Preservation Magazine, Spring 2020

PEOPLE SAVING PLACES

SPRING 2020

The magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

AFRICAN AMERICAN HOMESTEADERS IN THE GREAT PLAINS WOMEN WHO SHAPED HISTORY

DESPITE ITS SPRINGTIME BEAUTY, THE NATIONAL MALL’S TIDAL BASIN IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE

BEYOND THE BLOOMS

contents SPRING 2020 The magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

59 DEPARTMENTS 2 President’s Note 4 Editor’s Note 7 Past, Present, Future 12 Transitions

24

FEATURES 16 | Under Water

Flooding, overcrowding, and structural issues are threatening the health of Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin, an essential part of the National Mall.

24 | Sole Survivor

66 Outside the Box 69 Itinerary 72 This Place Matters

32 | Here & Now

The preservation of places associated with three remarkable women—Pauli Murray, Frances Perkins, and Harriet Tubman—signals a new dawn in the way women’s history is viewed.

Of the Great Plains towns settled by intrepid black homesteaders in the years immediately after Reconstruction, only one remains: Nicodemus, Kansas.

DANA DAMEWOOD

59 At Home

On the cover: Regular flooding is a major problem at the National Mall’s Tidal Basin. Photo by Sam Kittner.

Corrections: On page 34 of the Fall 2019 issue, the photo of Decatur House may make it appear as if the building has a rooftop addition, which it does not. Preservation regrets the confusion.

Preservation is the quarterly magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It celebrates the places that have shaped the diverse American cultural experience and inspires people to save the past and enrich the future through charitable giving, advocacy, and volunteerism.

PRESIDENT’S NOTE

We Are All In This Together

M

y president’s note for this issue of Preservation was originally going to focus on the challenges we all face together in addressing the global problem of climate change. Our cover story on the Tidal Basin serves as an important reminder that many historic places we treasure are at risk due to climate change—whether evidenced by rising tides, massive wildfires, catastrophic storms, or other devastating events.

But, as this edition of Preservation goes to press, the country is facing yet another worldwide challenge: the upheaval and uncertainty brought on by COVID-19.

Like so many other organizations, the National Trust has closed our offices and our historic sites. We have asked our employees to work from home, contributing to a nationwide effort to “flatten the curve” in order to better position the country to respond to the current threat. We have canceled numerous in-person events and meetings, and we are doing our best to use our digital resources to connect with the public and with our many partners across the country. Like others, we are deeply grateful for the work being carried out by health professionals, emergency responders, and community leaders and volunteers who continue to serve the public and help protect our most vulnerable populations, while we continue our ongoing work to preserve historic places as best we can.

As I write this, it is impossible to know whether our historic sites will be open and our staff members back in National Trust offices when you receive this magazine. But, as the United States and the world respond to this crisis, two points come to mind.

First, now more than ever, we can look to our history for courage, comfort, and inspiration. As a nation, we have overcome existential challenges in the past, and we will overcome this one as well. In so many ways, our historic sites and cultural landscapes embody our resiliency and our fortitude, and they serve as places of comfort and inspiration in both ordinary and extraordinary times.

The second point is simply that we must meet these challenges together. Addressing the effects of climate change—whether at the Tidal Basin or the many other historic places at risk—requires that we work side by side with partners, with experts, and with the public to bring the full breadth of ideas and resources to address a global problem. Meeting the current health, financial, and social challenges of the coronavirus crisis also requires the same level of commitment and cooperation.

Whether the issue in question is environmental sustainability, preserving our communities, or responding to a global pandemic, we are all in this together. If we remember that, and act accordingly, our history affirms that we can overcome these challenges.

PEDMONDSON@SAVINGPLACES.ORG

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization, works to save America’s historic places.

Paul Edmondson President and Chief Executive Officer Tabitha Almquist Chief Administrative Officer Lynn English Interim Chief Development Officer Geoff Handy Chief Marketing Officer Katherine Malone-France Chief Preservation Officer Thompson M. Mayes Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel Patricia Woodworth Interim Chief Financial Officer PRESIDENT EMERITUS Richard Moe FIELD SERVICES Field Offices Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, District of Columbia, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle BOARD OF TRUSTEES Timothy P. Whalen, Chair Susan E. Chapman-Hughes and Jay Clemens, Vice Chairs Christina Lee Brown, Linda Bruckheimer, Laura W. Bush, Lawrence H. Curtis, Samuel Dixon, Damien Dwin, Kevin Gover, Luis G. Hoyos, Shelley Hoon Keith, Fernando Lloveras San Miguel, C.H. Randolph Lyon, Martha Nelson, Charles Morgan Royce, Lisa See, G. Jackson Tankersley Jr., Phoebe Tudor Ex Officio The Attorney General of the United States The Secretary of the Interior of the United States The Director of the National Gallery of Art Representative, National Trust Advisors Representative, National Trust Historic Sites Councils & Boards Representative, National Preservation Partners Network Chairs Emeriti Robert M. Bass, Alan S. Boyd, Carolyn Brody, Nancy N. Campbell, William B. Hart, J. Clifford Hudson, Jonathan M. Kemper, Marita Rivero Honorary Trustee David McCullough NATIONAL TRUST HEADQUARTERS The Watergate Office Building 2600 Virginia Avenue NW Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20037 (800) 944-6847 SavingPlaces.org

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Surveys Say?

SPRING 2020 VOL . 72 , No. 2

I

n the most recent issue of the magazine, I used my Editor’s Note to thank you for supporting historic preservation. The National Trust also shows its gratitude to supporters by offering discounts at our National Trust Historic Sites, Distinctive Destinations, and Historic Hotels of America. And, of course you know that Preservation magazine is both a token of our appreciation and a way of keeping you abreast of the work your support makes possible.

But for the magazine to truly succeed, it must be something you look forward to and enjoy. Your regular feedback on individual stories and the magazine in general helps us continually evolve and improve the content we deliver to you four times a year. We truly appreciate your letters and emails, as well as the comments you provide through social media.

Even so, we find that it is sometimes important to solicit more structured feedback. To make it easy this time, we’ve created an online survey that will allow you to weigh in from the convenience of your computer or mobile device, and we’ll get your survey response instantaneously. Please visit SavingPlaces.org/magazinesurvey to answer a few questions about the magazine and the types of stories and story topics you enjoy.

Speaking of surveys, as part of our multi-year campaign for “Where Women Made History,” the National Trust is asking supporters to crowdsource a list of important places where women have made history.

Our story “Here & Now” on page 32 introduces you to three such places. And, in this year of commemorating the 19th Amendment’s 100th anniversary, we are launching this important campaign with the goals of preserving 100 places associated with women’s history and achievement; engaging half a million people through programs, exhibits, events, stories, and advocacy campaigns; and creating a dedicated grant fund to support sites of women’s history. Learn more at SavingPlaces.org/where-women-made-history.

Editor in Chief Dennis Hockman Managing Editor Meghan Drueding Editorial Assistant Nicholas Som Copy Editor Katie Finley Contributing Editors Lisa Selin Davis, Reed Karaim, Kate Siber, Joe Sugarman, Lauren Walser, Chris Warren Research Editors Kelly Tomas, Lauren Walser Proofreader Susan Cullen Anderson Creative Director Mary Prestera Butler Art Director Jessie Despard Contributing Photo Editor Michael Green EDITORIAL (202) 588-6013

ADVERTISING (202) 588-6233 | advertising@savingplaces.org Director, Marketing Partnerships Abigail Horrigan ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES MID-ATLANTIC AND NEW YORK CITY Susan Seifert Associates, Inc. (410) 377-3007 | susan@seifertassociatesinc.com

NORTHEAST

Lange Media Sales (781) 642-0400 | erklange@aim.com

MIDWEST PRESERVATION_EDITOR@SAVINGPLACES.ORG

Robert Purdy & Associates, Inc. (630) 665-5315 | bob@robertpurdy.com

SOUTH

Ray Rickles & Company (770) 664-4567 | srickles@aol.com

WEST Receipt of Preservation is a benefit of membership in the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization chartered by Congress in 1949. The National Trust for Historic Preservation works to save America’s Historic Places. Our programs and publications are made possible in part by membership dues and contributions. A one-year membership is $20 ($30 for family membership) and includes four issues of the magazine and discounted admission to National Trust Historic Sites. (Of the dues, $6 is designated for circulation purposes for a one-year magazine subscription.) For new memberships, renewals, or changes of address, write to Membership Dept., The Watergate Office Building, 2600 Virginia Ave. N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, D.C. 20037, call (800) 315-6847, or send an email to members@savingplaces.org. To raise additional revenue, the National Trust for Historic Preservation may share its mailing list with select organizations.

Please notify the Membership Dept. if you want your name deleted. • For back issues, send $4.50 each by check or money order to Magazine Orders at the address above. Bulk copy price for 10 or more magazines is $3 per issue. For information about submitting editorial queries or photographs, please see our website, SavingPlaces.org/magazine. • Preservation (ISSN 1090-9931) is published quarterly, © 2020 National Trust for Historic Preservation, and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent. Periodical postage rate paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. • Preservation articles are works of journalism and not the official policy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Articles about products do not constitute endorsements. The National Trust for Historic Preservation assumes no responsibility for the content of advertisements. • POSTMASTER: Send address changes to National Trust for Historic Preservation Membership, The Watergate Office Building, 2600 Virginia Ave. N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, D.C. 20037.

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R.W. Walker Company, Inc. (213) 896-9210 | mike@rwwcompany.com Subscription questions and address changes: (800) 315-6847 SavingPlaces.org/magazine

A CITY BUILT ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. Frederick Law Olmsted. Stanford White. Daniel Burnham.

Louise Blanchard Bethune. E.B. Green. Ellen Biddle Shipman.

H.H. Richardson. Louis Sullivan. Frank Lloyd Wright. Eero and Eliel Saarinen. Minoru Yamasaki.

These giants of architecture helped create BUFFALO, a quintessentially American city with an unrivaled variety of remarkable buildings and public spaces. For people who love architecture, it’s a museum without a roof or walls, and it’s here for you to explore.

Courtesy of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York). All rights reserved.

AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE STARTS HERE

TimeToVisitBuffalo.com

PATRICK MAHONEY, AIA

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S MARTIN HOUSE ® I LOVE NEW YORK is a registered trademark and service mark of the New York State Department of Economic Development; used with permission.

PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE

F I R ST LO O K

Gothic Revival

RYAN GAMMA PHOTOGRAPHY

THE SARASOTA ART MUSEUM of Ringling College

in Sarasota, Florida, is a contemporary art museum designed to appeal to everyone. “The way the art is integrated with the architecture feels really good,” says Anne-Marie Russell, the museum’s executive director and curator. “It’s warm and welcoming. I think it surprises people.”

Opened in December of 2019, the museum spans two former Sarasota High School buildings: a Collegiate Gothic structure (shown) designed by M. Leo Elliott in 1926, and a Modernist 1959 addition by Paul Rudolph.

Both retained most of their original features.

Lawson Group Architects led the $30 million adaptive

reuse project, with Terence Riley of K/R (Keenen/Riley) as the design architect. The team opened up much of the Elliott building’s interior, leaving behind concrete piers where walls once stood. They salvaged the building’s longleaf pine joists and turned them into flooring for the galleries, kept the exposed brick walls, and restored the lobby’s tile floor mosaic.

The central Gothic tower is now a soaring, 28-foot-high gallery space housing large-scale artwork. The Rudolph building houses a bistro and additional gallery space.

“There’s such a mix of textures, and of the old and new,” Russell says. “It was really important that we worked with what we had and enhanced it.” —Lauren Walser SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE

S P OT L I G H T

Hot Property

T

he Ball-Paylore House in Tucson, Arizona, packs a host of current design trends into its 1,200 square feet. The mod furniture and sorbet hues, the strong focus on sustainability, and the emphasis on small-space living seem right in line with contemporary culture. But there’s a twist: This hipster paradise, rentable on Airbnb and VRBO, was built almost 70 years ago.

Restored late last year by the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, the 1952 house is one of the city’s architectural gems. Locally prominent architect Arthur T. Brown designed it for Phyllis Ball and Patricia Paylore, who both worked at the University of Arizona. When the foundation learned in mid-2019 that the building would soon be on the market, its leaders garnered a donation that would allow them to buy the house, keeping it in safe hands. “Because of its size and the low ceilings in some rooms, we were concerned that the house would be purchased and torn down,” says Demion Clinco, executive director.

The foundation then embarked on a restoration, keeping costs down by managing the project in-house. It returned the interior and exterior walls to their original colors; replaced the HVAC, gas and electric lines, and plumbing; and repaired the movable exterior shading system, a key component of Brown’s energy-efficient, passive solar heating strategy. The house’s floorplan, window placement, and roofline are carefully engineered to let sunlight in during the winter and hold its warmth in the concrete floors. During the summer, when the sun’s position is higher and its light travels at a different angle, the same design—aided by the movable shades—blocks rays from entering the house and heating it up.

In addition to offering the Ball-Paylore House as a vacation rental, the foundation also plans to welcome architecture students—a use educators Ball and Paylore would no doubt have liked. “The house had a tremendous impact on these two women,” says Clinco. “The idea of [passive] solar and living in this house changed the arc of their lives.” —Meghan Drueding

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OBJECT LESSON

Seat of Power

I

Top: The BallPaylore House’s awnings can be moved to follow the sun’s arc; Opposite: A brick fireplace provides extra warmth in the winter; Left: The kitchen includes the original oven, which still works.

SCOTT SUCHMAN

GMVARGAS/JUDE IGNACIO AND GERARDINE VARGAS

n 1939, Frank Lloyd Wright described his organic architecture as “exalting the simple laws of common sense … determining form by way of the nature of materials.” The 12 plywood chairs he designed around the same time for his Pope-Leighey House, a National Trust Historic Site in Alexandria, Virginia, perfectly illustrate his point.

The clean-lined, modular pieces were made by contractor Howard C. Rickert using screws and glue. Their innate flexibility—they can be arranged to form a longer bench or used individually as dining or living room seating—makes them as eminently practical today as the day they were built. And by staining the plywood rather than painting or otherwise finishing it, Wright celebrated this humble material. “It’s all about the honesty of the materials,” says Ashley Wilson, the National Trust’s Graham Gund Architect. “You can see the grain—there’s no attempt to hide the fact that it’s plywood.”

The cushions of the chair shown, along with those of its accompanying Wright-designed ottoman, were covered in F. Schumacher & Co.’s Imperial Triangle fabric (also designed by Wright) during the 1990s. This piece, as well as five more original chairs and eight replicas, are on display at the Pope-Leighey House. Visit SavingPlaces. org/sites for more information. —Meghan Drueding SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE

PERSONALITY

Rep. Earl Blumenauer is a lifelong resident of Portland, Oregon, and has represented the state’s 3rd district in the United States House of Representatives since 1996.

He is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, co-chair of the bipartisan Historic Preservation Caucus, and champion of the Federal Historic Tax Credit. —Dennis Hockman

THE NATIONAL TRUST AIMS TO “TELL THE FULL AMERICAN STORY” THROUGH PRESERVATION. DO YOU AGREE THAT THIS IS IMPORTANT? Historic preservation helps people to connect with their history and how our society developed, for good or ill. In some instances, periods of history are contentious and controversial, but the more people can see history and understand how people lived, how communities developed, and who built them—including enslaved people—it equips us to see how we might go forward. I love the fact that there is work happening to broaden historic preservation and focus on the lives of the entire society. It is a more interesting picture, a richer, more accurate and useful picture.

WHY ARE HISTORIC TAX CREDITS IMPORTANT? The Federal Historic Tax Credit (HTC) enables us to level the playing field in terms of economic incentives.

Too often a developer’s first instinct is to wipe the slate clean, to bulldoze and remove and start over.

Sometimes there are added costs associated with doing historic preservation. While I believe that investment is justified, HTCs make it easier for businesses to make that decision. When you look back comprehensively at successful HTC projects over a period of 25 or 30 years, there is more revenue generated for state, local, and federal governments than otherwise would be the case. Rehabbed historic buildings also generate more foot traffic and business opportunities, so while there is a modest subsidy, HTC investments have a very dramatic ripple effect in that they generate tax revenue and enrich

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communities in terms of culture and history.

TELL US ABOUT THE HOUSE’S HISTORIC PRESERVATION CAUCUS. It is very important to have broader congressional awareness of the merits of historic preservation.

The work of the bipartisan caucus allows us to showcase projects that make a big difference and to illustrate that this is national in scope. Historic preservation happens in every state of the Union, and at a time when we are concerned with the carbon footprint of new construction, with the economy being hollowed out, and an uncertain future for middle-class jobs, looking at preservation opportunities is extraordinarily significant.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HISTORIC PLACE? My favorite building in Washington, D.C., and one of my favorites on the planet is the Library of Congress [Thomas Jefferson Building], completed in 1897 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It includes beautiful murals and mosaics. The 1997 restoration makes it, in my opinion, the capital’s crown jewel.

HOW CAN HISTORIC PRESERVATION BECOME MORE WIDELY ADOPTED? There is definitely a balance that needs to be struck, because we are having a housing crisis in most American cities. So how do we integrate the demands of the future with the opportunities of the present and respect for the past? We also need to consider [redevelopment] opportunities in a way that respects differences, that is more inclusive, and that ensures affordability. Done right, carefully planned, with good design, we can accommodate it all.

STEPHEN VOSS

House Special

PLACES RESTORED, THREATENED, SAVED, AND LOST

by Nicholas Som

R E S T O R E D RIGGS NATIONAL BANK, WASHINGTON LOAN & TRUST COMPANY BRANCH A onetime Riggs Bank building in Washington, D.C., has been rehabilitated as the Riggs Washington DC luxury hotel. Architect James G. Hill designed the original 1891 structure for the Washington Loan & Trust Company, incorporating a granite facade and wide, rounded arches characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style.

In 1954, the company merged with Riggs Bank, informally known as the “Bank of Presidents� for managing the finances of many U.S. heads of state, including Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, and Richard Nixon. In the 1990s the building was sold and converted into a Marriott Courtyard hotel. Global Holdings Management Group purchased it in 2017 and brought on hospitality company Lore Group to transform it into the Riggs. Preservation consulting firm EHT Traceries guided Lore Group through the review process for the National Register-listed building, and architecture firm Perkins Eastman oversaw the renovation, which included the cleaning and restoration of original coffered ceilings, Corinthian columns, and tiled floors. The Riggs, a member of Historic Hotels of America, opened in February of 2020.

>

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JENNIFER HUGHES FOR RIGGS WASHINGTON DC

TRANSITIONS

“Historic places are in our nation’s DNA. We need to preserve them for generations to come.”

Merry Sanders Sarasota, FL PHOTO BY ALEX MCKNIGHT

Create your own meaningful legacy by including the National Trust for Historic Preservation in your estate plans. To learn more, contact us today.

TELEPHONE: 202.588.6017 EMAIL: legacy@savingplaces.org WEB: TrustLegacy.org Have you already included the National Trust in your will or estate plan? Please notify us so we can welcome you to our Legacy Circle.

TRANSITIONS

BANK OF CALIFORNIA BUILDING The former Bank of California building in San Jose, California— believed to be architect César Pelli’s only work in the city—could soon be torn down. Pelli designed the Brutalist structure while working for the architecture firm Gruen Associates, and it was completed in the early 1970s. After closing as a bank, the building was utilized as a family court until the city relocated its services in 2016. Two years later, developer Jay Paul Company purchased the building and seven others that compose much of the City View Plaza complex. The San Francisco–based company announced plans to raze the complex, making way for more than 3 million square feet of new office and commercial space, and began moving tenants out of active buildings by the fall of 2019. In response, the nonprofit Preservation Action Council of San Jose urged the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission to recommend designation of the bank as a City Landmark, citing its architectural significance and role in San Jose’s downtown revitalization. The council is currently drafting an environmental impact report in hopes of convincing the developer to examine alternatives to demolition.

T H R E AT E N E D

COLUMBUS SQUARE PAVILION Since 1960, a Midcentury Modern pavilion designed by architects Roth & Fleisher had stood in Philadelphia’s Columbus Square. It was one of the last extant structures connected to Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher, the firm’s co-founder and the city’s first female licensed architect. Built as a senior center, the circular pavilion featured a crown-shaped roof that made it a neighborhood landmark. It later hosted classes and weightlifting events before falling into disuse. In 2013, the Columbus Square Advisory Council and the nonprofit Community Design Collaborative began working on a plan to renovate the park. They ultimately landed on a design, approved by a community task force made up of neighborhood residents, that would involve demolishing the pavilion. However, many locals felt they had been excluded from the decision-making process, observing that the pavilion’s good condition and small footprint made preservation a viable alternative. They circulated a petition to save the building in September of 2019 and garnered more than 2,700 signatures, while advocacy group DocomomoPHL sent letters of support to Philadelphia’s parks and recreation department. The department ultimately allowed the demolition, and the structure was razed in December of 2019.

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BOTTOM: MICHAEL BIXLER

LOST

TOM’S DINER The Googie-style Tom’s Diner in Denver opened in 1967 as part of the Colorado coffee shop and restaurant chain White Spot. Designed by the well-known Googie firm Armet & Davis, the diner changed hands in 1999 but remained a highlight of the city’s historic Colfax Avenue corridor. In the spring of 2019, nonprofit Historic Denver learned that the property’s owner, Tom Messina, and a local developer had applied for a certificate of non-historic status, a frequent precursor to demolition.

Community members quickly mobilized, circulating petitions and starting a GoFundMe campaign to fund an application for historic designation. With only days to spare before the designation deadline, Messina agreed to consider alternatives. Historic Denver connected him with preservation-minded developer GBX Group, and the two parties announced a partnership in December of 2019 to sensitively rehabilitate the diner into a new food and beverage space. The building is now protected by a preservation easement accepted by the Colorado Historical Foundation.

FROM TOP: TOM MESSINA; JOEL HOWE, COURTESY THE ARCHITECTURAL TEAM

S AV E D

R E S T O R E D WATSON, NEWELL & COMPANY FACTORY Located in Attleboro, Massachusetts—once known as the “Jewelry Capital of the World”—the Watson, Newell & Company silversmithing factory has found new life as Sterling Lofts, mixed-income housing for residents aged 55 and older. The existing complex was itself an adaptive reuse project, constructed between roughly 1889 and 1947 from the 1811 remnants of the city’s first cotton mill. WinnDevelopment purchased the property in 2017 after it had been largely vacant for about 15 years, with the help of $7.6 million in federal and state historic tax credits. The company brought on Robert J. Verrier, an Attleboro native, and his firm, The Architectural Team, as lead architects. Crews salvaged wooden gears from broken turbines, replicated nearly 350 windows, and repointed the factory’s exterior masonry to historical standards, including parts of its distinctive, 300-foot chimney. Large brick safes that once stored silver were repurposed as mechanical rooms, while the former boiler room became a public gathering space. Sterling Lofts received its certificate of occupancy in October of 2019, and its first residents moved in the following month.

SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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UNDERWATER Sea level rise and structural problems pose serious threats to the National Mall’s beloved Tidal Basin

by Joe Sugarman Photography by Sam Kittner

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As

Teresa Durkin walks around Washington, D.C.’s iconic Tidal Basin, she is frustrated by what she sees. Durkin, executive vice president of the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, points out the crumbling stone seawall, which encircles the pond for about 2 miles. Sections of the wall have separated from the concrete walkway and lean precariously over the water’s edge. The sidewalk itself is nothing but mud.

From the Jefferson Memorial, she leads me clockwise around the Tidal Basin path, as we gingerly try to avoid the muck. At high tide, when the Potomac River swells and the basin fills with millions of gallons of water, this area is completely submerged. “If someone wanted to walk from here to the FDR Memorial across the way, how would they even do it?” asks Durkin. “It’s hazardous.”

We pass by the exposed roots of the famed cherry trees, which run like twisted veins just beyond the water’s edge.

Many of the trees in this section west of the Jefferson Memorial are dying—or dead—from soil compaction and exposure to the brackish water. In one 100-foot-long swath, no cherry trees remain at all. Instead, there’s a small flock of Canada geese poking in the mud.

Durkin points to a pile of driftwood under a tree. “You don’t expect to find driftwood under the cherry trees, do you?” she asks. “I’ve found river snails up on the lawn.”

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Frankly, I’m kind of shocked. “I didn’t realize conditions were this bad,” I say.

“Most people don’t,” she says.

Due to climate change and runoff caused by development along the river, water levels in the Potomac River have risen since the Tidal Basin’s construction as part of the National Mall in the late 1800s. Scientists estimate an increase of 11 inches or so in the past 90 years. That makes a huge difference in the severity of storm surges and high tide flooding. Making matters worse, the basin was constructed on manmade land and is slowly sinking. It’s an unsustainable combination, and conditions are only expected to get worse.

Another problem is that the basin was never meant to accommodate the sheer number of people who come every year. The National Mall is the country’s most visited national park, with some 36 million sightseers annually. More than 1.5 million of them stroll among the cherry trees during the 4-week National Cherry Blos18 preservation

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som Festival each spring. Without a navigable walkway, people clamber over tree roots and turn the soil into hardpan, which doesn’t drain properly. And if they arrive in a wheelchair or with kids in a stroller, maneuvering around the Tidal Basin Loop Trail becomes nearly an impossible feat.

“It’s just over the top in terms of use and the amount of people who come here,” says Durkin, who has worked at the Trust for the National Mall since 2012. “But we want them to come here and come back. We want children to be inspired. We want to be able to teach something. It’s a matter of pride, too. This is our nation’s capital and a symbol of democracy, but it just becomes harder and harder to physically maintain it under these conditions.”

IN THE SPRING OF 2017 officials from the National Park Service met with representatives from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to discuss the threat to the Tidal Basin. Later, the Park Service connected the National Trust with Durkin and her

“IT’S SUCH A REMARKABLE PLACE … IT’S EASY TO IGNORE THE CHALLENGES THERE—UNTIL YOU POINT THEM OUT.” —SERI WORDEN

Previous pages: Navigating a submerged sidewalk at the Tidal Basin. Opposite: The site’s delicate cherry blossoms form a living canopy around the edges of the basin each spring. Above: More than 1.5 million visitors flock to the Tidal Basin for the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.

team. They all agreed that the status quo was untenable. Total restoration costs are estimated to be between $300 million and $500 million—and that doesn’t include an additional $650 million in deferred maintenance for the entire Mall. The group’s efforts laid the groundwork for “Save the Tidal Basin,” a fundraising and public awareness campaign overseen by the two nonprofit organizations and the Park Service.

As part of the campaign, the group approached five of the nation’s leading landscape architecture firms and asked them if they’d come up with innovative designs that address not only flooding around the Tidal Basin, but also other pressing issues, including accessibility, security, and visitor circulation. The five firms—DLANDstudio, GGN, Hood Design Studio, James Corner Field Operations, and Reed Hilderbrand—are collaborating as part of an “Ideas Lab,” supported by a $750,000 grant from American Express and guided by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. This fall designs from the Ideas Lab will be exhibited in Washington, D.C., as well as

online, in order to bring awareness to the Tidal Basin’s plight and inspire creative thinking about how to address it.

To help kick off the campaign, the National Trust added the Tidal Basin to its list of National Treasures in April of 2019 and distributed “Save the Tidal Basin” buttons and T-shirts to thousands at the National Cherry Blossom Festival last spring. The Tidal Basin also made it onto the National Trust’s 2019 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Seri Worden, acting senior field director at the National Trust, says the publicity created by the campaign and the Ideas Lab should go a long way toward helping create greater awareness of the basin’s condition, with the general public as well as a Congress tasked with appropriating funds. “It’s such a remarkable place,” she says. “The public goes there and it’s almost like they don’t want to see the damage because they’re so focused on the beauty and significance of it. It’s easy to ignore the challenges there—until you point them out.”

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“THERE ARE CROWDED SIDEWALKS, NOT ENOUGH RESTROOMS, PEOPLE TRAMPLING TREE ROOTS. THE RESOURCES ARE BEAUTIFUL BUT THEY’RE SLOWLY BEING DESTROYED.” —SEAN KENNEALY FLOODING IN WASHINGTON, D.C., isn’t new. The Tidal Basin was built in response to a flood in February of 1881 that was so severe, people couldn’t access the southern part of the city except by boat. Water from melting snow and storms flooded sections of the National Mall, nearly up to the Capitol building. One year later, Congress appropriated funds to build the basin in order to control future floods as well as to help clear the Washington Channel of silt.

To build up the land that would eventually form East and West Potomac parks, which surround the basin, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged shipping channels along the Potomac River and used sediment to fill in the tidal wetlands. In the 1890s and early

1900s, engineers installed multiple sets of gates at the entrance and exit of the newly created inland pond. Twice a day at high tide, around 250 million gallons of water from the Potomac River rushed through the inlet gates, filling the basin. The force of the water exiting the outlet gates as the tide ebbed helped flush the Washington Channel of debris, allowing deep-hulled boats to navigate its waters. But the inlet and outlet gates haven’t been fully operational in decades. Silt has built up on both sides of the massive doors, which can barely open. Currently, water floods over the gates or flows between the openings. (As part of the Ideas Lab, the five landscape architects are also addressing solutions for the gates.)

Clockwise from left: Compaction of the soil from millions of footsteps and exposure to brackish water from constant flooding is harming the trees’ roots; The flooding causes muddy, hard-to-navigate sidewalks; The stone wall around the basin is crumbling in places.

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LAURA HALLETT

In 1897, Congress designated the recently formed parkland to be used for the “recreation and pleasure of the people.” Bridle paths, boating facilities, and a bandstand soon followed.

The renowned cherry trees—more than 3,000 of them—arrived in 1912 as a gift from Japan. On March 27 of that year, First Lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda Iwa, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the basin, about 100 feet south of what is now Independence Avenue SW. In subsequent years, workmen planted the remaining trees around the basin and the Washington Monument and along East Potomac Park, creating a tapestry of pink blossoms every spring.

After several small celebrations marking the trees’ bloom, local civic groups organized the first official Cherry Blossom Festival in 1935.

In the basin’s earliest years, Washingtonians used it to cool off during summer. Congress funded the construction of a Tidal Basin bathing beach on its southern edge in 1918. Beachgoers lounged under umbrellas, took swimming lessons, and demonstrated their diving skills from several platforms into the water, which is about

10 feet deep. Despite hosting an annual beauty pageant, beach officials prohibited women’s bathing suits that were more than six inches above the knee. The rule was strictly enforced by a Tidal Basin “beach cop,” with tape measure in hand.

Like many parts of the District, the Tidal Basin beach was for whites only. Congress had decided to fund a separate area for African Americans, but some senators objected. Instead of working toward a compromise, lawmakers had the beach closed in 1925.

By the late 1930s, the focus of the Tidal Basin had shifted toward monument building. On its southern side, the Jefferson Memorial opened to the public in 1943. After a hiatus, memorials to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1997), George Mason (2002), and Martin Luther King Jr. (2011) followed. The often flooded Tidal Basin Loop Trail became the pathway linking them all.

“The landscape has changed so much with these new sites, and it brings in much greater visitation,” says the Park Service’s Sean Kennealy, acting deputy superintendent for the National Mall and Memorial Parks. “It wasn’t designed to accommodate the traffic.

There are crowded sidewalks, not enough restrooms, people trampling tree roots. The resources are beautiful but they’re slowly being destroyed.”

KENNEALY IS ANXIOUS TO HEAR the concepts proposed in the Ideas Lab. First on his wish list is a creative solution for the seawall, which, he says, essentially impacts everything else—the walkways, the health of the cherry trees, and how people access the trees. Also high on his list is security, particularly around the Jefferson Memorial, which relies only on temporary Jersey barriers to deter vehicular traffic. He’s also concerned about how people get to the Tidal Basin itself. Currently, visitors must cross several congested thoroughfares in order to reach the area from the Mall.

What the outcome might ultimately look like, Kennealy doesn’t know, but he’s ready for a fresh approach. “I think at this point we SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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“WE HAVE TO START IDENTIFYING SOLUTIONS BASED ON WHAT WE KNOW HOW TO DO NOW AND ACCEPT THAT WE MIGHT NEED TO START THINKING ABOUT THINGS DIFFERENTLY.” —TERESA DURKIN Flooding is not typically happening on the eastern side of the Tidal Basin, where these Yoshino cherry trees are located. But foot traffic in the area has led to heavily compacted soil, which crushes and prevents growth of the trees’ roots.

should be open to a variety of ideas,” he says. “Now is the time to be creative. We’re not wed to anything. It’ll be good to get some outside-the-box thinking.”

Durkin, who was trained as a landscape architect and worked for years in land management issues for public institutions, anticipates the five design firms will not disappoint. In the process, the Tidal Basin may well become a very public example of how cities deal with saving historic sites threatened by rising sea levels. And she realizes that some people might not be as enthusiastic as others about the results. “It’s going to require a change of thinking,” she says. “How are we going to preserve these historic places and keep them exactly the way they are? It just might not be possible. How much can you fight the river?

“Look,” she continues, “you can’t build a wall around every city.

You have to come to terms with having to lose some of these places.

What are we willing to do in order to preserve this place in some form or another? Does it get de-structured a bit? Does it get bridges where some of the wall is going away? Do we create wetlands on the edge? Do we fill part of it in? There are so many ways to look at it. We have to start identifying solutions based on what we know how to do now and accept that we might need to start thinking about things differently and be open to change.”

Historically, altering the Tidal Basin landscape has not always gone over well. In 1938, before construction started on the Jefferson Memorial, a group of more than 50 women marched on the White House to protest the destruction or disturbance of 171 cherry trees that were to be affected by the work. The next day, the women, whose ranks had swelled to about 150, symbolically chained themselves—as well as a park police officer—to trees at the construction site in an effort to stop the work. Ultimately, the protesters were unsuccessful, but they had made their point. The event would famously be remembered as the Cherry Tree Rebellion.

Nathan Heavers, an associate professor of landscape architecture at Virginia Tech who is also a member of the Ideas Lab advisory committee, says he understands that significant changes to a beloved landscape might not go over well. But he points out that the Tidal Basin’s use has already changed dramatically over the years.

“It’s a question of what we mean by preservation of a pretty dynamic landscape that has come together piece by piece,” he 22 preservation

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says. “I sort of hope that people see it as a landscape that can continue to change and try to think about what aspects of it we’d like to preserve.”

Like Durkin and Worden, he believes the Ideas Lab has an important role to play. Some ideas won’t be implemented at all, but everyone involved believes it’s vital to get the conversation started.

As we continue our stroll around the Tidal Basin, Durkin tells

The National Mall’s Tidal Basin is part of the National Trust’s National Treasures program.

To learn more about how you can support National Treasures, visit SavingPlaces.org/treasures

me the situation has indeed become urgent. She only hopes that through the Save the Tidal Basin campaign, the general public and Congress will see it that way as well.

“The situation is not changing, except that the river will continue to rise,” she says. “It could continue to rise for another 100 years if nothing is done. We have to project ahead and think about how are we going to adapt, which is the key word. A lot of people like to

talk about resiliency, but I think we really need to adapt here. We may have to change our thoughts about the Tidal Basin as we go forward, but we certainly have to stabilize it or else it will disappear, and then it’ll be too late.”

JOE SUGARMAN is a frequent contributor to Preservation. His last story for the magazine was about the restoration of Christ Church in Philadelphia.

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Nicodemus, Kansas, is the only remaining settlement from the unsung wave of black homesteaders who flowed west just after Reconstruction

SOLE SURVIVOR

By Reed Karaim Photography by Dana Damewood

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icodemus, Kansas, sits many miles from anywhere, yet it’s at the heart of the American story. The barely there community on the High Plains has all of 18 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau. It contains a limestone township hall that serves as a visitor center most of the year, a Baptist church with a small congregation, and a scattered handful of homes that, on the snowblanketed day I visited, were as still and quiet as the winter fields surrounding the town.

In a small park on the edge of Nicodemus, and elsewhere in the tiny town, interpretive National Park Service signs testify to its significance. “We are the oldest and only remaining all-black town that was established west of the Mississippi River just after Reconstruction,” says descendant of original settlers Angela Bates, tidily summing up the narrative.

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Nicodemus was one of many communities founded largely by formerly enslaved people in the late 19th century, as part of a westward migration of African Americans. But this small town’s story is also a fundamental part of several larger stories Americans have told about themselves to explain who we are, stories central to the ever-evolving American identity.

If you believe the American story is one of people seeking freedom and the right to live their lives on their own terms with a fair chance to pursue success and happiness, then the thousands of newly freed people who struck out to Kansas and other parts of the Great Plains as Jim Crow rose in the South present a microcosm of that story.

If you see the American story as one of a restless people always moving westward in search of land to call their own, who endured tremendous hardship, then the African American settlers who traveled hundreds of miles to reach a place where they had to dig their first homes out of the earth itself are as true an example as you could find.

If you believe the American story is one of a slow, often tortur-

Previous pages: A group of direct descendants, descendants by marriage, and friends of Nicodemus gather on the porch of School Building District One. Opposite: The school, built circa 1918, is one of the town’s five remaining historic buildings. This page, from top: Angela Bates, a great-greatgranddaughter of Nicodemus settlers, and Robert Brogden, who was married to a descendant.

ous road toward an ever-broadening concept of who belongs, who should be allowed to share equally in the dream, then Nicodemus and the other historically all-black towns west of the Mississippi River are an essential chapter in that story.

Three foundational narratives are a lot to hang on a very small town in Kansas, I know, especially one barely hanging on itself. But Nicodemus, designated a National Historic Site by an act of Congress in 1996, is part of all these narratives. Perhaps as importantly, it survives today, housing descendants of the original settlers who are eager to share its story and have hopes for how its historic buildings can be preserved for the future.

The great westward migration of Americans in the 19th century—encouraged by the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted 160 acres of public land for a small fee to anyone who could stake a claim and live there for 5 consecutive years—was essential to that era’s version of the American Dream. But for African Americans, the move west was tied to the death of another dream.

This dream was the idea, following Emancipation, of a racially

equitable and welcoming society, across the South in particular.

That idea died with the end of Reconstruction, the federal government’s effort to impose racial equality on the former states of the Confederacy, in 1877.

The government’s retreat would lead to a brutal re-imposition of white supremacy. Black politicians who had been elected were thrown out, and new, all-white legislatures in the South passed Jim Crow laws segregating blacks from whites in nearly every public place.

The stripping away of the rights of black Americans is a bigger story than fits here, but one statistic cited by historian Jill Lepore in her 2018 book These Truths: A History of the United States captures the impact: “In Louisiana, black voter registration dropped from 130,000 in 1898 to 5,300 in 1908 and to 730 in 1910.”

The subjugation of Americans only recently freed from slavery was enforced through a reign of terror unparalleled in the nation’s history. A 2017 study by the Equal Justice Initiative, Lynching in America, documented 4,084 lynchings of black people in 12 Southern states from 1877 to 1950. (Although less frequent in the North SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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and West, racist public murders occurred across the United States.)

Kentucky had 169 of those lynchings. Most were still in the future when, in the spring of 1877, W.R. Hill and S.P. Roundtree appeared at an African American church in Georgetown (east of Louisville) to promote the idea of homesteading in western Kansas. But the audience listening that night must have seen which way things were headed as they heard Hill spin a tale of the bountiful and, most importantly, free life that awaited them in the land surrounding what would be a new, all-black town: Nicodemus.

Hill, a white land speculator, partnered with W.H. Smith, a black 28 preservation

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minister, to promote the creation of Nicodemus and a nearby white community, Hill City (which he named after himself ). The pair worked with five other black ministers, including Roundtree, to spread the word. Hill told quite a tale. The area, he said, had plentiful timber for building, abundant game for hunting, ample rainfall, and incredibly fertile soil. There was even a herd of wild horses that could be tamed to pull plows and wagons.

Almost none of it was quite as promised, but for one thing: There was land—lots of it, just waiting for homesteaders. Quintard Taylor, a professor of history emeritus at the University of Washing-

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Opposite, clockwise from top left: The A.M.E. Church (1885); Old First Baptist Church (1906); St. Francis Hotel and Post Office (1880); and Nicodemus Township Hall (1938). The township hall serves as a visitor center for the town’s National Historic Site, and the others are disused.

This page: Angela Bates’ ancestors Perry and America Bates and two of their daughters in the early days of Nicodemus.

ton, points out that in the 19th century the United States was still primarily a nation of farmers. Economic and political power were tied, in the popular imagination, to land ownership. Many African Americans “had come to believe that the only way they could have true freedom was to have ownership over a piece of land,” he says.

In relatively short order, the first black homesteaders from Kentucky were boarding a train and heading toward Kansas, motivated by what Angela Bates describes as a powerful combination of “pull-push” factors.

“What motivated people to come?

The land. What motivated them to leave? The violence and Jim Crow,” she says.

The same thing was happening across much of the South. Nobody knows exactly how many African Americans packed up their few belongings and headed west, but the number is in the tens of thousands.

African Americans founded towns from the Southwest to the Northern plains: Blackdom, New Mexico; Boley, Oklahoma; Empire, Wyoming; Dearfield, Colorado; DeWitty, Nebraska; a community in Sully County, South Dakota. Some were started in the immediate aftermath of Reconstruction, some later, but all carried a hope that the residents would be able to shape their own future.

Taylor says they also reflected a hard-won assessment of their country.

“In the 1870s, even into the 1930s, most black people did not believe America would ever desegregate or integrate, so they took up the idea—with towns like Nicodemus, or going to the South Side of Chicago or Harlem—that since we knew we were going to be segregated, wouldn’t the better destiny be to control our own towns?”

Kansas was particularly attractive to black homesteaders. “Kansas, remember, was the most Republican state in the country then,” Taylor says, “and the Republican Party meant freedom at that time.”

What they found was something else. “Kansas was depicted as the land of milk and honey, and those who arrived didn’t see a cow that would provide milk, and they definitely saw no bees for honey,” says Enimini Ekong, superintendent of the Nicodemus National Historic Site.

The experience of Willianna Hickman, who came from that Georgetown, Kentucky, church, captures the harsh reality. About 150 members of the church traveled first by train and then, for two days, on foot toward Nicodemus. Measles swept through the children in the group, and one died. They were the second group of settlers to arrive and expected to find a functioning town waiting for them.

Hickman, by then ill herself, recounted their arrival for the Topeka Daily Capital: “I looked with all the eyes I had. ‘Where is Nicodemus? I don’t see it?’ My husband pointed out various smokes coming out of the ground and said, ‘That is Nicodemus.’ The families lived in dugouts. … The scenery was not at all inviting, and I began to cry.”

Houses dug out of the earth or constructed of sod above

ground were the early norm. Plentiful timber was nonexistent, and the abundant game animals began to migrate as soon as settlers arrived. “I think that’s where the story of resilience and perseverance is truly established,” says Ekong, “because at any point, they could have said, ‘Oh my God,’ and left.”

Some did. Many stayed, Hickman among them. Seeing the degree of hardship the early Nicodemus settlers faced, other settlers in nearby communities and members of the Osage tribe helped out with food. By 1881, Nicodemus’ population had stabilized at about 275. The town boasted general stores, hotels, livery stables, a doctor’s office, and the Bank of Nicodemus.

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In 2018, the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund awarded $50,000 to the University of Nebraska Center for Great Plains Studies for its work on black homesteader sites.

For more on the Action Fund, visit SavingPlaces.org/aachaf

in good shape to get one of three lines passing through the area. In particular, the natural route of the Union Pacific seemed to take it through Nicodemus. But the railroad ultimately jogged, crossed the Solomon River, and ended up more than 5 miles southwest, where a community named Bogue eventually sprung up.

Nicodemus’ brief boom came to an end; the population tumbled.

Across the West, other black communities faced similar challenges.

Great Plains settlement was a tough proposition regardless of race,

founder Oliver Toussaint “O.T.” Jackson.

George Junne, an Africana studies professor at the University of Northern Colorado, is part of the effort to preserve Dearfield’s buildings. He and about 30 other people gathered in November of 2019 for a “Dearfield Day” and worked to protect and stabilize the surviving structures, covering doorways and windows with strong plastic sheeting to shield them from vandals.

Other efforts to preserve the history of Western black towns are underway. With the help of a $50,000 grant provided in 2018 by the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska is helping to establish a digital archive and historical markers as part of its Black Homesteaders Project. The public archive, hosted by the National Park Service, will contain photos, oral histories, maps, and short biographies relating to Nicodemus, Dearfield, Blackdom, DeWitty, Sully County, and Empire, gathered by descendants and scholars. The historical signage is for Sully County and Empire, and both markers are slated to be installed this spring or summer.

Still, the physical remnants of the towns are fast disappearing, and preserving them is a daunting task. Saving what remains of Dearfield would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Junne says. Yet he considers the effort essential. “Having something physical that people can see keeps the memory of Dearfield, and places like Dearfield, alive,” he says.

Bates, who runs the Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum, has also been frustrated at the slow pace of restoration for the historic buildings in the town’s NationThis page: Bertha Carter, another Nicodemus descendant. Opposite: The area’s austere natural beauty has helped draw descendants back to the town. The Old First Baptist Church al Historic Site. The limestone Township is shown on the right-hand side of the road.

Hall has been restored by the National Park Service, but the other structures— the Old First Baptist Church, the A.M.E. and the African American towns started with fewer financial re- Church, School Building District One, and the St. Francis Hotel and sources than most. Those that survived into the 20th century were Post Office—are largely disused and in various states of disrepair. largely blown away by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

Ekong notes that, of these, the Park Service only has ownership of Today, Blackdom and DeWitty are remembered by roadside his- the A.M.E. Church. “We are in the process of restoring it,” he says, torical markers. (Descendants of Blackdom’s settlers still live there, “and hope to have 50 percent of the work done this summer.” but none of the original buildings are left.) A small cemetery is all The schoolhouse, the Old First Baptist Church, and the St. Franthat remains of Empire. In Dearfield, a National Historic District, cis Hotel and Post Office all remain in private hands, he says, which a local preservation group is working to maintain a handful of limits what the Park Service can do. Still, Ekong admits progress abandoned buildings, including a blacksmith shop and the home of has been slow, held back by the agency’s tight budget and $12 billion 30 preservation

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deferred maintenance backlog. He says the Park Service remains committed to the site: “As long as I’m superintendent, the goal is to elevate the significance of Nicodemus to anyone and everyone.”

Its significance is indisputable. A few black towns that started later, such as Boley, Oklahoma, survive today as functioning communities. But for those founded by the wave of post-Reconstruction homesteaders, Nicodemus stands alone as the last with permanent residents.

Every year in late July, Nicodemus’ quiet streets are suddenly crowded and full of life. For more than 140 years, the town has held an Emancipation/Homecoming Celebration that brings hundreds of descendants and former residents back to northwestern Kansas.

They stay in campgrounds, motels, and cabins in the surrounding area. They come to enjoy themselves, but also to embrace a proud heritage. The event is open to anyone, but most of those who show up have a connection to the town. They are drawn back by familial ties, by the chance to catch up with loved ones and celebrate the continued existence of Nicodemus and all it represents.

That legacy is on display at the visitor center in the Township Hall. On the winter day I visited, two descendants, LueCreasea Horne and Marilyn Sayers Gray, showed me around. Horne shared the stories of different settlers who stared out from large black-andwhite photos that ringed the hall. One that particularly captivated me showed Lulu Craig, who was only 11 years old when her family arrived but was one of the few early homesteaders who could read and write. “She was the chronicler of what happened in the early days,” says Horne.

It’s easy to think of Nicodemus and the long-gone black towns as historical curiosities, interesting social experiments that finally failed. But Jacob Friefeld, a former research fellow at the Center for Great Plains Studies who worked on the Black Homesteaders Project, feels that misunderstands the goals of the original settlers.

“In almost all the communities, there was a huge focus on finding a safe place where they could educate their children,” he says. A descendant in DeWitty, Friefeld notes, told him the town “accomplished what it was meant to. It allowed them to educate their children so they could go off and accomplish things elsewhere.”

Gray is a great-granddaughter of the first child born in Nicodemus. “I was able to know my great-grandfather,” she says. “I was a teenager when he died.” Like Horne and Bates, she grew up and lived elsewhere, but was drawn to Nicodemus. When I asked them why, they cited childhood memories of visiting and the pull of the wide-open country, the way the broad horizons and spare, boldly drawn landscape can steal into your heart.

But as we talked, I sensed something more, some fundamental connection that seemed to escape words. Nicodemus is believed by many to have been named after a legendary figure in African American culture, the first enslaved person in the New World reputed to have bought his own freedom. Through determination, perseverance, and hard work, the black settlers in and around the town of Nicodemus did the same. I imagine that’s not easily left behind, no matter how many generations pass.

REED KARAIM lives in Tucson, Arizona. He has written for Smithsonian, Architect, The Washington Post, and other publications. His most recent book is The Winter in Anna, a novel set in North Dakota.

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Women’s history icons such as Pauli Murray, Frances Perkins, and Harriet Tubman are starting to get the attention they deserve FOR SHEER IMPORTANCE IN AMERICAN HISTORY, it’s hard to match the impact of Ida B. Wells. A fiercely intelligent journalist and civil rights activist in the South, and then in her adopted city of Chicago, she drew much-needed attention to lynchings, fought for black women’s suffrage, and helped found the NAACP.  Yet for many years, the only major place named after her in Chica-

HERE&

NOW

go was the house where she lived with her husband, a National Historic Landmark that is privately occupied. In February of 2019, the city of Chicago took an important step by renaming a major road for Wells.

And her family is raising money to complete a statue they’ve commissioned by sculptor Richard Hunt for

a site in the Bronzeville neighborhood.  The story of Wells’ overlooked legacy—and the movement to recognize it now—is the story of much of women’s history in the United States. Actress Hedy Lamarr’s co-invention of advanced radio-wave technology, legal scholar Pauli Murray’s key arguments that set the foundation for important court decisions, and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson’s influence on spaceflight have gained widespread attention recently, decades after the original accomplishments. “I do think it’s changing,” says Jennifer Scott, director and chief curator of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, named after the activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner and the social settlement she co-founded. “We’ve started to see people asking questions about, ‘Where are the women?’” ➤

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2); SCHLESINGER LIBRARY, RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY/©ESTATE OF PAULI MURRAY

The centennial of women’s suffrage in the U.S. is serving as an impetus for historic sites to answer this question. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, ostensibly giving American women the right to vote. Reality was more complicated—while some women were fully enfranchised, many women of color were still denied voting rights through state laws and other loopholes. “This is a commemorative year, not a celebratory year,” says Andrea DeKoter, acting superintendent of Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York, and Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, New York. “We want to recognize that in 1920, some women won the right to vote. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what was missed in that 19th Amendment and who was given power and who was not.”

Pauli Murray, Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, and pioneering Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins pages, we highlight these three extraordinary women and the places most connected with them.

Both the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and the Harriet Tubman Home received $50,000 grants in 2019 from the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund—the nation’s largest preservation campaign on behalf of African American history.

Other significant women whose pasts the National Trust has helped preserve include the singer Nina Simone, through the Nina Simone Childhood Home in Tryon, North Carolina; entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, though her palatial residence in Irvington, New York; and doctor Edith Farnsworth, who commissioned the Modernist masterpiece (and National Trust Historic Site) Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois.

The achievements of countless other women in history are waiting to be unveiled to a public hungry for more. “We need more women’s history sites,” DeKoter says. “But we also need to make sure we’re telling comprehensive stories everywhere. Because women are everywhere.” —Meghan Drueding 34 preservation

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A

sk any American what they know about the New Deal, and chances are they’ll tell you about the charismatic president who led the nation through the Great Depression. Few would mention Frances Perkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s quietly influential secretary of labor and the first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet.

But it was Perkins who pushed the ideas of a social security system, unemployment insurance, and a minimum wage. Shortly after graduating from Columbia University with a master’s degree in economics and sociology, she happened to witness the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 and made workplace safety a top priority for the rest of her career. Fire exits and drills, occupancy limits, child labor laws—Perkins was a driving force behind the implementation of these basic standards. She rose to oversee the improvement of factory conditions in New York state, where she served as chair of the New York State Industrial Board under Gov. Al Smith and then as New York State Industrial Commissioner under FDR. When FDR became president in 1933, he asked Perkins to join his cabinet. She hesitated—her husband, Paul Wilson, suffered from what would now be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, which at the time required periodic hospital stays. The couple also

BRENDAN BULLOCK

were all active in the suffrage movement. On the following

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: BRENDAN BULLOCK; FRANCES PERKINS CENTER (2)

had a teenage daughter, Susanna, and leaving them both in New York while she worked in Washington would be difficult. But Roosevelt promised he’d support her policy goals, which also included the establishment of a 40-hour workweek and compulsory workers’ compensation. This was a chance to remake the country’s labor system in a way that would give fundamental protections to millions of people, and she knew she couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

Perkins served throughout FDR’s entire presidency, and she was able to put almost every one of her goals into practice.

She managed the implementation of the Civilian Conservation Corps and used her position to advocate strongly for the thousands of Jewish refugees seeking entry into the United States.

“She was just an unusual figure—unusually committed, unusually brave. [She was] alone in a world full of men, moving into a sphere that no woman had ever moved into before,” says historian Alice KesslerHarris in the documentary film Summoned: Frances Perkins and the General Welfare, which first aired this past March on PBS. Though Perkins was devoted to her work, she disliked the attention of the press.

Like many cabinet members before and since, she found life in Washington to be stressful. Each August she escaped to the place she called her “one true home”—her longtime summer residence in Newcastle, Maine. The Perkins family had owned the 57-acre property since the 1700s, operating a brickyard there until 1896. The complex of modest brick and clapboard buildings is nestled into a landscape of meadows, forest, shoreline, and farmland between the Damariscotta and Sheepscot rivers.

Perkins viewed the site as a place of much-needed rest and refuge. After her death in 1965 it belonged to her daughter and then her grandson, Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, who helped start the nonprofit Frances Perkins Center in 2009. The center educates the public about Perkins’ life and legacy, providing tours of the homestead and hosting exhibits and events at its headquarters in neighboring Damariscotta, Maine. In January, it purchased the Frances Perkins Homestead (also known as the Perkins Homestead) from Coggeshall, ensuring a long-term future for the site. “[The purchase] will enable us to expand the availability of our programs throughout the year,” says Michael Chaney, executive director of the Frances Perkins Center. A National Historic

Previous page, clockwise from top left: Frances Perkins; Harriet Tubman; and Pauli Murray. Opposite: The preserved kitchen in the Brick House at the Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine. This page, clockwise from top: The 1837 house’s former winter kitchen is now a dining room; In a classic New England configuration, the Brick House is a series of connected houses plus a barn (not shown); Frances Perkins in an undated photo.

Landmark since 2014, the homestead remains remarkably intact, and the Center’s plans for change are minimal—better parking and wheelchair accessibility, a 2,400-square-foot addition to a barn on the property, and the re-creation of a porch that had been attached to the main house during Perkins’ time. “It gives us a 57-acre site that is worthy of interpretation in and of itself,” Chaney says. “And it preserves the heritage out of which Frances Perkins became the leader she became.” —Meghan Drueding SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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Above: Harriet Tubman in the 1870s; Top, from left: Tubman’s former residence in Auburn, New York, part of Harriet Tubman National Historical Park; Bucktown General Store on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where Tubman was seriously injured in her teens. Opposite, left: Tubman learned navigation skills on Stewart’s Canal, also on the Eastern Shore.

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; TOP, FROM LEFT: GREGORY MELLE; NPS/BETH PARNICZA

S

ometime between 1834 and 1836, when Harriet Tubman was a young teenager, she was buying supplies in a village store near the Maryland farm where she was enslaved. An overseer had chased a young African American man into the shop and called to Tubman, then known as Minty, to capture him. When she refused, the overseer grabbed a 2-pound weight and hurled it at the escapee. In the heat of the moment, he missed, and Tubman took the blow, which knocked her out and nearly killed her. For the rest of her life, she suffered from debilitating narcoleptic seizures, even during her dangerous work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

“If you can imagine an escape with 10 or 15 slaves and they’re traveling at night and being hunted, and one of her episodes came upon her, they would just have to wait,” says Deanna Mitchell, the superintendent of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Church Creek, Maryland. “How could someone go through their life and do what they did with that near-fatal injury? She never lost one person.”

This is just one of the many remarkable stories about Harriet Tubman’s life that visitors may learn at two major sites commemorating her legacy—the Maryland one near her birthplace on the Eastern Shore, and one in Auburn, New York, where she died. In the past few years, both of these historic places have become national historical parks, drawing more visitors and sparking even more interest in Tubman’s significance in American history.

Tubman is famous for emancipating herself and around 70 others from slavery after a childhood of extreme abuse and neglect. While many know her name, few know about the scope of the challenges she overcame, including her catastrophic head injury; her extraordinary skills; and the fact that she also fought

FROM LEFT: NPS/BETH PARNICZA; SCHLESINGER LIBRARY, RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY/©ESTATE OF PAULI MURRAY

P for human rights well into her old age. Only five feet tall, she was strong and resourceful. She knew how to harvest timber, trap muskrats, and navigate by the stars. “Even though she could not read or write letters, she could read the world around her—the landscape, the people,” says Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for The Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero. “She also had a very dry sense of humor and had an intense love for people.”

After her 13 trips as an emancipator for the Underground Railroad, the governor of Massachusetts tapped her to join the Union cause during the Civil War. She served as a nurse, scout, and spy, and in 1863 she helped lead 150 black Union soldiers on the Combahee River Raid, destroying properties owned by prominent Confederates and freeing some 750 African Americans. After settling in Auburn, she fought for women’s suffrage, mingling with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and electrifying audiences with her oratory. In her later years, pained to see that African American seniors did not have access to social services, she founded a home for the elderly and infirm.

Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn contains the Thompson A.M.E. Zion church, in which she was actively involved; the Tubman Residence; and the Tubman Home for the Aged, where she herself died in 1913 around the age of 90. At Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Church Creek, visitors learn what it would have been like to grow up enslaved in this area, as Tubman did, and gaze northward over the forests and swamps.

“There are some who weep,” says Deanna Mitchell. “The museum doesn’t only speak to Harriet Tubman’s legacy; it speaks to the injustice of so many who endured slavery … We’ve come a long way and we still have a long way to go in our world. But for people to be able to come and learn the story about what this meant— that’s what it’s all about.” —Kate Siber

auli Murray may be one of the most important Americans you’ve never heard of.

A lawyer, educator, writer, poet, civil and women’s rights activist, and LGBTQ community member, her life was a series of firsts and onlys. It was extraordinary not just because of her accomplishments, but because of the hardships she overcame.

Born Anna Pauline Murray on November 20, 1910, in Baltimore, she went to live with her aunt Pauline Fitzgerald in Durham, North Carolina, after her mother died. Her father was sent to the Crownsville State Hospital for the Negro Insane, where he was later beaten to death by a guard.

Murray would grow up to continually wrestle with her gender identity and her attraction to women; she is believed to have adopted the gender-neutral first name Pauli around the time she was a student at Hunter College in New York. Despite constant financial and health struggles, she graduated first in her class from Howard University Law School in 1944—the sole woman in the group. She became California’s first black deputy attorney general a couple years later, and Thurgood Marshall used an argument she devised to help build his winning strategy in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. (He also called her book States’ Laws on Race and Color the “bible” for civil rights litigators.)

Murray co-founded the National Organization for Women in 1966 and befriended luminaries from Eleanor Roosevelt to Langston Hughes. Her legal writing also helped inspire Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work on a landmark brief that argued that the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex. Murray’s fiery intellectual drive continued throughout her life—in her 60s, she left her job as a professor at Brandeis University to study divinity at the General Theological Seminary and became the first African American women to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1977.

Her life, work, and legacy have contributed to the transformation and liberation of so many Americans, but her achievements have not been simply forgotten. Rather, in most cases, they were never properly acknowledged in the first place.

The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

37

Durham aims to change that. “Pauli Murray was one of the most important 20th-century human rights activists, period,” says Barbara Lau, executive director. The center began after the rescue of the Durham house where Murray lived with her aunt off and on from 1914 to the early 1930s—the only extant structure significantly connected to her life.

38 preservation

| SPRING 2020

PAULI MURRAY CENTER FOR HISTORY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE/BRAD BUNYEA (2)

Previous page: Pauli Murray in 1931; This page, from top: The interiors of the Durham, North Carolina, house where Pauli Murray lived as a child have been stabilized; The exterior is partially restored.

The circa 1898 house was owned by Murray’s grandfather Robert Fitzgerald, a brickmaker, Civil War veteran, and educator, and his wife, Cornelia, who had been born into slavery.

The deteriorating building was slated to be torn down before the nonprofit Self-Help Ventures Fund purchased it in 2011 on behalf of a community-based effort to highlight Pauli Murray’s legacy. The Pauli Murray Center, which leases the house from the fund, was incorporated in 2012 with the help of the Duke University Human Rights Center’s Pauli Murray Project, which provides some staffing and collaboration on programming.

Thanks to grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other organizations, the building’s exterior has been partially restored, while an interior restoration is under way.

The house was declared a National Treasure by the National Trust in 2015 and became a National Historic Landmark the next year.

Other institutions have also started to recognize Murray’s significance. Nearly eight years ago, the Episcopal church sainted her. Yale University, where Murray was the first African American to become a doctor of judicial sciences in 1965 and where she also received an honorary divinity school degree in 1979, named a residential college after her in 2016.

Lau says the Pauli Murray Center will open the house to the public sometime in 2021 and will use Murray’s life story to promote her goal of protecting and advancing human rights.

“The center will help us realize the world she dreamed of,” she says. —Lisa Selin Davis

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HERITAGE DESTINATIONS Take a weekend, or even a week, to wind along scenic byways from Maryland to Texas.

Explore art festivals and wineries, climb a lighthouse, or learn how the Shakers lived.

This section features cities and towns, main streets, and river cruises that take you back in time while highlighting amenities and experiences for the modern traveler.

ILLINOIS QUINCY

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From top: Drum Point Lighthouse in Calvert County, MD. Photo by Keith Burke; One of 15 city murals in Quincy, IL. Courtesy See Quincy.

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IOWA

RIVERBOAT TWILIGHT Enjoy America’s authentic river experience on a 1- or 2-day Mississippi River cruise. Experience traveling in Victorian style on the most elegant boat launched in the past 100 years.

Let our captain be your guide to majestic eagles, towering bluffs, and historic river towns. Overnight destination and accommodations in Iowa’s oldest city, Dubuque.

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KENTUCKY HARRODSBURG

Kentucky’s first settlement rocks its pioneer heritage! Tour Old Fort Harrod State Park; attend a summer outdoor drama; discover 3,000 acres of Shaker Village; ride the Dixie Belle riverboat; relax at Beaumont Inn; retreat to Bright Leaf Golf Resort; unwind at Lemons Mill Brewery and more!

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MARYLAND Be Open for a Historic Vacation. Have fun discovering Maryland’s history with these three handpicked vacation ideas.

Historic National Road: Trace America’s oldest road through cobblestone-paved city centers, breathtaking mountains, and everything in between. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: Follow in the footsteps of the most iconic conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman. Explore the secret network of trails, waterways, and safe houses that helped enslaved people flee to freedom. Chesapeake Country: Soak up the famous Chesapeake Bay by enjoying vibrant

From top: The Victorian-styled Mississippi Riverboat Twilight. Courtesy Riverboat Twilight; A living history experience. Old Fort Harrod State Park in Harrodsburg, KY. Courtesy Harrodsburg, KY; The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad offers heritage excursions and special event-themed trains year-round. Courtesy Allegany County.

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS waterfront villages, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and mouthwatering seafood along the Crab & Oyster Trail.

Be open for it.

VISITMARYLAND.ORG/SCENIC-BYWAYS

ALLEGANY COUNTY Allegany County, the Mountain Side of Maryland, is a destination that moved a nation. Explore our Passages of the Western Potomac Heritage Area with hands-on heritage experiences – the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, scenic byways, tunnels from the Underground Railroad, internationally recognized bike trails, museums, and more.

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ANNAPOLIS If you’re looking to make the most out of a weekend away this spring, Historic Downtown Annapolis has everything you need. With more original 18th Continued Clockwise from top: Noon Formation has taken place each day at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD since 1905. Courtesy Visit Annapolis; Harriet Tubman comes alive in mural by artist Michael Rosato at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, MD. Courtesy Maryland Office of Tourism; Fresh seafood and rich history at the Tidewater Inn on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Courtesy Maryland Office of Tourism.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION century buildings than any other U.S. city, Annapolis is brimming with history, architecture, and Colonial charm. Take a walking tour of the city. Stop by and walk through the homes of Maryland’s four signers of the Declaration of Independence. Wander through the Unites States Naval Academy for a history lesson. Once you’ve had your fill of history, head to Main Street for picturesque views of the waterfront and a bite to eat at one of the many restaurants. Or, stop into centuries-old pubs once frequented by names like Jefferson and Washington.

It’s all here in Annapolis.

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CALVERT COUNTY Calvert County, located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, is home to two historic lighthouses, three museums, a Smithsonian-affiliated art garden, and a brand-new Barn Quilt Trail. Explore our maritime history and enjoy waterfront dining, wineries, breweries, shops, and art galleries.

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CARROLL COUNTY Stroll our historic downtown main streets to discover architectural walking tours, unique shops, restaurants with down-home cooking to gourmet delights, and restful bed & breakfasts waiting for you. Follow our local Wine Trail, Civil War Trail, and award-winning Barn Quilt Trail as you travel our scenic backroads. Carroll County is home of The Maryland Wine Festival—37 years old! 800-272-1933.

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CECIL COUNTY Cecil County is located on I-95, midway between Baltimore & Philadelphia.

Vibrant and historic small towns, scenic Continued From top: Each May, the famed Blue Angels perform above Annapolis, MD to celebrate the year’s graduating naval officers during Commissioning Week. Courtesy Visit Annapolis; Carroll County, MD Barn Quilt Trail. Photo by Kelly Heck Photography/Carroll County.

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION countryside, foodie destinations, and 200 miles of shoreline offer visitors a great escape. Experience beautiful state parks, antique & specialty shops, B&Bs, farm destinations, and family-friendly events and attractions. Discover awardwinning local restaurants, wineries, breweries, chocolates, baked goods, and homemade ice cream on the farm.

Circle your calendar for the prestigious “Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill� equestrian event, Oct. 17 & 18. Cecil County... Just a Daydream Away!

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GARRETT COUNTY Explore our historic small towns, museums, and cultural sites in the Mountain Maryland Gateway to the West Heritage Area. Plan your visit using our newly-designed website or download our mobile app with great tour suggestions including local trails, barn quilts, and so much more!

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From top: Swallow Falls in Garrett County, MD is home to many waterfalls including Tolliver Falls. Courtesy Garrett County Chamber of Commerce; Susquehanna Museum at the Lock House in Havre de Grace, MD. Photo by Sean Simmons; Find fresh and delicious Chesapeake Bay blue crabs in Kent County, MD. Courtesy County Commissioners of Kent County.

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS HARFORD COUNTY Harford County is resplendent with beauty, history, culture, outdoor adventure, and rich heritage. The historic waterfront town of Havre de Grace has five museums, three National Scenic Trails, and stunning views. Plan a trip to Harford County.

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KENT COUNTY This scenic peninsula on Maryland’s Upper Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay offers fishing, kayaking, small beaches, museums, live theater, art galleries, farmers and artisans market, wineries, distillery, Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, music at every turn, historic towns, great shopping, and amazing local seafood.

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Fox Catcher Farm Covered Bridge at Fair Hill NRMA, circa 1860, along 80 miles of mixed-use trails. Courtesy Cecil County Tourism.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION ST. MARY’S COUNTY Welcome to St. Mary’s County—where boundless adventure awaits! Whether you’ve come to explore the past, savor the beauty of the moment, enjoy our many events, or imagine the possibilities of the future, you’ll find that you are always welcome in St. Mary’s County.

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MISSISSIPPI NATCHEZ

High on the bluffs overlooking the majestic Mississippi River, the beautiful city of Natchez offers visitors an unforgettable experience of the American South. As one of the country’s oldest and most charming cities, Natchez is a unique blend of old and new. With over three centuries of fascinating history, Natchez has an extraordinary collection of historic buildings, homes and churches, meticulously-maintained antebellum mansions, four National Park sites, ancient Native American mounds, and the exquisite Natchez Trace Parkway.

This jewel of the Mississippi also offers visitors the attractions of a desirable small-town destination—a beautiful, walkable downtown, magnificent sunsets, delicious cuisine, a vibrant art and music scene, outdoor adventures, exciting nightlife, and events all year long… all served up with genuine Southern hospitality.

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From top: U.S. Oyster Festival and National Shucking Competition in St. Mary’s, MD. Courtesy Visit St. Mary’s; Longwood, the largest octagonal house in America, Natchez, MS. Courtesy Visit Natchez; Poppies bloom along the Mississippi River in the historic Under-the-Hill district of Natchez. Courtesy Visit Natchez.

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

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MISSOURI ST. CHARLES

Just west of St. Louis you’ll find St. Charles, a river city with a unique historical perspective, beautiful sights, friendly people, and a pace just a little slower than that of the big city. The people of St. Charles have labored lovingly to preserve and share its treasured river heritage. You’re invited to experience the charm and beauty of a city that has been welcoming visitors since 1769.

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ST. JOSEPH St. Joseph is a thriving community made with uncommon character for over 175 years. Today we’re home to 13 museums, 12 annual festivals, thriving arts and music cultures, and a unique park system. This summer check out our many music festivals, like Hawkfest, dedicated to St. Jo saxophone player Coleman Hawkins.

Also, home to the Kansas City Chiefs Summer Training Camp.

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HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

NEW YORK

BETHEL WOODS CENTER More than three days of peace, love, and music. Discover Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, located at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival. Immerse yourself in the rich history and culture of the decade and see why it matters today. Explore museum exhibits, experience live music, and go back in time with a new augmented reality tour.

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Opposite from top: Visit the annual sculpture walk in downtown St. Joseph, MO. Courtesy St. Joseph CVB; Katy Depot in Frontier Park, St. Charles, MO. Courtesy Discover St. Charles; An aerial view of Bethel Woods during the autumn of 2019.

Courtesy of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

This page: Main Street St. Charles, MO. Courtesy Discover St. Charles.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION BUFFALO Wright, Sullivan, Richardson & Olmsted—when you think of the all-time greats of American architecture, these names should spring to mind. And Buffalo is home to masterworks by all of them. At the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo was a thriving industrial hub, a center for shipping and manufacturing and one of America’s fastest-growing cities. The great architects of the time were called to make their imprint on the Queen City—and they did. Discover a wonderfully unexpected architectural getaway in Buffalo, a resurgent city on the shores of Lake Erie.

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OHIO

MARIETTA We were the first settlement in a new frontier over 225 years ago and our early pioneer spirit can still be felt throughout our community. Navigate our rivers, explore our shops, taste our cuisine and immerse yourself in our rich culture and history.

MARIETTAOHIO.ORG From top: The Castle in Marietta, OH. Courtesy Washington County CVB; The Martin House in Buffalo, NY exemplifies Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Prairie House” ideal. Photo by Ed Healy; The Richardson Olmsted Campus in Buffalo, NY. Photo by Christopher Hyzy.

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

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RHODE ISLAND NEWPORT

Newport, Rhode Island is known as one of the most architecturally significant cities in America. Part of that enviable reputation can be attributed to Katherine Warren, who founded the Preservation Society of Newport County, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. A forward-thinking visionary with a passion for preservation, Warren ensured future generations could enjoy the famed Newport Mansions by turning these historic buildings into internationally acclaimed attractions that helped revitalize Newport itself during a transitional time in its history. This year make time to experience The Classic Coast, its mansions, museums, and more than three centuries of American history.

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TEXAS

GILLESPIE COUNTY COUNTRY SCHOOLS DRIVING TRAIL The Driving Trail links 16 former country schools to the Vereins Kirche, the first Gillespie County school built in 1847 in Fredericksburg. The 120-mile Trail directs visitors into the nearby

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

countryside to see one, several, or all schools. All schools are on the National Register of Historic Places. Visit website for monthly special activities.

HISTORICSCHOOLS.ORG

VIRGINIA

BOAR’S HEAD RESORT At Boar’s Head Resort, celebrate what endures—the beauty of the land, warm-spirited service, and the grace of long-standing traditions. While on property, the borders between rest and play dissolve away. An overnight stay at this Forbes-recommended hotel invites guests to explore our network of trails, experience a state-of-the art fitness club, or tour the wonderful and historic mountain town of Charlottesville. This resort truly mingles with the best of the best and offers classically refined styling that will be enjoyed by the modern traveler. Find yourself here!

JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT & AMERICAN REVOLUTION MUSEUM AT YORKTOWN History is fun at Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum at Yorktown! Living-history museums that tell the story of our nation’s beginnings through film, gallery exhibits, and living history in outdoor re-created settings.

Call 888-593-4682.

HISTORYISFUN.ORG

LEXINGTON, BUENA VISTA & ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY Discover the charm of small-town America in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

Shake off the winter chill with savory eats and craft spirits homegrown on local farms. Enjoy scenery along the Blue Ridge Parkway and James River.

Experience Southern hospitality and culture in Lexington and Buena Vista.

LEXINGTONVIRGINIA.COM

BOARSHEADRESORT.COM

Opposite, clockwise from top: Williams Creek School, Gillespie County, TX. Courtesy Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools; The Breakers in Newport, RI. Photo by Erin McGinn; The Boar’s Head Resort, Charlottesville, VA. Courtesy Boar’s Head Resort; Marble House in Newport, RI. Courtesy Discover Newport.

This page: Visitors examine navigation tools aboard Jamestown Settlement’s Godspeed. Courtesy of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION RED HILL Patrick Henry embodied the spirit of American courage and patriotism. He is recognized as the orator of liberty as he kindled the fires of the American Revolution. Henry was Virginia’s first elected governor serving five terms. Red Hill near Brookneal, VA is where Henry lived, died, and is buried.

REDHILL.ORG

SPOTSYLVANIA Civil War battlefields, outdoor recreation, wineries, breweries, and the oldest distillery in Virginia, as well as great places to fish, eat, and stay are all centrally located between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA. You are sure to find the perfect spot in Spotsylvania, VA. 540-507-7090 VISITSPOTSY.COM

From top: Shannon Air Museum in Spotsylvania, VA. Courtesy Spotsylvania Tourism; Wade’s Mill is Virginia’s oldest continuously operating commercial grist mill. Courtesy Lexington & the Rockbridge Area Tourism; The reconstructed Henry House on the grounds of Red Hill, Brookneal, VA. Courtesy of Red Hill.

SPOTLIGHT ON advertisers To receive FREE information about the historic destinations, hotels, products, and services advertised in P ­ reservation, return the postage-paid reply card or visit SavingPlaces.org/advertisers. Add your email address to the postcard to receive information via email.

HERITAGE DESTINATIONS 1. Allegany County, MD. Learn more

21. Red Hill, Brookneal, VA. Patrick Henry National Memorial.

about Allegany County, the Mountain Side of Maryland.

22. Riverboat Twilight, LeClaire, IA. One- and two-day Mississippi

2. American Revolution Museum, Yorktown, VA. Explore America’s

23. Spotsylvania, VA. Site of four

River cruises.

beginning through museum gallery exhibits and living history.

major battles of the Civil War, 1862-1864.

3. Annapolis, MD. Every step puts

restored 10-block historic district. Site of Missouri’s first state capitol.

you in touch with centuries of history.

4. Bethel Woods, NY. Museum of Bethel Woods. Dedicated to the study and exhibition of the 1960s.

5. Boar’s Head Resort, Charlottesville, VA. AAA Four

24. St. Charles, MO. Beautifully

25. St. Joseph, MO. Home to 13

museums, 12 festivals, and incredible historical architecture.

26. St. Mary’s County, MD. Where the Potomac and the Chesapeake meet.

Diamond resort in Charlottesville.

6. Buffalo, NY. Buffalo’s skyline reads like a textbook from an architectural master class.

7. Calvert County, MD. Chesapeake Bay western shore, lighthouses, maritime history, beaches.

HISTORIC HOTELS OF AMERICA 27. Historic Hotels of America.

Download or order the 2020 Directory: HistoricHotels.org/directory.

8. Carroll County, MD. Main streets

28. Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MI. America’s summer place is a

to stroll, festivals to celebrate. Home of the Maryland Wine Festival.

29. Historic Inns of Annapolis, MD.

9. Cecil County, MD. Beautiful countryside, scenic harbors, and historic towns.

10. Garrett County, MD. Mountain Maryland. Gateway to the West Heritage Area.

11. Gillespie County Country Schools, TX. Driving trail tour brochure of historic schools available.

12. Harford County, MD. Create your memories in Harford County.

13. Harrodsburg, KY. Shaker Village, Old Fort Harrod, Beaumont Inn.

National Historic Landmark.

18th-century charm in the Annapolis historic district.

30. Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, MD. The heart of downtown, blocks from the Inner Harbor.

31. The Mimslyn Inn, Luray, VA.

Our warmth and charm have been welcoming guests since 1931.

32. Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate, Huntington, NY. Historic mansion on Long Island’s famed Gold Coast.

33. Skytop Lodge, Skytop, PA. A

Dutch Colonial-style historic resort in the Pocono Mountains.

14. Kent County, MD. National Scenic Byway, winery, historic towns, galleries, theaters, and more.

39. Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA.

Dramatically sited over a waterfall. A Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece.

40. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, MD. Scenic driving tour of where Harriet Tubman lived.

41. Historic Hotels Worldwide.

Discover over 300 historic hotels in 40 countries.

42. Landmark Trust USA, VT.

Five authentically-restored historic vacation rental homes.

43. National Trust Tours. Leader in

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52. Authentic Designs. Handcrafted Early American light fixtures.

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54. Cooper Historical Windows, Stonington, CT. Historically

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cultural heritage tourism worldwide.

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44. Ships of the Sea Museum, Savannah, GA. Commemorating

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45. Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, NH. 10-acre living

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history museum covering 1695-1954.

Register plaques and medallions.

Custom cast bronze and aluminum plaques—made in USA. in place without a mounting bracket.

58. InnerGlass. Glass interior storm

46. Talbot County, MD. Escape to Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.

windows that outperform almost any replacement.

47. Thoroughbred Country, SC. We’re

59. Legacy Circle. Support the

35. Berlin, MD. Historic Atlantic

way more than horses! Free guide.

National Trust by making an estate gift.

48. Tudor Place Historic House & Garden, Washington, DC. Federal

60. National Trust Insurance Services. Insurance solutions for

36. Caroline County, MD. Quietly

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historic property owners.

49. Vicksburg, MS. The key to the

61. Preservation Products, Inc.

37. Central Florida. Settlers, cattle

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barons, citrus magnates, Frank Lloyd Wright, and more.

50. Wright’s Ferry Mansion, Columbia, PA. Award-winning

62. Vintage Doors. Bring lasting

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19. Newport, RI. Discover Newport,

38. Clay County, MO. Home of

preservation of a 1738 Quaker house.

15. Lexington, VA. Scenic Shenandoah Valley town built on southern hospitality, history, and culture.

16. Marietta-Washington County, OH. A great resource, offering local insights, brochures, and event calendars.

17. Maryland. Official travel information and resources.

18. Natchez, MS. Where the river is COURTESY VISIT ANNAPOLIS

HISTORIC TRAVEL

The grounds of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, offer the public a wide range of things to do, see, and learn all year round.

Rhode Island—The Classic Coast.

20. Quincy, IL. See Quincy—“One of America’s most artistic towns”— Expedia.com.

34. Baltimore National Heritage Area, MD. Experience Baltimore’s

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Hotel, art, shops, restaurants, and events. making history since 1773.

outlaw Jesse James and stories of the American Midwest.

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SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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“Working with the National Trust to create a legacy of preserving places has been a joy!”

John and Frances Clausen New Canaan, CT PHOTO BY KAREN MORNEAU

Gifts of Securities, IRA Charitable Rollovers, and Charitable Gift Annuities are tax-wise tools that work for you and America’s historic places through your support of the National Trust. Contact us to learn more today!

TELEPHONE: 202.588.6017 EMAIL: legacy@savingplaces.org WEB: TrustLegacy.org Have you already included the National Trust in your will or estate plan? Please notify us so we can welcome you to our Legacy Circle.

AT HOME|CHICAGO

Space in the City

JAY DANDY AND MELISSA WEBER’S 1909 HOUSE IN CHICAGO PROVIDES ROOM FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS Interview by Lauren Walser Photography by Matthew Gilson JAY: We bought the house in June of 2002

and moved in that November. We had been living in a big, Victorian-era house, and this one was equally grand, if not grander. It had soaring 12-foot ceilings.

MELISSA: Also, the rooms were very open and square, as opposed to long and narrow, which is typical of Victorian houses. We were really drawn to the spaciousness of the rooms. It felt more livable.

JAY: It’s in the Hyde Park-Kenwood area and was built in 1909 for Arthur G. Leonard, president of the Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. We found newspapers from ’09 stuffed in the walls. In the 1930s or ’40s, it was purchased by the Rev. Clarence H. Cobbs, who was a very well-known minister and the founder of the First Church of Deliverance. He was a South Side fixture. We’re told he lived in this house until the late ’70s.

There are people in the neighborhood who as young kids came to the reverend’s house and had Sunday dinners. [During our renovations], they would stop by, concerned that it was being turned into condos or something. But we assured them, no, we were keeping it a singlefamily home.

MELISSA: Originally, we were going to renovate the entire house at once, but we quickly realized the exterior was one job, and the interior was another job. The first renovation was in 2004, when we did the exterior.

We took out and restored almost all the windows—there are 90 windows, in all.

Homeowners Melissa Weber (left), a ceramic artist, and Jay Dandy, collections manager in the modern and contemporary art department at the Art Institute of Chicago, with their dog, Louise.

We did a comparison between restoring and replacing, and it ended up that restoring was actually not that much more expensive.

JAY: All the window surrounds were made using cast concrete, which was a marvelous new building material back

then. The Robie House, by Frank Lloyd Wright, is just down the street, and it was built at the same time with cast concrete elements.

Unfortunately, if you use cast concrete with metal rebar, it rusts over time. We had to replace 490 pieces of concrete.

SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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AT HOME|CHICAGO

From top: The 10,000-squarefoot Gothic Revival house, designed by architect Charles Sumner Frost, has large rooms that accommodate the couple’s Modern art and furniture collection; Most of the woodwork is original and has been restored to its 1909 condition.

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Chicago firm Florian Architects designed both the exterior and interior renovations of the house.

About 80 of the building’s 90 windows have been restored.

MELISSA: The masonry was fully repointed, along with a good deal of roof work and parapet work and many other things. We had the leftovers of seven gargoyles on the corners of the house— just a few bits and pieces at the feet. One fun flourish that we allowed ourselves was to have those remade and recast. We did a lot of research in this neighborhood; there are quite a lot of gargoyles here. We also went to the University of Chicago and looked at their gargoyles.

And we figured out what kind we liked and then had them made.

We had scaffolding around the house for two years. We tackled the exterior, then took a very long break. In 2012, we started the interior renovation, which took about two years. We closed the first and second floors off completely, except for the kitchen and the family room, then all six of us—we have four kids—moved up to the third floor.

There was 100 years’ worth of wear and tear on the house. Goldberg General Contracting, our contractor for the interiors, went through bit by bit and were completely systematic in bringing everything back as close as it was to the original.

The good thing was that no one had ever really reconfigured the house. The bones were pretty much intact. The floors were in good shape, I think because they were mostly covered in carpet for their lifetime.

And the majority of the woodwork was left intact. It was stained with a glossy, dark shellac, but not painted. We refinished all the existing wood. We went back and forth—it was a huge job to strip it all, but finally we decided we should do it. It was worth it in the end.

Jay took a lot of the existing hardware

from doors and bookcases—all the screws, hinges, everything—and had them refinished and restored, then put them all back himself. There was a lot of it. There were many trips up to Art Metal Finishers on the North Side, which restored it all. It made a huge difference.

JAY: There’s always stuff that’s exciting when you’re renovating a house. We found a safe in a floor. It was empty, but that was a cool discovery. And we found our living room at one time had been filled all the way around with bookcases, but half of them had been removed. You could see the faint outline of where they were attached to the woodwork.

When we moved in, the second-floor hallway had a dropped ceiling. We found out when [previous owners] were installing the ductwork, they ran it straight down the hallway and dropped the ceiling. We decided to rip it all out, and when [the contractors] took the ceiling down, we discovered we had a beautiful coved plaster ceiling there.

MELISSA: I think if Jay and I had lived a different life and hadn’t ended up with two [early-20th-century] homes, we could’ve envisioned living in a midcentury glass house somewhere. That was our ideal. But we’ve found that collecting contemporary art and midcentury furniture was something we really enjoyed, so that’s what we did [instead].

It’s been, I think, a very nice, workable combination. The spaces of our house are very open and square. In that regard, the midcentury furniture feels good in it. It’s very minimal, and the woodwork in the house is neo-Gothic. The two are compatible in a strange way. I think it makes the house a lot more interesting than if it were furnished in the furniture of the period.

It’s a big house. People ask us when we’re going to downsize, which we have no plans to do. It’s a house that really likes people. It’s sort of a hub, and it’s very much enjoyed by friends and family.

I’m glad it has a lively existence.

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TRAVEL|HISTORIC TRAVEL

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MARYLAND

MISSISSIPPI

MISSOURI

NEW HAMPSHIRE

OHIO

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Reservations: 800-678-8946 | HistoricHotels.org

HISTORIC INNS OF ANNAPOLIS

LORD HOTEL BALTIMORE NAMEHOTEL

GRAND HOTEL

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND Experience 18th-century appeal mixed with 21st-­ century convenience at the Historic Inns of Annapolis. Comprising three distinct buildings, the inns offer a refreshing mix of historic ambiance, timeless hospitality, and modern amenities in the heart of the Annapolis Historic District. Come see us and enjoy all that Maryland’s capital city has to offer.

BALTIMORE, CITY, STATE At MARYLAND quuntem quiHoused blaboriani in avolorro stunning venimod Frenchigento Renaissance omniment building ventem located doluptiam in the doluptat heart of et id downtown mi, sequiBaltimore omniam, and cus, just samthree quos blocks enia audis from atthe utempos famous vendit Inner Harbor, rehenditiam the historic faccabo.Lord NemBaltimore alitatqui id Hotel ut laut towers as doluptur over aute the Baltimore debis queskyline pre netum at 23nobit, stories od eatur, with con440 conguest conestis rooms. di ium Built iminquiatiis 1928, the dolum hotel rerfernatur? is one of the last “Grande Dame” hotels in the area.

MACKINAC ISLAND, MICHIGAN Grand Hotel is a National Historic Landmark located on beautiful Mackinac Island in northern Michigan. We invite you to sit in a rocking chair on the world’s longest porch and experience the rich traditions and historic charm that have been delighting guests since 1887.

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HUNTINGTON, NEW YORK A majestic French chateau-style mansion on Long Island’s famed Gold Coast and the former residence of Otto Hermann Kahn during the decadent Roaring Twenties. Today, Oheka is listed on the National Register of Historic Places boasting 32 guestrooms and suites, fine dining, a stately library, and mansion tours of the estate and gardens for guests to experience the Castle’s rich history.

SKYTOP, PENNSYLVANIA Live the adventure with a naturally inspired getaway at one of the most esteemed lodges in the country—Skytop. This grand historic estate features the very best in accommodations, fine dining, and limitless recreation through 5,500 pristine acres of majestic beauty nestled in the picturesque northeast mountains of Pennsylvania.

LURAY, VIRGINIA A Shenandoah Valley tradition since 1931. Offering an elegant blend of quality and comfort featuring a fine selection of rooms/suites, private cottages, fine and casual dining, outdoor pool and spa. New to the Inn collection—The Manor House and Cottages, historic and luxury cottages with main house and onsite pool.

Additional amenities include private event/ reunion site.

OHEKA.COM

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MIMSLYNINN.COM

(631) 659-1400

(800) 345-7759

(540) 743-5105

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The most magnificent gardens...come see how our gardens grow!

HistoricHotels.org/Gardens

THE BROADMOOR (1918)

THE INN AT MONTCHANIN VILLAGE (1799)

JEKYLL ISLAND CLUB RESORT (1887)

Colorado Springs, Colorado | The Broadmoor’s gardens cover 35 acres. The landscaping and flowering gardens, designed by the Olmsted Brothers, encourage guests to experience several different types of landscapes and the original European theme throughout the resort.

HistoricHotels.org/Broadmoor

Montchanin, Delaware | The Inn at Montchanin Village has a full-time horticulturist and its own off-site greenhouses, which provide exquisite colorful landscaping on the grounds. Plantings help define spaces and create private garden nooks for guests to enjoy.

HistoricHotels.org/Montchanin

Jekyll Island, Georgia | Whether visiting in winter or spring, the Sunken Garden maintains a distinct regal presence at the resort. Crane Cottage’s Sunken Garden is one of the most notable stops at this historic hotel with its lush trellises making the garden stand out even in winter.

HistoricHotels.org/Jekyll

FRENCH LICK RESORT (1845)

MORRIS INN AT NOTRE DAME (1952)

GRAND HOTEL (1877)

South Bend, Indiana | Morris Inn is located on the campus of the University of Notre Dame where landscapers have created numerous tulip gardens. Just steps away from the Inn’s front door, over 46,000 tulips line Notre Dame Avenue, campus sidewalks, and the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

HistoricHotels.org/MorrisInn

Mackinac Island, Michigan | Designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Grand Hotel’s grounds feature over 25 planted gardens that account for over 1.5 acres of maintained garden beds.

HistoricHotels.org/GrandHotel

French Lick, Indiana | French Lick Resort comprises two historic hotels, French Lick Springs Hotel, dating back to 1845, and West Baden Springs Hotel, dating back to 1902.

Between both hotels, there are over 40 different varieties of flowering perennials and 17 varieties of summer annuals planted each year.

HistoricHotels.org/FrenchLick

LA POSADA DE SANTA FE (1882)

OHEKA CASTLE (1919)

MOHONK MOUNTAIN HOUSE (1869)

Santa Fe, New Mexico | The gardens at La Posada de Santa Fe, A Tribute Portfolio Resort & Spa trace their history back to one of the original owners, Julia Staab, and the garden she planted in the late 1800s. There are many walkways for guests to explore a variety of fruit trees, walnut trees, hickory trees, elm trees, aspen trees, and cherry blossom trees.

HistoricHotels.org/LaPosada

Huntington, New York | This historic castle features French-inspired formal gardens with fountains, 10 reflecting pools, classic statuary, and tree-lined paths designed by the world-renowned Olmsted Brothers. Original gardens in the 1920s were designed by landscape designer Beatrix Ferrand.

HistoricHotels.org/OHEKA

New Paltz, New York | The formal ornamental gardens at Mohonk Mountain House, designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, were designed as the “picturesque” or “romantic style” of landscape gardening: irregular in form, with variety and boldness of composition, and a scenery of a more rugged nature.

HistoricHotels.org/Mohonk

THE HOTEL HERSHEY® (1933)

CASTLE HILL RESORT & SPA (1905)

THE AMERICAN CLUB (1918)

Hershey, Pennsylvania | Located across the street from the hotel in one of Milton S. Hershey’s legacy properties, the Hershey Gardens is a 23-acre botanical display garden that features 11 themed gardens, including a historic rose garden with 3,500 rose bushes representing 175 cultivars.

HistoricHotels.org/Hershey

Cavendish, Vermont | This elegant resort in Vermont is surrounded by beautiful gardens and the majestic pine forests of the Green Mountains. The resort’s landscaping was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

HistoricHotels.org/CastleHill

Kohler, Wisconsin | The Kohler gardens were planted in 1913 after Walter J. Kohler, Sr. traveled to Europe to study garden cities. He worked with the Olmsted Brothers to plan the green spaces that beautify the Village of Kohler and Kohler Co. campus.

HistoricHotels.org/AmericanClub SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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OUTSIDE|THE BOX

Pier Review

AN INDUSTRIAL PHILADELPHIA STRUCTURE GAINS NEW LIFE AS AN ARTS-FOCUSED PUBLIC SPACE

by Meghan Drueding

I

t’s easy to know where to go once you get inside Cherry Street Pier: Just follow the train track embedded in the structure’s concrete floors. The rehabbed Philadelphia warehouse and shipping pier reopened in 2018 and was undergoing more updates as of press time, but it’s held fast to its industrial character.

When the pier was built on the Delaware River in 1919, it was used for offloading fruits and vegetables shipped to Philadelphia. The produce was transferred onto trains that took it into the city for retail sale. Over time, shipping gravitated to other parts of the riverfront, and the 55,000-square-foot structure (then known as Municipal Pier 9) was used for storage.

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By 2012, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC), a quasi-public nonprofit charged with revitalizing the area, decided to do something different with the property. “We were in contact with some arts organizations who were looking for unconventional spaces for events or art installations and exhibits,” says Lizzie Woods, vice president of planning and capital programs at DRWC. “It got us thinking about how to repurpose this incredible architectural space.”

Groundswell Design Group and Interface Studio Architects (ISA) worked together to find a dynamic way to reuse the space: artist’s studios made of shipping containers. The studios are lined up on

the south side of the interior, leaving plenty of space for temporary markets and exhibitions. The pier is part of the Old City Historic District, and its century-old streetfacing head house and much of the other exterior detailing were saved. Crews are currently repairing and replicating clerestory windows, and in January they replaced nonhistoric metal entry doors with glass ones.

In a move supported by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, the design team had most of the original metal doors on the north side removed and replaced with glass garage doors to let in light and air. They also removed part of the roof, transforming the river end of the pier into an open-air garden.

The steel roof structure remains intact, but now a portion of it has been waterproofed and exposed to the elements.

Visitors to the revamped pier can watch artists at work, attend a farmers market or art exhibition, or relax in the landscaped garden. Admission is free, and tenants are charged below-market rates to ensure the presence of emerging artists. “It’s unusual to have an arts space where the public is coming by, almost like you’re on a street,” says ISA’s Brian Phillips. “It’s informal; there are kids around. People can feel comfortable.”

SAM OBERTER

As part of Cherry Street Pier’s $5 million renovation, the team repaired damage to the underwater piles that support it. The pier sits on the Delaware River in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia.

HISTORIC properties

RealEstate.SavingPlaces.org

TUFTONBORO, NH Live, work, earn and play in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region. The General Store, c. 1822, includes a U.S. post office, walk-in cooler, etc. with two newer 1-bedroom/1-bath apartments above and adjacent, 4-bedroom/2-bath storekeeper’s home, c. 1798, with 5 working fireplaces, most other original features intact, and an attached barn. Both buildings on 1 commercially-zoned acre in low-tax town on Lake Winnipesaukee; $399,900.

Faye Friedrich, (978) 835-7431, OlderHomesNH.com.

ASPEN, CO Robin Molny designed the Ford Schumann House in 1973, after apprenticing with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1949-54. This mid-century modern home hugs the hillside overlooking Aspen, taking advantage of stunning views of the Roaring Fork Valley and its many rocky peaks. The living room opens up completely with a long, continuous glass wall, making the extensive deck and pool an integral part of the house. With 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths; $4,600,000.

Michael Latousek, (970) 618-7768, starwoodeppley.com.

BOSTON, MA Beacon Street: 1874 5-story brownstone by Peabody & Stearns in heart of Back Bay. Owner’s Frenchinfluenced 3-bedroom, 2-bath duplex features living room with Clerc & Margeridon landscape wallpaper, 12-ft. ceilings, and 3 fireplaces. Four income-producing apartments.

Office, deck, elevator, parking, and courtyard garden.

Options include a single-family home with au-pair suite.

Price upon request. Contact Douglas Miller, (617) 2764460, douglas.miller@compass.com.

FRANKLIN, TN Meeting of the Waters, c. 1803, queen of antebellum homes in Williamson County. Built by Revolutionary War officer Thomas Hardin Perkins, this home sits at the confluence of the West Harpeth and Little Harpeth rivers on 18 acres. Home completely renovated and updated with 5,577 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, and new kitchen. Lush gardens and early 19th century log cabin renovated as guest house. Exceptional piece of TN history.

(615) 595-1885, meetingofthewaters@comcast.net.

LEXINGTON, VA Clifton, on the National Register, built ALEXANDRIA, VA Historic mansion in the heart of Old

by Major John Alexander, c. 1815. The heart-pine floors, Town, the product of a complete 21st century renovation and hearths, and mantels are original to the early 1800s. There professional restoration maintaining its historic charm and are 3 bedrooms and 3 baths with 4,052 sq. ft. Clifton’s grandeur on a rare half-acre of privacy. Leave your cars in the grounds include 25 acres, hard-surfaced tennis court, garage and enjoy all the amenities of the historic city known 2-car garage in a stone building, c. 1700s, and a unique for its red brick sidewalks, cobblestone roads, Potomac River structure built originally as an icehouse. Access to the waterfront parks, and more. Minutes to DC, Reagan Airport, Chessie Trail along the Maury River; $1,425,000. JF Brown 1_3Amazon’s ad_11_13_Layout 1 11/1/13HRL 1:16 PM Page 1 and future HQ2; $4,800.000.

Partners at Real Estate, (540) 460-8068, www.jfbrownrealestate.com.

Washington Fine Properties, (202) 243-1620.

CUSTOM LETTERED BRONZE PLAQUES For Your

HISTORIC HOME LEXINGTON, VA River Croft, c. 1815, sits on 50+/- acres atop a high meadow with views of farmland, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and a perfectly framed House Mountain. This significant and well-maintained home has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, updated kitchen, and wide center hall. A stone cottage with bedroom, bath, and kitchen predates the house and sits nearby. Riding ring, stable, pasture, and woodlands compliment this unique property and setting; $2,200,000.

JF Brown RE, (540) 460-4736, www.jfbrownrealestate.com.

PORT ROYAL, VA Waterfront home. Own a piece of historic Virginia. Riverview, c. 1846, has been historically preserved but with modern touches. Updates include side additions to enhance closet space, adding 3 full baths and a traditional kitchen. Its Greek Revival style can be found throughout the home’s features including 8 working fireplaces, original pine wood floors, original pocket doors, and much more. Ben Quann, Century 21 Redwood, (540) 842-2830.

ERIE LANDMARK COMPANY National Register Plaques Medallions to Roadside Markers Call for FREE Brochure

800-874-7848 www.erielandmark.com

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BE THE FIRST TO KNOW

WORLD WAR II|ITINERARY

Air, Land, and Sea EIGHT PLACES THAT HONOR THE TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDIES OF WORLD WAR II

by Chris Warren

From left: Part of the West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II; The Shrine of Memory (1956) at the Virginia War Memorial.

ALAMY/MICHAEL LINGBERG; ALAMY/JEFFREY ISAAC GREENBERG

V

isitors to Moton Field could be excused for feeling like they’ve suddenly stepped back in time.

The cavernous, 1940s-era Hangar One, located alongside the Tuskegee, Alabama, airfield where nearly 1,000 African American pilots trained during World War II, still convulses with the roaring sounds of a PT-17 Stearman biplane and the purposeful voices of mechanics and ground crew.

This sort of bustle and industry was an everyday occurrence at Moton Field, which today is home to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. It was also the kind of determined effort required in order for African American pilots, navigators, bombardiers, and others to overcome racism at home and earn the opportunity to serve their country overseas. With a mixture of videos, audio recordings, airplanes,

equipment, photos, and first-person oral histories from former Tuskegee Airmen, the site tells that complicated dual history.

“We have exhibits that tell the story of what was known as the double victory,” says Frank Toland, a ranger at Tuskegee.

“Against racism here and against fascism abroad.”

The Tuskegee Airmen site is one of many historic memorials, museums, and monuments around the country—in addition to newer sites such as the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.—that honors the sacrifices made in the war, which ended 75 years ago this year. For example, while the exhibits at Moton Field celebrate those who took to the air, Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, captures the stories and experiences of those who spent their war years at sea. The site contains a maritime museum and five National His-

toric Landmark naval ships, including the 680-foot-long battleship USS Massachusetts and the submarine USS Lionfish, both of which saw action during the war.

Today, visitors can tour the vessels and get a firsthand feel for sailors’ claustrophobic existence. “We still have the canvas racks [where sailors slept] here, which were stacked four high and spaced 18 inches apart,” says Brad Lima, the executive director of Battleship Cove. The site’s Nautical Nights program also lets kids spend a night onboard to see what Navy life was really like.

The combination of immersive experiences with history and remembrance is a big part of the mission of The War Memorial in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.

Once the residence of businessman Russell Alger Jr., the son of a former Michigan governor, the sprawling Italian Renaissance SPRING 2020 | SavingPlaces.org

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Navy warships are available for visitors to explore at Battleship Cove on the Taunton River in Fall River, Massachusetts.

mansion was donated to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Association in 1949. Today, visitors to the home’s main vestibule can see bronze plaques with the names of the 3,444 Grosse Pointe citizens who served in World War II, as well as plaques honoring veterans who served in more recent wars.

From its inception, though, The War Memorial was also designed to be a community hub—a place for a wide range of events, including concerts and performances in a newly renovated theater, as well as art, exercise, and cooking classes. Integrating the place into the city’s everyday life makes it easier to preserve the stories and legacy of Grosse Pointe veterans.

The USS Arizona Memorial is a place you have to go out of your way to get to—but it’s well worth the effort. Part of Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii, it was built in 1962 and floats over the wreckage of a battleship destroyed by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941, as part of the attack that precipitated the United States’ entry into World War II. The Modernist memorial is only accessible by boat and contains a shrine with the names of the 1,177 sailors and Marines who died on the ship.

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the Virginia General Assembly approved plans for the Virginia War Memorial, which perches above the James River and downtown Richmond. In an open pavilion reminiscent of a Greek temple, the site initially listed the names of the roughly 10,000 Virginians who perished in World War II and the Korean War. In subsequent years, those of Virginians who fought and died in later wars have been added—some in the original building and some in an expansion that opened earlier this year.

Also opening this year was the site’s new C. Kenneth Wright Pavilion, and in 2010 the memorial completed a museum, auditorium, and amphitheater called the Paul and Phyllis Galanti Education Center. “We now have displays that cover all of American military history, with a lot of emphasis on World War II,” says Clay Mountcastle, the memorial’s director. “We also have a documentary film series called Virginians at War that captures the stories of World War II vets.”

Across the country, set amid a grove of Monterey pines and cypress trees overlooking the San Francisco Bay, a wall of California granite displays the names of 413 men and women. Part of the 1,500-acre

Presidio of San Francisco, the West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II remembers those who served and died in American coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean during the war. “It ranges from accidents like airplanes and bombers going down and also a submarine that sank off the coast of Panama,” says John Bertland, the Presidio’s digital librarian and research specialist. The memorial is one of three built by the American Battle Monuments Commission, which spearheads the management of overseas cemeteries for U.S. service members, to honor those who went missing during the war.

North of San Francisco, near the border of Oregon, is a reminder of a dark side of the World War II home front. Designated as part of a larger national monument in 2008 and named an independent one in 2019, the Tule Lake National Monument preserves an incarceration camp where more than 29,000 Japanese Americans were held because of unfounded fears that they would aid the enemy. “We highlight the incarceration of American citizens; that is definitely central to our whole theme,” says Larry Whalon, the monument’s superintendent. “They looked different, so they were locked up. We want to capture that mentality and the surrounding history.” Every other Fourth of July, hundreds of Japanese Americans visit the monument to remember those who were forced to live at the site.

Not all visits to World War II monuments and memorials require a special trip. If you happen to be traveling through Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, be sure to linger at the Pennsylvania Railroad War Memorial. The bronze statue of the Archangel Michael, the biblical angel of the resurrection, holding a deceased soldier was commissioned as a way to honor the 1,307 Pennsylvania railroad employees who fought and died in the war.

The work was personal for the artist, Walker Hancock, who served in the war and also fashioned angels for a monument at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France. The names of all 1,307 fallen soldiers are carved into the statue’s granite pedestal, and the 1952 commissioning ceremony was attended by World War II hero Gen. Omar Bradley.

PHOTOGRAPHER LISA ANNE

ITINERARY|WORLD WAR II

MARKETplace

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THIS PLACE MATTERS

Union Station, Omaha, Nebraska, 1931 PHOTO POSTED ON INSTAGRAM BY SARAH MARSOM (@SARAHMARSOM) ON JANUARY 15, 2020

WHY THIS PLACE? I live in Columbus, Ohio, and

every winter I go on a road trip to someplace that typically has heavy snowfall. This year it was primarily Nebraska. I was shocked by the high volume of Art Deco and Art Moderne architecture. It was a great reminder to never underestimate Midwestern cities.

The photo was taken on my last day of the trip.

After about 10 days [of travel] I was a little bit tired, so I was happy when I saw that Omaha’s old Union Station—now The Durham Museum—still had its original seating. I took the opportunity to relax and observe the murals, terrazzo floors, and chande72 preservation

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liers, and the visitors interacting with the space.

The station is a well-designed historic building that has been so thoughtfully restored and adapted, ceiling to floor, to tell the history of Omaha. It’s really empowering to see that a city can understand the intrinsic value of keeping a building active and available for the public to use.

Since 2008, people have been celebrating historic places that are meaningful to them with photos declaring “This Place Matters.” Learn more at SavingPlaces.org/this-place-matters

HOW OU R G A R DENS GROW

French Lick, Indiana

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Explore, experience, and grow your own ever-blossoming memories in our beautiful gardens.

Mohonk Mountain House (1869) New Paltz, New York

Grand Hotel (1887) Mackinac Island, Michigan

Oheka Castle (1919) Huntington, New York

Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa (1847) Point Clear, Alabama

H IST OR ICHO T E L S.ORG/G A R DE NS Members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation SAVE UP TO 30%* OFF BEST AVAILABLE RATES at more than 200 participating Historic Hotels of America with offer code NHP. *

Subject to availability and only offered through advance reservation on HistoricHotels.org • Copyright 2020 Historic Hotels of AmericaŽ All Rights Reserved.