is currently playing), as well as classic films and live performances.
Some interesting things (albeit unrelated to each other) that have come across our desks in the last few days:
Small-town history still attracts -- As a follow-up to the last entry about small towns creating a marketable sense of place (and for some quantification of the impact of gas prices on tourism), take a look at this very interesting report entitled “The State of the American Traveler,” just issued by Destination Analysts, Inc.. Two things stand out -- first, that Americans are taking fewer and shorter leisure trips, and second, that heritage tourism still stands out as an important part of those trips. Among the top activities participated in by respondents on these closer-to-home jaunts include city sightseeing, seeing historic attractions, and visiting small towns and rural areas.
Most Endangered, British-style - Here is a photo essay on England’s current “endangered heritage sites." With a long and storied history, it is not surprising that this list is as varied as it is, including everything from ancient stone circles to castles. The National Trust (the British version) estimates that 1 in 12 heritage sites are currently endangered.
Theatre Redux - Speaking of photo essays, this is a very interesting look at the current renovation work going on inside the historic Hanna Theatre building (1921) in Playhouse Square, Cleveland. Be sure to check out the links to photos from earlier this year. The project will transform the theatre into a venue for the Great Lakes Theatre Festival, with seats in a new stadium-style configuration and a new, “thrust” stage.
Creative Cities Close to Home - We recently ran across the announcement of the “Creative Cities Summit 2.0” Conference set for this October, and its close to home -- in Detroit. There’s an interesting set of speakers and workshops planned to concentrate on urban development focusing on attracting creative professionals and corporations - including Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class, John Howkins, author of The Creative Economy, and Charles Landry, author of The Creative City. Click here for the conference website.
The Fairest of the Fairs - And finally, here’s a plug for a piece of Ohio history that celebrates an important anniversary this year. From August 2-9, you can attend the 150th version of The Hartford Independent Fair, a unique summer celebration that started in Croton in 1858. The entertainment schedule includes puppeteers, tractor pulls, an open barrel horse show, a mud run and that staple of Ohio county fairs, the demolition derby. Click here for details.
Small towns in Ohio, like their counterparts across the country, have a preservation dynamic unlike their larger sister cities. On one hand, the impact of renovating one building, or one group of buildings, can have a strong impact on an entire village. Of course, the reverse is also true, as one mistake - such as the loss of a single iconic structure or the resistance of one politician - can be more difficult to overcome.
Preservation economist Donovan Rypkema recently took a look at one small town that really understands preservation-based community development. Story City, Iowa (population 3200) has a success story in 1880 brick commercial building on the prime corner downtown, a renovation project that happened because of what modern economists call “crowd-sourcing” -- a number of individuals made the difference when local government stepped out of the picture. The building now has a fantastic tenant - RVP1875 - a manufacturer that specializes in furniture from a 15-year period in American history. Click here to visit a fascinating small-town merchant.
Iowa is also home to the smallest community in the country with a functioning Main Street program -- the village of Bonaparte, with a population of approximately 500.
Does Ohio have small towns that understand the power of place to fuel economic development and enhance quality of life? While there are several that may fit this mold, one that quickly comes to mind is the Auglaize County community of New Bremen, population 3,000. New Bremen prides itself on using its past and its character to generate interest and attract investment. The community website is a good indication of that outreach - it is more comprehensive than the sites of many Ohio communities many times its size. And it is not just "spin" -- New Bremen prides itself in telling its unique story. The village boasts the Bicycle Museum of America, an excellent local history museum housed in the 1837 William Luelleman House. The village has also recently completed a renovation project for Lock One of the Miami & Erie Canal, which includes excellent interpretive signage.
Does it work? You bet. Not only has local manufacturer Crown Equipment restored much of downtown for corporate offices, adding sensitive infill, but the community has attracted other investment as well. Crown itself received the Preservation Merit Award from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office for their investment and renovation work.
This Summer, five new books allow readers a set of unique glimpses into the history and architecture of Columbus. All of these books are or will be available soon in your local bookstore.
On August 5, the newest AIA architectural guide will be published -- this one featuring the architecture of Columbus. Produced by the Columbus Architectural Foundation, the book is authored by Jeffrey Darbee and Nancy Recchie, two of the state’s leading historic preservation consultants. Jeff and Nancy recently presented a workshop in Tipp City on “Marketing Historic Properties” in conjunction with the City of Tipp City and Preservation Ohio. It promises to be a great read. Click here for more information.
Ohio’s Governor’s Mansion is profiled in “Our First Family’s Home: The Ohio Governor’s Residence and Heritage Garden,” now available at your favorite bookstore. The volume tells the story of what could be referred to as a “living museum,’ a place where the history and beauty are combined to showcase the best of Ohio. This page at the Ohio University Press website allows you more insight into the book, and includes not only a full chapter preview, but a virtual tour inside the mansion. Click here for more information.
Three of the newest books from Arcadia Publishing feature aspects of Columbus history:
In ’Mount Calvary Cemetery,” the author looks at Columbus’ largest and oldest Catholic cemetery, and tells the stories of the people who rest there in photos and narrative. Click here for more information.
Also currently available is a guidebook to the history of Upper Arlington, one of the city‘s “inner“ suburbs, and one of Ohio's earliest planned communities. Click here for more information.
Lastly, the history of the arts in Columbus takes center stage in “Columbus, Ohio: The Musical Crossroads,” which will be published in August. The book profiles both well known national artists with strong Columbus connections, as well as local artists that contributed world-class talents to the local music scene. Click here for more information.
The calendar doesn’t lie -- this month marks the second anniversary of MyHometownOhio, and what an eventful two years it has been.
Our first stories in July, 2006 focused on downtown revitalization planning, the Ohio & Erie Canal, a tourism conference at Ohio State, neighborhood revitalization in Mansfield, work on the interior of the Ohio Statehouse dome, and the Supreme Court’s important eminent domain decision. 284 articles later, MyHometownOhio has become a staple for a large number of regular subscribers and thousands of visitors each week - and we‘ve managed to maintain a rate of an entry every 2.6 days (pretty good in the world of blogs). Stories featured on MyHometownOhio have generated articles in both large and small newspapers in Ohio, and have resulted in boosts for local preservation efforts. We were the first blog in the country to feature the automatic feed from Preservation Nation, the blog of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and now bring you feeds that include our latest offering -- Donovan Rypkema’s Place Economics blog.
There are still quirks that remain, even after all this time. For one thing, it remains difficult to get an ironclad RSS feed for Ohio media stories covering preservation and downtown revitalization, and so occasionally you will see a story pop into the mix that includes key words but which has little to do with the subject matter. The alternative is do something similar to the National Trust‘s “Preservation in the News,” which includes only stories that mention the organization itself, or to manually choose stories each day. We know that interesting preservation stories are covered in Ohio newspapers on a daily basis, and we try to bring them to you in the best way possible.
On the occasion of this anniversary, we would like to take a moment to do the first true organizational “plug” we have made in those two years. We share with you the message that Ohio’s statewide preservation movement stands in a somewhat precarious position in the middle of 2008. It is thought that Ohio boasts the largest number of properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places (individual or contributing to a district) than any other state -- yet membership in Ohio’s two statewide preservation organizations -- combined -- is, per capita, one of the lowest in the entire country. On a frequent basis, important pieces of Ohio history are lost because local the message of preservation is simply not getting through. We desperately need a unified, stronger and more effective voice.
As Preservation Ohio launches our mid-year membership drive, we would respectfully request that you consider becoming a part of that movement. Not only will your membership last through the end of 2009, but you will be making a statement that Ohio’s past is critical in providing character and prosperity for its future. Together, we can effectively share the power of preserving the past not only with our elected leadership in Columbus, but also in the offices of county commissioners, city and village councils, local school boards and corporate boardrooms all across Ohio.
Click here to read about Preservation Ohio, click here for membership information - and thank you.
In a climate where public officials seem in a panicked rush to demolish schools and other public buildings, its nice to see a community that is doing things the “right way.”
Take the Logan County village of West Liberty, for instance. Officials there took a long look at the dated Town Hall, and decided to reach out to the community for guidance on its future. First, money was expended to develop a phrased restoration and expansion plan from a respected architectural firm. Now, the community - both those living in West Liberty and ex-pats living in other areas of the country or world - has been challenged to find funding and support the project.
The vehicle to communicate this challenge was recently posted on Google Video - and we present it below for your viewing. For our subscribers, click here to access the video on Google.
