This week staff has been busy prepping for the Preservation Ohio Annual Meeting coming up this Saturday.  The event always serves as a great chance to step back for a minute, take a look at the “big picture,” and discuss the future of our organization and its mission.  This year, that meeting will include a presentation entitled simply, “Opportunity.”  Opportunity is an interesting creature; it can actually lurk almost invisibly in the wide open, waiting to be noticed.

Immediately after our Annual Meeting, the Board of Trustees will engage in their Spring Meeting, which always includes a vote on the annual List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites.  The Trustees take this responsibility very seriously, but also thoroughly enjoy reading the stories of communities coming together to advocate for the future of important local resources.  This year’s list of nominations is a strong one, including new types of resources that have never been included before.

The role of a list of endangered historic resources is a time-tested and effective approach to preservation advocacy.  Each year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation issues its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places and does so, according to its website, “as a powerful alarm to raise awareness of the serious threats facing the nation’s greatest treasures. It has become one of the most effective tools in the fight to save the country’s irreplaceable architectural, cultural and natural heritage.”  In a 2007 survey of statewide preservation organizations conducted by the Trust, it found that some 24 statewides use endangered properties lists in the same fashion.

In some locations, such compilations have been replaced by other types of lists which emphasize the potential of buildings to generate investment.  While certainly a great idea, and while older buildings obviously need revenue to survive, this approach may not necessarily consider sites from certain other perspectives -- the importance of the site to the history of the locality, region and/or state, the way that a given condition highlights serious issues facing similar historic resources in other locations, as well as the willingness of supporters to come together to support preservation efforts to say, in essence, “this place matters.”  In short, Preservation Ohio feels that the remotest Underground Railroad site in Ohio that faces imminent demolition is certainly just as newsworthy and deserving of highlight as the vacant older commercial building sitting in a prime location in a major city.  We try to highlight both the “opportunities” and the “challenges.”

The 2009 List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites will be unveiled beginning in early May -- National Preservation Month -- on our main website, the Ohio Preservation Network, and here on MyHometownOhio.  This year, the list will be just the beginning of major announcements from Preservation Ohio that will take place throughout the month -- all designed to fulfill our mission to assist  local preservation-minded individuals and organizations working all over Ohio.  We invite you to stay tuned.