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Preservation Honors

The annual NTHP award winners, announced at the conference, reinforce the idea that historic preservation can bring together urban revitalization, sustainability, and race issues. One of the award recipients, the Ships Tavern Mews of Wilmington, Delaware, restored by Homsey Architects, Inc., represents that state's largest historic preservation and revitalization project.

Supported by a federal tax credit for rehabilitation, project architects and developers renovated 22 mid-18th century buildings in one city block. With upscale, boutique-style retail on the first level and trendy loft apartments above, the project is returning an underused area back to a thriving 24-hour community.

Another project honored by the trust is the Stone Barns Center in Pocantico Hills, New York. The Normandy-style barn complex was built in 1933 for the Rockefeller family as a working farm near their home in Kykuit.

In 2004, the complex was completely restored by Machado and Silvetti Associates and dedicated as the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. A nonprofit organization, the center is a working farm and learning center dedicated to demonstrating to the public the importance of local, community-based agriculture and environmentally sensitive agricultural practices.

An inspiring story of African American historic preservation, the award winning Carnegie Library in Savannah, Georgia was built in 1914 and served for decades as the only community library in that city open to black residents. The building was designed by local architect Julian de Bruyn Kops and is the Savannah's only public building designed in the Prairie Style. The library remained in continual use until 1997, when a leaky roof, water damage, and lack of funding forced its closing.

Several years later, efforts to save the historic library gained widespread community support. Original photographs guided the restoration of the exterior and identification of interior plasterwork, woodwork, and molding patterns.

Two additions to the Carnegie Library were constructed to house functions not included in the original building, including an elevator, new restrooms, a staff work room, an accessible public entrance, a community meeting room, and an electronic classroom designed to provide interactive computer learning.

As National Trust president Richard Moe emphasized during the plenary discussion on rebuilding New Orleans: "Rebuilding is essential, but vibrant livable places also retain the historic character that makes them unique."

Linda Baker is a Portland-based journalist whose articles appear in The New York Times, Salon and The Christian Science Monitor.

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Carnegie Library after renovation. Photo: Richard Leo Johnson An award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation went to the Carnegie Library (1914) in Savannah, Georgia. Exterior before renovation. Photo: Courtesy NTHP Carnegie Library interior before renovation. Photo: Courtesy NTHP Carnegie Library after renovation. Photo: Courtesy NTHP   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.