Preservation's Next Generation

Above: Dexter Vincent asks a question at the 2023 Historic New England Summit in Providence, Rhode Island. Photograph by Kevin Trimmer.

by DEXTER VINCENT

Last summer, Dexter Vincent, then a rising senior at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island, completed an internship with Historic New England’s Preservation Services Team. We asked him to reflect on his experience as an emerging preservationist.

One day I realized that every home I’ve inhabited has been historic. Of all seventeen—among them a 1795 captain’s house, apartments in Second Empire houses, and Colonial Revival homes—the newest was an apartment in a 1920 brick sixplex in Providence, Rhode Island. My parents sought these homes for their beauty and affordability, and they provided a colorful backdrop for my childhood.

Legos and old atlases inspired my love of history, architecture, and urban planning. As I gained new perspective, I found intrigue in details of these familiar homes. I sought to solve a mystery: What caused the Providence I experience to differ so dramatically from that former one—invisible now, but revealed in maps and pictures? What factors produce society’s many challenges—most of all climate change? Books—namely James Howard Kunstler’s The Geography of Nowhere and Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities—answered some of my questions, and in a semester-long research project I investigated the history of planning in Providence. I saw the wasteful destruction of homes and communities that American cities and towns visited upon themselves and wondered how to preserve what’s left.

I brought these questions to Historic New England when I began an internship in the summer of 2023. I shadowed Senior Preservation Services Manager Dylan Peacock on annual visits to private properties protected by Historic New England’s Preservation Easement Program. The sites varied from storied Georgians to stylish suburban Victorians and a bespoke modern villa. Dylan attentively decoded every detail—the hydrology of the site, the quality of past renovations, the fine ornamentation and features. I also accompanied Jennifer Robinson, Preservation Services Manager, Southern New England, to a gorgeous Georgian in Matunuck, Rhode Island, and a seaside ice cream stand after.

Among the Historic New England preservation easement properties Vincent helped document during his internship are these two in Massachusetts: The Jacobs-Churchill House (above), designed by architect Charles Crombie, and the Peabody-Williams House (above). Photograph of Jacobs-Churchill House courtesy of owner.

From these visits, I learned much about diagnosing maintenance issues, writing condition reports, and scouring archives. But the crowning moment of the internship was our visit to Haverhill, Massachusetts. There, Historic New England is transforming the Burgess and Lang buildings into a world-class museum and mixed-use campus. The scope and thoughtfulness of the project showed me that investment in existing buildings not only preserves history, but also conserves resources and limits harm to the climate.

Last fall, I became co-director of the Providence Student Union (PSU) Leadership Team. PSU is a youth-led nonprofit which empowers students to better their schools and communities. As co-director, I’ve joined with youth, climate, transit, and labor advocates to petition for state appropriations to Rhode Island’s under-funded transit system, RIPTA. I have also worked with preservationists in Providence to counter my school district’s “Newer and Fewer” policy, which prescribes school demolitions and closures. In February 2024, I co-authored, with the PSU Leadership Team, an op-ed in The Providence Journal arguing to save Mount Pleasant High School, one such building considered for demolition. In March, I wrote an article for The Providence Eye on the school district’s plans, which might now include near-total renovation of the building. Preserving old school buildings and funding transit may seem to be disparate endeavors, but I consider them to be the same. In both cases, I advocate for less resource consumption in order to fight climate change.

This fall, I am attending Brown University, where I will study every facet of cities. I hope to apply my experiences with Historic New England, PSU, and The Providence Eye to design cities that conserve our limited historic resources and contribute to a healthy, stable planet.