f.o. . r. . .u. . .m ...... j. o. . .u. . . r. . .nn. . .a. . .l . . Winter 2008 • Volume 22 • No. 2

Preservation Matters! ...... Speeches from the 2007 National Preservation Conference St. Paul, Minnesota

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...... foru m journal National Trust Forum Peter H. Brink Senior Vice President, Programs Katherine Adams Director, Center for Preservation Leadership Elizabeth Byrd Wood Editor Kerri Rubman Assistant Editor Ron Woods Business Manager National Trust for Historic Preservation Richard Moe President David J. Brown Executive Vice President Peter H. Brink Senior Vice President, Programs Gregory A. Coble Vice President, Business and Finance David Cooper Vice President, Development Paul Edmondson Vice President and General Counsel Stanley A. Lowe Vice President for Community Revitalization Dolores McDonagh Vice President, Membership Jan Rothschild Vice President for Communications and Marketing James Vaughan Vice President, Stewardship of Historic Properties Emily Wadhams Vice President, Public Policy National Trust Forum Advisory Board Paul Bruhn Preservation Trust of Vermont Pratt W. Cassity University of Georgia Alan Downer National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers E. Renee Ingram African American Heritage Preservation Foundation, Inc. Bruce D. Judd, FAIA Architectural Resources Group Heather MacIntosh Preservation Action Ann McGlone National Alliance of Preservation Commissions David Mertz National Council for Preservation Education David Morgan Former Kentucky State Historic Preservation Officer Marcel Quimby National Trust Board of Advisors Nancy Miller Schamu National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers Donna J. Seifert Society for Historical Archaeology John Simone Connecticut Main Street Center Antone G. Souza, Jr. Downtown Partnership of Sarasota, Inc. de Teel Patterson Tiller Goucher College

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, nonprofit membership organization, champions preservation by providing leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to people working to preserve, improve, and enjoy the places that matter to them. Its Washington, DC headquarters staff, six regional offices, and 28 historic sites work with the Trust's 270,000 members and thousands of local community groups in all 50 states. For more information, visit the National Trust’s website at www.nationaltrust.org .

Forum Journal , a Journal of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, (ISSN 1536-1012) (USPS Publication Number 001-715) is published quarterly by the Center for Preservation Leadership at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1785 Massachu - setts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 as a benefit of National Trust Forum membership. Forum members also receive six issues of Forum News , and six issues of Preservation magazine. Annual dues are $115. Periodicals paid at Washington, D.C. Postmaster: Send address changes to National Trust Forum, 1785 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Copyright © 2008 National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Printed in the United States. Of the total amount of base dues, $6.00 is for a subscription for Preservation magazine for one year. Support for the National Trust is provided by membership dues; endowment funds; individual, corporate, and foundation contributions; and grants from state and federal agencies. National Trust Forum Journal is a forum in which to express opinions, encourage debate, and convey information of importance and of general interest to Forum members of the National Trust. Inclusion of material or product references does not constitute an endorsement by the National Trust for Historic Preservation...... 1 W INTER 2008 This issue of Forum Journal features speeches from the 2007 National Preservation Conference in the Twin Cities. Award- winning singer-songwriter Cari Cole kicked off the opening plenary session with this specially written song, co-written with Alex Moe. c...... ontents Winter 2008 • Volume 22 • No. 2 Heart of My Town by Alex Moe and Cari Cole

Behind the counter we worked our days At the hardware store on Fifth and Main President’s Report Husband and I, pioneers with a map Richard Moe ...... 4 Had come from the shore to Mamaroneck

It’s gone now, with half the town, Spearheading Preservation Action: My Personal Challenge to make room for parking places Nellie Longsworth ...... 12 The old school yard, the corner store, will there be any traces? Celebrating the City Garrison Keillor ...... 17 CHORUS: Heart of my town Making the Preservation Message Resonate with Donors Railway station Built us a nation Jay Steenhuysen ...... 25 Part of this town On the sidewalks of Main Street Valuing Heritage: Re-examining Our Foundations On the tracks of Union Station Brenda Barrett ...... 30

When I was a girl we tore out across the plains Root Shock and the Gulf The sky was burning red, the smell of fire and sage Mindy Thompson Fullilove ...... 35 Daddy got a job working with the grain I’d sit and watch the river move and listen for the trains The Taste of Place Out where there was nothing, just the sky and the steam Arlin Wasserman ...... 42 I found a home there waiting, heard something calling me Life in the city and across the prairie land What we made, we made with our hands

CHORUS

Where there was a field, they saw a town Built it up from the rocky ground In the center they put a square To this day we still gather there Cover photo: As the sun slips down over St. Paul town Rooftops and roads, history layers the ground Landmark Center. Photo courtesy of St. Paul RCVA. Out on the back streets and over Highland pond ...... 3 The stories of our children will live on and on W INTER 2008

CHORUS rediscovered. When I left that we put the site on our 11 Minnesota 35 years ago, it was Most Endangered list in 2006. virtually impossible to access The rebirth of the riverfront President’s Report the river or even catch a is a great thing, but it brings glimpse of the St. Anthony the threat of overdevelop - ...... Richard Moe Falls, which powered the ment that could destroy the mills that made Minneapolis historic character that makes The National Preservation good thing at one time, but the flour-milling capital of the neighborhood so appeal - Conference is always a high - it went on a little too long.” the world. Today a riverfront ing; in other words, the river - light of the preservation calen - Misguided notions of what park provides a close-up look front area is endangered by its dar. And this year’s conference constitutes “progress” robbed at the falls, the remains of the own success. is really special for me because Minneapolis and St. Paul of mills, and the canals and Still, even with these we’re meeting—for the first many historic buildings, and tailraces that made the whole big challenges, the good news time ever—in my home state time and weather and neglect complex work. A two-mile- is that Minneapolis and St. of Minnesota and in the cities destroyed many others over long heritage trail winds Paul are preserving and cele - where I spent a major part of the years. through the park, crossing the brating their heritage in ways my life. I regret that it’s taken Happily, those “bad old Mississippi on the restored that are creative, useful, and 15 years for me to get us here, days” are gone. Today the Stone Arch Bridge built in even inspiring. I’ve always been but it’s great to be back in the Twin Cities are honoring their 1882. The area known as St. proud to claim Minnesota as Twin Cities, especially because past in a way that also serves Anthony Main has already my home. Now the new there’s a new preservation their future. Preservation is become a lively entertain - preservation spirit here in spirit here. improving the livability and ment destination, and the the Twin Cities—and in other Preservation was a bit late economic vitality of older resi - ongoing renovation of his- communities across the in taking root here. To be sure, dential and commercial areas. toric buildings in the area, state—gives me new reason to In October 2007, the there were some important Vigorous smart growth initia - coupled with new construc - be proud. Twin Cities welcomed the early success stories: Citizens tives are fighting sprawl and tion, is sparking the emer - What’s happening here National Preservation rallied to prevent the demoli - encouraging reinvestment in gence of a real riverfront in the Twin Cities is mirrored Conference, which was tion of St. Paul’s historic court - older areas. Historic buildings neighborhood. The center - in other communities from based in St. Paul with house and turned it into Land - are being given innovative piece of the rebirth is the coast to coast. People every - forays into Minneapolis mark Center; and pioneering new uses—like the Grain Belt dramatic Mill City Museum, where are recognizing that, as and beyond for field efforts led by Weiming Lu Brewhouse, a former brewery housed in the shell of the our conference theme states, sessions and special events. transformed the area known that now houses offices, and building that was once the “Preservation Matters!” our Photo by ByrdWood. as Lowertown from an enclave Midtown Exchange, a former home of Betty Crocker. job—our challenge—is to of shabby warehouses into a Sears warehouse transformed Preservation in the Twin help more people realize it, to vibrant inner-city village. But into a huge residential/retail/ Cities still faces some chal - move preservation fully and these were bright spots in office complex. Both projects lenges, of course. Teardowns permanently into the main - an otherwise dark picture. have received awards from the are a problem in several stream of American life and Humorist Ogden Nash could National Trust. older residential neighbor - culture. For the next few min - have been thinking of the In the most dramatic hoods. Buildings on the utes, I want to describe for you Twin Cities when he wrote, turnaround of all, the long- Upper Post of historic Fort a major effort that will help us “Progress may have been a neglected riverfront has been Snelling are so dilapidated move toward that goal.

4 ...... 5 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ...... Sustainability tainly isn’t the solution to to dig a foundation and con - Initiative these problems, but it can struct a building—and all of Preserving and We’re launching an important be—and should be—an that embodied energy gets reusing sound older initiative to emphasize preser - important part of the solution. wasted when the building is vation’s role in addressing We all know that preser - demolished. buildings is what environmental concerns and vation offers a “smart growth” Here’s another important “sustainability” is in fostering sustainable design alternative to sprawl that point: Contrary to what many and development in America’s consumes land and other people believe, older buildings all about. communities. resources. By revitalizing a can “go green.” Many older ...... Our movement has gone traditional business district, we buildings already incorporate through many phases in its his - help reduce the demand for environmentally friendly sys - tory. In the early years, the new shopping centers that tems—like big, operable win - emphasis was on historical and devour open space and pro - dows that provide natural light cultural values; preservation - ductive farmland. By reinvest - and ventilation, for exam - ists saved iconic landmarks— ing in existing communities, ple—and these features still such as Mount Vernon—as we make wise use of the mil - work, and still make sense. patriotic shrines. Later, the lions of dollars already spent The marketplace now offers focus shifted to preservation’s on streets, utilities, and public a wide range of products that economic aspects; we preached services instead of abandoning can help make older buildings the dollars-and-cents benefits them and duplicating them in more energy efficient without of adaptive use, Main Street sprawling new developments. compromising the historic revitalization, and heritage Preserving and reusing character that makes them tourism. More recently, we’ve sound older buildings is what unique and appealing. And emphasized social values, “sustainability” is all about. there’s a large and growing stressing preservation’s value This isn’t a new concept: number of rehab/reuse projects in enhancing community liv - Decades ago, preservation was that offer good models of ability, combating the rootless - often cited as the “ultimate sustainable design and con - ness of modern society, cele - recycling,” and many of you struction. brating the contributions of may remember the 1980 With these facts in mind, diverse segments of our popu - Preservation Week poster that making preservation a key lation, and strengthening the represented the concept of component of the nation’s incorporate green technology bonds that unite and identify embodied energy by showing sustainability agenda is the in their rehab projects. Back in 1980, the us as Americans. an old building as a gas can. sensible thing to do—but it To get those things, we National Trust’s poster for Now we’re on the thresh - The word “sustainability” won’t happen unless we insist need facts and figures to back PreservationWeek old of a new phase, as growing didn’t appear on that poster, on it. We need changes in pol - up our contention that the illustrated the “embodied numbers of people are con - but that’s exactly what the icy at the federal, state, and greenest building is one that’s energy” in existing cerned about the degradation message was all about: It takes local levels. We need incen - already built—and gathering buildings—a key concept of the environment and our energy to make bricks and tives to encourage architects, that kind of data will be a that the Trust will relentless consumption of irre - steel and concrete, and more developers, and property own - big part of our Sustainability continue to promote placeable energy and natural energy to haul the materials to ers to recognize the principle Initiative. Here’s an example through its new resources. Preservation cer - a building site, and still more of embodied energy and to of what I mean: We’ll pull Sustainability Initiative.

6 ...... 7 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 our Sustainability Initiative, insist on the importance of ...... a model for similar surveys in we’re going to do some myth - preserving landmarks of Mod - It takes time for other communities. busting of our own. Take the ernism. Joni Mitchell sang it notion that old windows are less In 2002, just 39 years people to fully years ago, and it’s painfully energy efficient than new ones, after it opened, the innovative appreciate historic true: “You don’t know what for example. Most of us believe Guthrie Theater in Min - you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” We it—but according to a study neapolis appeared on our 11 significance and can’t let that song become a conducted by the National Most Endangered list. When artistic merit—but dirge for our legacy from the Center for Preservation Tech - preservationists were fighting recent past. nology and Training, it isn’t to save the Guthrie—a fight while art, music, and always true. We want to replace that we ultimately lost, by the literature can simply Recovery from myth with fact, because we way—one of the comments we Hurricane Katrina believe the facts are on our side. kept hearing was, “That the - wait for their day to Our Sustainability Initia - ater isn’t historic, it’s modern. come, unappreciated Finally, we’ll continue our tive aims to demonstrate that And it isn’t old enough for recovery work on the Gulf preservation is relevant, that preservationists to be con - buildings tend Coast. it really does matter. It will cerned with.” to disappear. It’s been a little over two together reliable sources of show that preservation makes One of the greatest chal - years since Hurricane Katrina A conference field information and develop for - sense—not just for the soul, lenges currently facing us is ...... devastated communities in session on Minnesota mulas that we’ll use to calcu - but also for the pocketbook persuading others that post- Mississippi and the city of Modernism highlighted late the embodied energy in and the environment. You’ll war architecture and land - Past and Modernism. The ini - New Orleans. I’m enormously Marcel Breuer’s an old building and compare be hearing more about this scapes do have historic signifi - tiative aims, among other proud of the National Trust’s Modernist buildings that figure with the amount effort in the coming months, cance and therefore are worth things, to produce a resource quick response to the disaster on the Saint John’s of energy required to demolish and I believe you’ll agree with saving. It’s not a new problem: guide for recognizing and pre - and of what we’re doing to University campus. it and put up a new building in me that it’s one of the most Many 19th-century Parisians serving the recent past, and to ensure that the region’s her - The National Trust its place. This will allow us to important things the National thought the Eiffel Tower was establish a network of commu - itage, culture, and distinctive has launched a new provide a direct comparison of Trust is doing today. an eyesore, and it hasn’t been nities and organizations with sense of place don’t get lost in initiative to promote the energy costs of rehab ver - long since Victorian buildings an interest in preserving Mod - the recovery process. greater appreciation sus building new—and should Preserving the Recent were considered ugly and Art ernism. Earlier this year, we Our field office staff, and protections for also provide new insight into Past and Modernism Deco wasn’t worth noticing, celebrated the public opening working closely with our local such significant the real cost of teardowns that much less preserving. It takes of Philip Johnson’s Glass partners and assisted by a small resources from the replace older, smaller houses While our Sustainability Ini - time for people to fully appre - House, the latest addition to army of volunteers, has done recent past. Photo with McMansions that are tiative is getting underway, ciate historic significance and our collection of Historic Sites an amazing job of coordinating by Christina Morris. more costly to construct and we’ll keep working on some artistic merit—but while art, and an icon of Modernism. In our work on the ground. Our maintain. issues that have already kept music, and literature can sim - New Canaan, Conn., where advocacy efforts helped per - Some of you have probably us busy for some time—issues ply wait for their day to come, the Glass House is located, the suade Congress to provide $50 seen a TV show called Myth - such as teardowns and the unappreciated buildings tend staff at the site and in our million in grants for historic busters , in which some com - threat to historic structures to disappear. Northeast Office have launched structures and to expand exist - monly held, so-called “truths” and cultural resources on pub - Now the National Trust a survey that will document ing tax credits to provide are shown to have little or lic lands, for example. is spearheading a new initia - 90+ architect-designed Mod - incentives for rebuilding and no basis in fact. As part of We’ll also continue to tive to focus on the Recent ern homes and landscapes as revitalization. Our inspection

8 ...... 9 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 demolish as many as 10,000 services, to expand the capa - tion movement over the years...... structures over the next year— bilities of our partner organiza - These changes show that ours including some buildings that tions, to create new sources of is a dynamic movement. It We’ve been working have already been rehabbed. funding—all to help you do remains rooted in a profound hard to alert As you can imagine, we’ve been the work of preservation better respect for history—but we’re working hard to alert unsus - in your community. I can sum not just hanging on to yester - unsuspecting pecting homeowners and con - it up in four words: This one’s day; we’re building tomorrow. homeowners and vince officials that you can’t for you. With your support, we’ll keep save a city by destroying it. In that connection, I working to help everyone in convince officials I look forward to the day have some good news: Thanks the country recognize the that you can’t save when there won’t be a need for to a generous initial pledge truth of our conference theme: another annual report on our from Henry and Virginia Preservation Matters!—and it a city by recovery work on the Gulf Sweatt of Wayzata and match - can make a real difference in the destroying it. Coast. I believe that day is ing gifts from others, we have appearance and livability of ...... coming, but it isn’t here yet— established the Sweatt Preser - communities all over America. and I want to reiterate what vation Fund for Minnesota, ...... I said two years ago: The which will award grants across National Trust is committed the state to make preservation Richard Moe is president of the to ensuring preservation-based work. This is exactly the kind National Trust for Historic Preserva - teams have helped prevent the recovery on the Gulf Coast, of thing we want to achieve tion. Field sessions in needless demolition of sal - and we’ll be there for as long through our campaign: to pro - St. Paul (above) and vageable structures. Our grants as it takes. vide the support you need— Minneapolis provided and technical assistance have including information and intriguing looks at helped a number of families Building Capacity to capacity-building as well as how older public, make their homes livable Do Even More money—to make preservation commercial, industrial, again—and their work has work in your community. and military buildings inspired others to rebuild. One more very important pre - You’ve been marvelously gen - and sites can be revived Recovery is moving at view of things to come: Earlier erous in the past, and I know or transformed. Photo an achingly slow pace, admit - this year, our Board of Trustees we can count on you to sup - by ByrdWood. tedly, but it is happening. unanimously voted to conduct port us in this exciting new Plenty of brave people are the second comprehensive effort. rehabbing their homes and fundraising campaign in the Everyone who works in businesses, demonstrating a history of this organization. It preservation knows that our determination to put their will be a three-year effort, with job is never done. We win communities and their lives a goal that will be considerably victories—happily, we’re win - back together—but they still larger than the $135 million ning more and more of them face an uphill struggle. we raised in our first campaign, these days—but there’s always Recently, in a misguided which took five years. Its aim a new challenge to face, a new attempt to “step up” the come - is to bring new and expanded opportunity to embrace. back process, the City of New resources to the field of preser - A moment ago I spoke of Orleans announced plans to vation—to strengthen field the changes in the preserva -

10 ...... 11 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 Next, the Congress. Trust—to lobby. While Preser - Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), From the beginning in 1975, I vation Action is a charitable the National Association of was guided to Capitol Hill organization—a 501(c)(4)— Tribal Historic Preservation Spearheading Preservation Action: by many preservation organi - its members cannot take Officers (NATHPO), and the zations. The San Antonio charitable deductions for their National Alliance of Preserva - My Personal Challenge Conservation Society sent involvement. tion Commissions. It has been me to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen; Preservation Action successful and has produced ...... Nellie Longsworth the Landmarks Preservation members stand ready to con - good legislative initiatives. Some great stroke of luck in there. But saving the Willard Council of Illinois sent me to tact their members of the Preservation Action‘s September of 1975 brought was a national problem ham - Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, House or Senate on national current president is Heather me to the office of Tersh pered by massive red tape. chair of the House Ways issues. Through letters, phone MacIntosh, a certified lobby - Boasberg, a public interest Then my phone rang and and Means Committee; the calls, and visits to Capitol Hill, ist who is well known on Washington lawyer and a it was two students from Smith Landmarks Association of preservationists share with Capitol Hill. The organiza - founder of Preservation College, my alma mater. The St. Louis to Rep. Dick congressional members the tion has 120 active board Action, where he offered me board of trustees had voted to Gephardt; and the Preserva - impact of legislation—positive members, representing 41 the opportunity to become the demolish the Alumnae Gym - tion Resource Center of New and negative—on their town, states. To keep its member - initial staff of the new grass - nasium to make room for a Orleans to Sen. Bennett city, and state. The organiza - ship current on national roots lobbying organization. modern library addition. The Johnston; and others to Sen. tion is currently developing issues, Preservation Action I let him know that I knew 1891 gym had been donated to Paul Tsongas, Sen. Patrick programs to broaden the produces a weekly legislative absolutely nothing about two the college by alumnae and Leahy, and Rep. John Seiber - activities of members to newsletter that provides things—historic preservation was the site of the first ling. All of these outstanding engage Congress in their “reader-friendly” information and the Congress—but it women’s basketball game. members understood and sup - work in the states through about the Congress and fed- didn’t seem to phase him. While no longer useful for ported preservation, and their tours, in-district meetings, eral agencies and includes How to start? I quickly physical education, the build - staff clued me in on the press activity, celebrations interviews, with photographs, realized that preservationists ing had features that could be process, always emphasizing highlighting the value of of important members of both are passionate. I had heard of incorporated into the library that grassroots support was a federal policy, candidate the House and Senate. To those who chained themselves addition. The battle to save key to success. forums and surveys, and inter - learn more go to the website: to bulldozers to prevent a tear - the building was difficult, last - views with legislators. www.Preservationaction.org. down, so I had to find a pas - ing for months and requiring A Grassroots Partner Some years ago, NCSHPO sion for preservation. In Wash - many trips to Northampton. for the Historic and Preservation Action joined Preservation Successes ington, D.C., I was concerned We were a small group of ded - Preservation forces to have a Preservation Since 1975 about the Willard Hotel— icated alums who were tested Lobby Day, in early March, for empty for 18 years with rain in many ways but finally Movement briefings and lobbying on Over the past 30 years, we pouring in through its shat - achieved a victory. Features Preservation Action was Capitol Hill. As many as 300 have seen a growing recogni - tered roof and broken win - from the gym have enhanced founded to be a grassroots people have come to the tion that historic preservation dows. I could be passionate the library in many ways, lobbying partner of the exist - nation’s capital, representing works! In the ’60s and ’70s, about the Willard as it was including providing an excit - ing preservation organizations. local communities, states and there was little that could where lobbying began in the ing space where trustees meet In 1975 the law seriously tribes, and the memberships be done as the bludgeoning days of President Lincoln and, and special events take place. I limited the ability of chari- of Preservation Action, the interstate highway program coincidentally, my parents had was now passionate about table 501(c)(3) organiza - National Trust, the National destroyed our cities, replacing spent their wedding night preservation. tions—such as the National Conference of State Historic historic neighborhoods with

12 ...... 13 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 sprawling lanes of concrete. cal resources for easement pro - Environmental Policy Act. In ber of Congress on a tour of ity that happened in 2002. A ...... However, with the initiation grams that keep the family addition to the national a rehabilitated building. The meeting on a cold snowy day of the federal historic rehabili - farm in agricultural use rather partnership, the American project was known as “The in January at the Society for The changing tation tax credit in 1980, we than becoming a box church Cultural Resources Associa - Tax Task Force” and included Historical Archaeology was attitude about had a tool that created an or a treeless grouping of tion, the Society for Historical a weekly update: “Tax Task attended by representatives of incentive for the reuse of his - ranchettes. And we have Archaeology, and the Society Force News.” The response a number of organizations and historic buildings has toric buildings and brought expanded preservation respon - for American Archaeology was incredible. The historic agencies concerned that farms been enhanced by the people back downtown to live sibilities in federal, state, and joined in the successful effort rehab credit survived and was with historic and archeologi - and work. The rehab credit local governments and the that left both laws “unaltered.” one of a very few business cal sites were being sold and partnership of many has been a great success since private sector through amend - credits retained. demolished to make way for groups working 1980: It has leveraged more ments to the National Historic Proving That shopping centers, housing, and together at national, than $33 billion in communi - Preservation Act of 1966 in Grassroots Lobbying Life After Preservation big box churches. There were ties of all sizes, as underused 1980, 1992, and 2006. Can Succeed Action no incentives to preserve his - state, and local levels. historic buildings have become The changing attitude toric farmland so farm acreage, ...... handsome offices, rental hous - about historic buildings has The historic rehabilitation tax I retired from Preservation barns, and historic homesteads ing, and retail space. been enhanced by the partner - credits were enacted in 1980 Action in 1998 to turn the were disappearing at an alarm - Federal agencies also began ship of many groups working and were successful from the gavel over to a younger presi - ing rate. to see the value of historic together at national, state, and beginning in transforming dent. However, I have not left We examined current preservation. The Federal local levels. At the federal shabby historic buildings into the field! I am a government programs in the United States Highway Administration has level, the National Trust, the exciting office space and rental affairs consultant for the Department of Agriculture poured millions of dollars into National Park Service, housing. Credit use moved American Cultural Resources (USDA) and noted that the the transportation enhance - NCSHPO, NATHPO, the smoothly until 1986 when Association (ACRA) and the Farm Protection Program ment program since the early Advisory Council on Historic President Reagan and the Society for Historical Archae - (FPP) had an easement pro - 1990s, a program that includes Preservation, and Preservation Congress pressed for major tax ology (SHA) and, among gram that was available for historic preservation as an Action are in contact on issues reform which called for the other ventures, have moved farms with “prime, unique or eligible enhancement. The as they arise. elimination of all tax credits, historic preservation into the other productive soil” and success of this can be seen in Vigilance is also a including the historic rehab farm bill. The issues are the “furthers a State and local the rehabilitation of vacant requirement in working with credit. same for professionals in the policy consistent with the railroad stations into a wide the Congress and the federal This would have been a fields of cultural resource purposes of this program.” The variety of community uses. government. It was quite a devastating blow to preserva - management and archeology light bulb went off…we could The General Service Admin - surprise in 2005 when the tion and, as Preservation and the memberships have add just five additional istration has actively rehabili - House Natural Resources Action’s president, I decided proven to be a strong partner words to the eligibility clause: tated and reused its historic Committee announced legis - to test the success of grassroots in the grassroots efforts on “contains historical or archae - buildings and has made the lation to limit Section 106 lobbying. I scheduled break - Capitol Hill. ological resources.” It would case that the older buildings responsibility for federal fasts, lunches, and dinners for become a voluntary program are more energy efficient than agency projects to only those tax act users with the assis - How an Idea Can for farms listed in or eligible many of their newer structures. properties already listed in or tance of our members in major Become a Law for the National Register. The Since 2002, we have seen the eligible for the National Regis - cities from coast to coast. I easement would be “in perpe - federal agriculture programs ter. At the same time, the traveled to 20 cities in 6 weeks Lobbying the Congress is good tuity” and the owner would include the eligibility of farms same committee began action asking those using the credits fun and very rewarding. Let’s agree to never divide or with historic and archeologi - to seriously limit the use of the to write, call, and take a mem - examine a real lobbying activ - convert the land to non-

14 ...... 15 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 agricultural or development the House bill, accepted by the use. To compensate for the Senate, and became law. The easement, the farmer’s land program is working well and would be reevaluated and the in the years 2005 and 2006, Celebrating the City farmer would be compensated 155,000 acres with historical for the loss of value with pay - and archeological resources ...... Garrison Keillor ments from the USDA (50 are now protected in perpetu - percent) and the easement ity. Some of the outstanding I’d like to welcome you to the belittling comments about us holder (50 percent). The easements include: city of St. Paul. We know that and even say mean things and farmer could choose to make • The Sabbathday Lake we were not your first choice make fun of us, so we would a donation of up to 25 percent Shaker Village, New Glouces - as a convention city. We know like to look down on you of the value, reducing what ter, Maine. that you hoped to go some - before you have a chance to the easement holder will pay. • Wilson’s Creek National place more historic and better look down on us. That’s the The Society for Histori - Battlefield, Springfield, Mo. preserved, someplace like reason for that. cal Archaeology wanted to • DeHaan Ranch, Menard, Venice or Stockholm, but you Now, if you are in trouble go to the Congress with this Mont. are here, so make the best of here, if your car got stuck in a proposal. As their consultant, • Dan Fife Farm, Merrimack it—just as we do. snow drift, there would be a I scheduled a full two days County, N.H. You’ve come, as you can dozen people who would of meetings with staff of • Averasboro Civil War ...... see, at a glorious time of the spring to your assistance, but members on the House and Battlefield, Harnett County, year in Minnesota—the best this has less to do with charity Senate Agriculture Commit - N.C. time of the year absolutely to and more to do with demon - tees, including a session with • Phipps Mill Creek Site, walk around our city, when strating a command of the sit - the staff of the House Conser - Cherokee, Iowa we’re in the golden period of uation. vation Subcommittee of the • Weikert Farm, Gettysburg, autumn and the beauty of the I had a lot of misgivings Ag Committee. Pa. trees and this crispness, dry - about coming and speaking to All went well, including • Harewood Estate, Charles ness of the air makes up for the you today because I have just our meeting with the subcom - Town, W.V. flatness of the people whom turned 65 and I am sensitive mittee staff. After thank-you you will meet here. We are not about this, and it hit me hard ...... notes had been sent, I phoned a particularly warm or friendly when it happened. I was hop - each of the staff we had met Nellie Longsworth, founding president people here in Minnesota. ing to postpone it for a while. with. Almost everyone liked of Preservation Action, is now a gov - Some people are, but they And I would like, now that I the idea but had higher priori - ernment affairs consultant. She tend to be overmedicated or am a senior citizen, to start ties, which is a “no” in Wash - received the Louise DuPont Crownin - not from here, actually—pos - working against type and shield Award, the National Trust’s ington. Then a call to the staff highest honor, at the 2007 National sibly from Wisconsin. maybe dye my hair a light blue of Rep. Leonard Boswell (D- Preservation Conference. We try to be friendly, but and get a nose plug and wear IA) brought the news that we don’t really mean it high-heeled shoes and do the congressman would offer because we’ve learned to be scandalous things. this as an amendment in the leery of strangers, especially Coming to the Ordway House Agriculture Committee strangers who come from else - Theater and talking about his - mark-up. The amendment was where. We suspect that you are toric preservation strikes me as accepted, it was included in going to go home and make a geezerish thing—so I just

16 ...... 17 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ...... want to say at the outset here dows, and it’s depressing. became a suburb. that I love my cell phone. I And when people pro - When I was a kid that old I believe that we do love e-mail. I adore chat boxes pose to tear down the gaudy Carnegie Library was the sym - have a moral duty ... and I love hanging out with and the eccentric and the bol of freedom, and even if we people in their 20s who let me monumental and the brash didn’t say so, we knew it. You to preserve the do this because I always pick and the exuberant in favor of had the freedom of your own grandeur and the up the tab. And I love to hear depression then we are obliged imagination. Even in a small about their romantic entangle - to fight back in behalf of exu - town on the prairie in the beauty and the ments and about their career berance. It’s our duty. It’s a way 1950s a young person had free - extravagance of the dilemmas and so forth. I’d of proving that we have eyes, dom of imagination, and the much rather listen to them that we have a brain, and that nobility of this was spoken past which gives than listen to people my age we live here and we care what loud and clear by this building grandeur and beauty talk about their 401Ks and cal - it looks like, even if the people with its great high dome and cium supplements. making the decisions do not. its columns in front, the great and extravagance But I am 65. It is a fact, I grew up in a little river ceiling and the grand win - to our own everyday and so I have some sense of town north of here that was dows. It was irreplaceable and history that I can’t erase, and I gutted in the ’60s and ’70s by it was historic, and it was lives which we believe that we do have a vandals in suits and ties. Kids taken down to make room for dearly need. moral duty, especially to peo - with cans of spray paint were an ugly bank which was no less same way as the Allies applied ple in their 20s, to preserve the unable to accomplish a tiny and no more ugly than 85,000 urban renewal to the city of ...... A thriving city offers grandeur and the beauty and fraction of the damage that other banks across America. Dresden. There were whole grand buildings that the extravagance of the past businessmen could when it The books were moved to blocks of grand old buildings evoke shared civic pride which gives grandeur and came to sheer destructiveness. this little squat brick ware - that simply disappeared, and alongside welcoming beauty and extravagance to Within a few years the old house a block away, a little skyways were put in to try to places where all types of our own everyday lives which Carnegie Library was torn building with casement win - make downtown as much like people can relax and we dearly need. down in my town, a temple dows—which was my town’s a suburban shopping mall as interact. Photo courtesy of books, and the old fire way of saying don’t get ideas, possible, and blocks that were of St. Paul RCVA. What We’ve Lost barn went and a couple of you’re no genius, you know once a series of little individual fine churches and the county that. You’re from here, so storefronts became this brutal America went into a dark courthouse—this big, high- here’s your library. It was concrete-and-steel wall that age of architecture about 50, shouldered brick building with depressing. terrifies you after the sun goes 60 years ago when buildings a great high steeple above the St. Paul is a city that once down. started to be designed by elm trees that sat in the middle had a very handsome bustling There were once blocks accountants. And we have yet of an old square with sidewalks downtown jammed with traf - of little factories. There was to fully emerge from this, coming in from the corners fic, streetcars, and department a barrel factory and a pickle although retro architecture is a and park benches where peo - stores, which took a dive dur - factory and machine shops. nice start. People in America ple sat. It all went down in a ing the suburban exodus of the The doors opened. You could shop and they work and they big pile of bricks, and it was ’50s and ’60s, and then during see men bent to their worship and they go to school replaced by an enormous brick the 1970s tried to make itself machines on a summer day. in interchangeable buildings warehouse, and that was when suburban and went through There were printing plants that are warehouses with win - my hometown died and urban renewal in much the and a dairy and a millworks

18 ...... 19 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 I loved the downtown little company, had just three be. They were country people. ers on. There’s less room for streets that barely exist any - employees, all of them related They were not city people. grandeur in our day because more, with all of the little to him, and they made sugar They were used to canning the word “corporate” has come storefronts, all of the little wafers and peanut brittle and their own vegetables and to mean homogenous and shops, each one individual. he went around selling it to killing their own chickens, repressive and dull. Each shop had a proprietor groceries and drugstores. My and they practiced a religious Our buildings are designed who was there looking out Uncle Lou had the sunniest faith that was not mainstream, by people who don’t live here, at you hopefully through the disposition of anybody in our so they were suspicious of for companies that are part of big windows, and as you family. He was happy to chat much that was in the city. enormous conglomerates whose walked along the streets of up anybody, strangers or any - They did not aspire to wealth management could not care downtown you could feel it. body, amiable with all who or prominence of any kind, less what it feels like to walk You could feel the power came his way. He was of no and yet in one generation they around St. Paul. Then there’s of all of these individual entre - particular political persuasion became proud of the city in the government, which is a preneurial dreams—a scary that he would ever care to which they lived because it whole separate problem, thing, a scary thing that men tell you about. He just liked had grandeur to it. It was which used to go in for and women who knew the people, period, and he sold a something! grandeur but now evidently Depression and had seen what lot of candy and he caused a My father was a railway has had enough of that and could happen to little busi - lot of tooth decay. mail clerk and he came to now gives us this series of Stal - and a lumberyard and the tan - nesses. Nonetheless, they He was the storyteller in work at the Union Depot. The inist buildings that would not Grand buildings make nery and, of course, the rail - decided to go into hock and our family and I listened to grandeur of the Union Depot be out of place in East Berlin. people proud of their yards. It was a time when take the chance, open the him tell stories every Saturday was not lost on my father. He city. St. Paul’s Union architecture had a great vari - shop, get the aunts to come night, usually the same ones loved to take us in to work The Grandeur—and Depot was designed ety and eccentricity, when and work for you, hire the over and over again—which is through the front door and Eccentricity—of the to proclaim the there was a certain public joy - nephews, get grandma to the true test of a storyteller, the show us that great high ceiling. City fulness of spires and columns work, do whatever you found ability to repeat yourself. And This beautiful building said importance of the and stonework and ironwork, to do, sell Coney Island hot whatever I have done in this that railroads were crucial to Now, what hurt downtown St. city’s railroads to its and everywhere you looked, dogs, sell coffee or dry goods line of work was an attempt to St. Paul and if you worked for Paul, of course, was the exodus citizens and visitors. you saw little physical sou - or men’s hats or luggage or carry on in the tradition of an them, even if you did menial to the suburbs, an inevitable Photo courtesy of venirs of the old country that religious books or whatever, old candy salesman. work, your work had nobility thing. The suburban urge is St. Paul RCVA. the immigrants longed for, so and in the process of opening I believe that when you and meaning. not hard to understand, the they put it into their buildings. your shop to develop the degrade the city—when you The airport has none of desire for serenity and for pri - It had its virtues, the kind of amiable good manners flatten things and take out all that whatsoever. The airport is vacy and a green, pleasant world that I grew up in. I don’t that encourage customers to of the color and the variety a shopping mall with some place populated by people want to see it return. I don’t come back, salesmanship, the and you make it into a series long hallways that lead you to pretty much like yourself— want to go back to the time earliest school of etiquette and of warehouses with windows— portable hallways that lead and not the sort of yahoos and before the polio vaccine, culture. you depress the Uncle Lous of you onto planes. The adven - weirdoes and hot dogs that you thank you very much. But it My Uncle Lou Powell the world and you change our ture of flight is nowhere to be might run into in the city and did have its virtues, and some was the entrepreneur in our culture. I believe that he and sensed in the airport. You just who might glom onto you and of these virtues are starting to family and when I knew him others in our family were have a lot of metal detectors you might have a hard time come back around in the form he owned a candy company, inspired by their surroundings and conveyor belts to put your shaking them off. of retro architecture. Ada Claire Candies. It was a though they didn’t mean to shoes and your laptop comput - I love the old garden sub -

20 ...... 21 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 urbs of the cities, but suburban ple. The internet chat room The Power of Public people need to come to town does not take the place of this, Life too and get into a crowd and of the boulevard, of the town We are preservationists. We see who else lives in this world square, of the preening and the are proud preservationists. We other than middle-class peo - strutting and the parading and believe that beautiful places ple, and that is what down - all of the courtship behavior of are easily destroyed and not town is for. young people. easily replaced. We honor the Grandeur is fabulous, but We have now outlawed craft and the vision and the a city needs street life as well. smoking in bars. I am not sure exuberance of old structures. It needs places where people that this is a good idea, though We believe that American go to eat lunch on the cheap I am an ex-smoker of 20 years. cities are the soul of our coun - and to ogle girls and to flirt I just wonder if we are going to try. Rural America is not so with strangers and to drink outlaw profane speech next or different from rural France or and to dance, and places speech that is demeaning or rural Germany, or the forests where you could go off and marginalizing, and then we of Sweden, but Chicago and neck if you wanted to. might as well all move to New York and Los Angeles And most of all to be in Omaha. and St. Paul and Milwaukee a crowd of odd people and to What is life, what is the are uniquely American. get the hubbub and the action city if we are not allowed to be When I decided to open a tent. I am all in favor of retro and the noise and the smells, stupid and tasteless? There has bookstore a couple of years ago architecture. I do not grieve Cities are full of offbeat and bump into people and to be a place to do that. I did it because I had found, I for the buildings we have lost. places that offer the enjoy accidental encounters, Rice Park is a beautiful thought, the perfect place to There simply is not time to possibility of unexpected amazing conversations that place. An hour or an hour and do it. It was the cellar of the grieve for them. I am 65 years encounters. Mickey’s you overhear parts of and then a half in Rice Park is always a old Angus Hotel of 1887 with old, after all. Diner, a St. Paul repeat for the rest of the day, pleasure and an inspiration. I limestone walls and skylights Our country is beset with institution, was featured where you can see all of the life go there on a summer day and in the cellar which look up to problems to which I have no as a gathering place in the of the city, the pathetic and watch kids splash in the foun - the sidewalk. Upstairs there’s a answer whatsoever. I have no film A Prairie Home the disturbing and the unbe - tain. But it would be a livelier coffee house where students handle on things at all. We Companion . Photo by lievable. and a better place if they had and young writers and other are in the midst of a dreadful ByrdWood. Minneapolis does better not torn down the old bus people, I have no idea who war which shows no signs of at this than we do in St. Paul. depot nearby. Bus people bring they are, sit and write at laptop resolving itself. We are in You go down Hennepin something to a city. Most great computers or on legal pads, the midst of great economic Avenue on a weekend night American writers were bus rid - and they tap away and people uncertainty. People I know no and there are crowds of young ers at one time or the other, so flirt with each other and they longer have any clue as to people who want to get drunk when you move the buses off look across the room at each what their house might be and meet each other—young to the outskirts of downtown it other under these great, high worth these days. This house people who come to the center means that the great St. Paul 1887 windows. that they live in which had of town as people have been novel may not be written, or It’s a beautiful place. I been their great annuity, this coming to the center of town when it is, it won’t be about St. don’t care what goes inside old was their gold mine, and now since God was a child in order Paul any longer. buildings. I’m all for rejigger - they’re not sure at all. to meet mysterious other peo - ing them to your heart’s con - There has been an enor -

22 ...... 23 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 mous degradation in civil powerful fools from destroying constitutional rights in our the grandeur and the beauty country. There is a miserable that we already have. Don’t let punitive attitude toward immi- them do it. Don’t let them do grants in our midst. Mean - it. Thank you very much. Making the Preservation Message while, the polar ice cap is ...... Resonate with Donors shrinking, we read the other ...... Jay Steenhuysen day, by a million square miles, Garrison Keillor is the author of more and who knows what will hap - than a dozen books, including Lake I am really grateful to be here to raise funds for preservation? pen. Scientists who have been Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, because I love the preser- What if I had to communicate studying it for decades are Love Me, and Homegrown Democ - vation movement and I’m the way I feel about historic rat . He is also the creator, host, and bewildered by all this. writer of A Prairie Home Compan - one of the people who has sites? What would I need to But no matter what hap - ion and the Writer’s Almanac heard benefited from all the hard know to make it possible? pens I am in favor of public life on public radio stations across the work that you do. Some of the and public grandeur and high country. most wonderful times in my Engage the Emotions spiritedness as a general tonic life were spent running for the burdens of life and as around Mackinaw Island with First of all keep in mind that a way of showing our young my family and seeing those all fundraising is emotional. people, who are always prone old buildings and being at All the quantitative analysis, to grumpiness and to morbid- Fort Mackinaw and hanging all the designs, all the projec - ity, that we are, all of us, after around my grandparents’ 100- tions, all the endowment, all all is said and done, we are year-plus old farm. This was the tax planning is secondary. Americans and we have this before there was ever Antiques People make large chari - history of eagerness and opti - Roadshow , trying to find the table gifts for emotional rea - mism and amiability, hospital - treasures that my mother and sons and we need to be pre - ity, exuberance. You can see it my two aunts had not already pared to appeal to our donors in our history. The old court - put stickers on. on an emotional basis. It’s not house across the street was not And when I think about the structure, it’s the story. designed by despondent peo - preservation, when I think People will be persuaded as ple. So lighten up. Lighten up. about being at Mackinaw their emotions get caught up The city, this great city, a Island and other historic sites, in the experience. place with so many stories, a I get a really warm feeling Think about all the other place of mystery and intrigue, a inside. It’s comforting to be causes that you compete with. place where we come to find there. It’s a place that really Where do you feel like you’re something, including some delivers the experience of missing out? Well, that cancer things we have no word for, consistency. story is so emotional. That some things we weren’t plan - So I’m going to start from poor child overseas is emo - ning on—so urban planning is a personal standpoint, with tional. How do we compete problematic. It’s hard to plan the feelings I have about with that? There is a solution, mystery, but at least, at the preservation. What would I do and we’ll get there. very least, you and I can keep if I were in your shoes and had

24 ...... 25 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 Identify the Donor’s can connect with and find them that opportunity. those unspoken expectations ...... Motivations ourselves able to communi - 4. Another motivation is to reach that broader audience. Let’s look at the fundraising cate clearly about the preser - that people want to be role We need to find ways experience you create for your vation ethic, because they models . Some individuals Consider Age to connect the donors. Our donors are not share that with us. want to make gifts because Differences going to be solely persuaded 2. The next motivation they want to encourage others emotions of our sites by facts. It’s going to be their is legacy . Sometimes when to give. The preservation And finally, giving can be to our donor prospects, experience of our sites, the people make a charitable gift match is specifically about age driven. People have partic - experience of their philan - it’s not about you but it’s about that. Those donors are excited ipated in philanthropy over because the more they thropy that is going to per - their personal legacy, and it about creating opportunities the decades and we’ve tradi - feel the more they’re suade them to make these takes two forms. One, the to get others involved in tionally approached donors gifts. I have sat with individu - internal one: their desire to philanthropy. regardless of their age the same going to give. als who would never betray make a gift that makes them 5. Next are stakeholders . way. That is starting to change ...... their emotions anywhere else feel they’ve made a difference Those are donors who want significantly. Donors who are but in their philanthropy. in the world and that touches to cause change and are inter - in their 70s and older grew up People find that giving gives their desire for significance. ested in creating leverage and in an era when making chari - them permission to feel. We The other is more external: knowing that they’ve made a table gifts was an obligation; need to find ways to connect They’re looking for that more difference in society. giving back to society was the emotions of our sites to public legacy and they want 6. Another motivation is something that they needed to our donor prospects, because to make that gift to declare values . Values-driven donors do. Our message for those in the more they feel the more to others that they’ve made a want to see a specific set of that senior age group should be they’re going to give. difference in the world. beliefs or a specific set of val - one of helping them fulfill that Some of the biggest moti - 3. Another one is family . ues perpetuated in society. obligation. vations for giving are unspo - People make charitable gifts Think about how they can For the population aged ken. We tend to look at our because of their family. There connect with your preserva - between 65 and 75, it’s really sites and then look at the out - are a number of donors who tion site, your mission, to fur - about significance and the cul - come of what we’re providing, would give to your organiza - ther extend their set of values. ture. The time that they lived and think that’s motivational tion and give to your site if we 7. And then lastly there through has caused them to for the donor. I’m persuaded, could find a way to bring their are those who want to be want to know that they’ve having worked with many children and grandchildren experts . When I shared these done something significant, so high-net-worth individuals, into the process. We need to ideas at the National Trust you need to tie your site and that there are at least seven show how they would benefit board meeting in Albuquerque your organization to their per - unspoken motivations when from being connected to your I had one board member say, sonal sense of significance. it comes to philanthropy. site or to your organization “Exactly. My connection with And then lastly the baby 1. The first is the obvi - because their concern, their the National Trust is because boomers are always concerned ous. People are motivated by unspoken desire, is to create a it’s a group that helps me about culture. charitable intent . They see a platform of conversation and become smarter about the So considering the purpose that they’re passion - use philanthropy as a commu - preservation issues I’m pas - unspoken motivations and the ate about and they want to nication tactic within their sionate about.” age needs of donors, we need give to it. And those are the family. The values that your So we need to think about to ask, What’s the opportunity people that we immediately organization represents give our donors in the context of out there?

26 ...... 27 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ...... Prepare to Tap a donors and get them involved First of all, it addresses the will have these resources to by preserving culture we are First of all, our Golden Age of in the preservation move - objection that we’re all about work with together to find its providing a hope for the Philanthropy ment? There are three impor - the past. We’re not. We’re own message of culture. future—then we’ll make it message about tant messages that we need to about the future, and how And lastly, it addresses possible that one day the preservation needs to We’re entering a golden age think about when we’re craft - we’re about the future is that the issue of hope. Preservation preservation movement will of philanthropy, and I know ing our communication to we create the opportunity to is about hope for the future in actually be overfunded. And be future oriented. people think we’ve been in it donors. First of all, our message take great examples of our that we are collecting these that would be a good thing. Second, it has to for quite some time, but we’re about preservation needs to society, and that experience of stories, we are collecting these ...... address a big idea. actually coming into an age be future oriented. Second, it something important in our experiences at these sites and when there will be more has to address a big idea. And culture, and preserve that as a putting them together to cre - Jay Steenhuysen is a philanthropic And third, it must giving than has been done at third, it must be hopeful. message and give it as a ate resources for future genera - planner whose work with high-net- any time in history. And that So given that, what’s a resource to future generations. tions to talk about, to have a worth families during the last 20 years be hopeful. giving is going to be driven preservationist to do? I’m The really big concern conversation about culture, to has made him a leading resource in this ...... field. Copyright Jay Steenhuysen, primarily by wealthy donors. convinced that preservation among major donors right now be able to experience commu - 2008. Major gifts are going to be is not about the past. I am is where our culture is heading. nity together, and to engage important, because we have convinced that preservation There’s this pervasive sense each other to discover and shrinking capacity within the is about the future. Preserva - that our culture needs positive develop the future genera - middle class, and more and tion is about looking forward messages; it needs to regain its tions’ culture. more we’re going to have to and capturing what has hap - sense of community; it needs I am really excited about rely on those significant gifts pened in the past for the sake to regain this place for a con - the preservation movement. I from major donors to keep our of future generations. If his- versation where we can come think it’s extremely important organizations going. tory were about the past, it back together in community. because it provides a neces - And the other key mar - would only have to be written This also addresses the sary resource for the next gen - ket for philanthropy in this once. History is rewritten misperception that preserva - eration. I think we have a period of time is going to be with every generation because tion is not urgent. Preserva - great opportunity to commu - bequests. We’re going to see a it’s adapted and communi - tion is very urgent because nicate with our significant large transfer of wealth from cates to that culture impor - our culture is deeply in need funders as long as we share one generation to the next in tant themes and messages. of positive messages about with them that our preserva - the next several decades, and The preservation move - culture. tion work is a message about being able to tap into that is ment is about securing the We’re about capturing the future, it’s a story for com - going to be critical to bridge sites that are vessels of com - those stories and carrying munity and a basis for conver - the financing that organiza - munication, vessels of hope to them forward into future gen - sation, and it’s an example tions need. the future. We no longer erations. Each site captures that gives hope to the future should look at what we’re pre - that story and works together and to future generations. Communicate a serving as capturing this in the in this great mosaic of collected So I’m persuaded that—if Positive, Compelling past, but it’s about looking for - sites to tell a broad story about we are able to 1) work with our Message ward for future generations our culture and the positive donors and discover their and preserving the story that a messages, the positive experi - expectations, 2) be age appro - So with those donors and that place tells and the values that ences, of community that priate in our messaging to our opportunity in mind, what do it communicates. we have had together. With donors, and 3) craft our mes - we need to do to capture more Why is that important? these, the next generation sage around the big idea that

28 ...... 29 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 to share some fresh ideas on the principles on which his - Valuing Heritage: Re-examining toric preservation should be founded. In a standing-room- Our Foundations only session, the speakers Dr...... Brenda Barrett Randy Mason from the Uni - versity of Pennsylvania, Dr. There is growing recognition ment and specifically for his - Daniel Laven from the that the heritage of this nation toric preservation. However, National Park Service’s Con - provides an important part the expanding scope of the servation Study Institute, and of our sense of self, our com - movement also challenges Dr. Carroll Van West from munity, and our identity as a our understanding of what is Middle Tennessee State Uni - people. Along with this grow - included as part of our her - versity synthesized their find - ing appreciation, there are itage, and more critically, how ings and research on new expanding notions of what we define what is significant. directions in the field and makes up our individual and The question of definition is heard powerful stories and collective heritage and new of particular importance as it ideas for new approaches from ideas on how to value the has implications for what is the attendees. contributions that heritage officially recognized, what Starting the discussion on specifically defined signifi - makes to our nation. These projects may receive assis - valuing historic places, Randy cance, as for example Mount By working to protect a changing perspectives are tance, and in some cases what Mason summarized his work Vernon’s association with whole cultural landscape, discussed in the Advisory will be preserved as our legacy by noting the many ways a George Washington in his role not just selected buildings, Council on Historic Preserva - for the future. This issue was resource can be valued. While as a founder of the nation. and by exploring the tion’s recently issued Findings thrown into stark relief by the economic value of a his - This limited view sometimes distinctive history and and Recommendations of the the devastating impact of Hur - toric property is often the casts the success of the preser - culture of an under- Preserve America Summit ricane Katrina on the historic default position for the general vation approach as a contest reported people (African (August 2007), based on the properties and rich culture of public or property owners, the in which one party wins and Americans on the meeting held in New Orleans the Gulf Coast and New historic value is often the focus others lose. Mason asked the southern East Coast who last October. The summit Orleans in particular. of those involved in historic audience to think about preserve traditions from gathered a wide spectrum preservation. This does not endangered places that they West Africa), the Gullah of the cultural community National Preservation take into account other per - care about, to identify the Geechee Cultural including representatives from Conference Session spectives that may include the many values that might be Heritage Corridor the arts and humanities and cultural, environmental, or associated with them, and to illustrates new trends in from the many federal agen - To broaden the discussion on social values of a place. Advo - craft a solution to protect preservation thinking. cies that contribute to the defining and valuing the role cates for preservation can ben - them that includes the inter - Photo courtesy of the federal historic preservation of heritage resources in our efit from understanding this ests of multiple partners. Not - National Park Service, program, as well as a special nation, the National Trust for multivalent approach to the ing that the National Trust National Heritage Areas. Youth Summit, which added Historic Preservation brought value of place. had done an admirable job of some needed perspective to together a panel of academics Traditionally historic pre- engaging other partners in the the “usual” cast of practioners. and conference participants servationists have looked at a preservation dialogue, he chal - All this is good news for at the 2007 National Preser- historic resource as having a lenged the field to continue the cultural heritage move - vation Conference in St. Paul

30 ...... 31 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ...... to be more outward looking, serves to break down some of the his optimism that this is more strategic, and more polit - The question of natural barriers that people set changing, noting how the ically engaged. up. So getting that story out there National Register of Historic Coming from the disci - definition is of but not trying to sugarcoat it Places, the most widely recog - plines of natural resources and particular importance is important. There’s a lot of nized framework for evaluat - conservation practice, Daniel bad stuff. But you know what? ing the significance of her - Laven of the National Park as it has implications It’s what we are, and it deserves itage resources, has over time Service reported on his recent for what is officially to be told. That’s what this really shown an ability to adapt to research evaluating National is about.” new scholarly questions. Heritage Areas. He observed recognized, what Laven concluded that to These include reconsidering that effective heritage conser - projects may receive be empowering, the storytelling what are the significant pat - vation and preservation has to acknowledge the whole terns in our history as well requires thinking on a larger assistance, and in story and be intellectually hon - as including more voices, scale than is the usual practice. some cases what will est. It has to engage people and working closer to the ground, Operating on a landscape or communities thematically and to explore what is historically regional scale then means be preserved as our not be constrained by political significant, particularly at having to work in partnership, legacy for the future. boundaries. If done in the right the local and state levels. since successful, long-term ways, the story of a region can New scholarship enhances heritage preservation and ...... develop a network of heritage- our ability to consider stewardship exceeds the based partnerships similar to an resources that are less than capacity of anyone actor or people across boundaries and ecosystem approach and build 50 years old and to address organization. This partnership generations. As a resident in an area’s heritage capital. It sets challenging and controversial approach sparks innovation the John H. Chaffee Black - up a climate that encourages topics. Definitions of signifi - past matter. by bringing together multiple stone River Valley National and amplifies new ideas. cance can incorporate rural The attendees built on The John H. Chafee perspectives and leads to new Heritage Corridor said 1: The Preserve America regions, cultural landscapes, the panelists’ remarks, chal - Blackstone River Valley solutions. He noted that one “It’s telling the stories. Summit in New Orleans pro - and resources of under-reported lenging the preservation com - National Heritage Corridor of the keys to successful her - Today, it’s the same situation vided a venue to begin the groups. munity to make heritage part tells the story of the birth itage area initiatives is the as last century. You keep getting re-examination of our foun- West emphasized the of sustainable development and development of formation of partnership net - different waves of immigrant dations. Carroll Van West value of making history part of for communities, for example America’s industrial works. These networks give groups coming in. But guess recalled his early training at our national dialogue as well in the newly designated Gul - revolution at the water- strength, resiliency, and oppor - what? Although they’re doing Colonial Williamsburg with its as part of our everyday life. By lah Geechee National Her - powered textile mills of tunities for innovation. different jobs, they’re all probably emphasis at that time on an being committed to the truth itage Corridor, and to tell Massachusetts and Rhode Most importantly, his in the same mills facing the aesthetic vision for historic and by asking for input from the painful tales of human Island. It is the desire to research shows that telling the same experiences and facing the preservation. The inability to the people who live in the exploitation such as the present that story that links story of a region is the most same prejudices as previous change direction and to see the community, preservation will Tuskegee Syphilis experi - the heritage area’s diverse essential step in engaging immigrants. It’s a very common complexity of the stories of our become more relevant and ments. The importance of partners. Photo courtesy of partners and communities. In experience and we find that when past still perplexes and holds make a difference. He called telling the whole story struck the National Park Service, all three of the areas he stud - we delve into the different tradi - back some elements of the his - on preservation practitioners a chord with many, who National Heritage Areas. ied, storytelling was critical in tions, there’s such a huge tory and historic preservation to develop reciprocal partner - told their own special stories. building a sense of community commonality when you get these fields. ships to move these issues into Others talked about recogniz - and pride and in linking groups together. I really think it However, he expressed the mainstream and make the ing the landscapes of work

32 ...... 33 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 and wanted to look at our ment of resources, and is more country’s heritage resources centered on people and sense through a wider lens. They of place than on the features of expressed hope that this dia - the built environment. One logue begun in the session of many outgrowths of the Root Shock and the Gulf would continue, as the preser - broader view of heritage is the ...... Mindy Thompson Fullilove vation community faces what importance of narrative—“the may be its most critical ques - story”—in describing and con - I am a social psychiatrist. This self-expression. Among African tions over the next decade.... necting people to their (and field of psychiatry is interested Americans and Hispanics What are the values we are other people’s) heritage. These in understanding the ways in the crucial displacement was working so hard to preserve? are the discussions that need which the organization of related to the destruction of How do we define them? And to go forward to prepare the society affects mental health ghetto neighborhoods as a who is the “we” that is doing way for the next 50 years. and mental illness. My own result of federal, state, and the defining? ...... work focuses on cities. I got to local policies. this work by a somewhat cir - The spread of AIDS is A Broader Perspective Brenda Barrett is the director of recre - cuitous route, beginning in also affected by secondary poli - Going Forward ation and conservation for the Penn - 1986 with studies of the cies of neglect, which are sylvania Department of Natural AIDS epidemic. 1 Although themselves tied to the forces In nine years our most seminal Resources. the Human Immunodeficiency that created displacement. legislative charge, the National Virus, the virus that causes Gay men and people of Historic Preservation Act of NOTES AIDS, actually travels from color—especially if poor—are 1966, will celebrate its 50th 1 Tuxill, J., Mitchell, N., Huff - one person to another, its easily shunted aside and mar - anniversary. Anniversaries are man, P., Laven, D., Copping, S., voyage is determined by social ginalized in U.S. society. always a time for reflection and Gifford, G. Reflecting on policies that affect where and Unfortunately, public health and renewal and there are the Past, Looking to the Future: how people live and how pre - interventions are distributed Sustainability Study Report. A signs that reveal, on the Technical Assistance Report to the vention and treatment are by wealth and power, not ground and in conferences John H. Chaffee Blackstone River managed in those places. I need, so the neediest people such as the Preserve America Valley National Heritage Corridor would like to bring my reflec - are the least likely to get the Summit, a much larger and Commission . Woodstock, Ver - tions on the AIDS epidemic disease prevention help they more expansive definition of mont: Conservation Study to bear on the recovery of the require. Three case studies of Institute. heritage values than are found Gulf Coast after Hurricanes organizational response to under the current rubric of Katrina and Rita. AIDS helped me understand historic preservation. An The spread of AIDS in this in more detail. Organiza - expanded definition is emerg - the United States, as it turns tions were slow to respond to ing that encompasses the out, is closely tied to displace - the epidemic, and interven - natural and cultural as well ment. 2 Among gay men, this tions were often disorganized as the historic values of the displacement was from home - and always underfunded. Stigma landscape, recognizes living towns all over America to directed at gay men and drug communities and diverse tra - the gay ghettos in major cities users interfered with the deliv - ditions, uses heritage values, that offered both relief from ery of health care, prevention broadly writ, for the manage - homophobia and freedom of information, and prevention

34 ...... 35 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 the neighborhood, nested in Mr. Jenkins lived in a renewal and landed on the ...... the city, nested in the state, “wired” neighborhood that “criminals,” “drug addicts,” nation, globe, and universe. In took care of him in many ways. and other people who were I learned that the best of circumstances, The loss of that neighborhood “bringing down” the neighbor - upheaval can be places would interact in a was devastating. Listening to hood. This is a shift of the col - manner that supports the well- him describe the uprooting lective gaze toward criminals repaired. But, as with being of all people and other and dispersal of his neighbor - and away from the marginaliz - the AIDS epidemic, living creatures around the hoods and his terrible, linger - ing processes that structure globe. In good places, people ing sorrow about the loss of his American society. Neighbor - the policies and social look out for each other, gov - home, I came to think of this hood recovery is nearly impos - processes that led to ernment tries to share kind of violent uprooting as sible from the position that resources equitably, and the causing “root shock”—the says, “The criminals did it.” destruction of a vulnerable are protected from traumatic stress reaction to the neighborhood are not predators. Good places are loss of all or part of one’s emo - “Recovery” in the Gulf “wired”; that is to say, people tional ecosystem. likely to support its are densely interconnected I learned that upheaval The parallels between the repair afterwards. and it is easy for them to follow can be repaired. But, as with AIDS epidemic and urban ...... tools. Many marginalized peo - what is going on with one the AIDS epidemic, the poli - renewal are these: Marginal - Figure 1: The “wiring” ple were left to suffer. Time another. This helps them to cies and social processes that ized people were most vulnera - of a working and time again, cultural rules solve problems, supervise chil - led to destruction of a neigh - ble; they were blamed for neighborhood connects trumped public health advice. 3 dren, take care of the weak, borhood are not likely to sup - causing the troubles; and help everybody. Follow the As a psychiatrist, I was fasci - and support the ambitions and port its repair afterwards. In was inadequate and disorgan - lines to find the nated to observe the ways in creativity of all. I drew a studies of urban renewal in five ized, adding insult to injury. connections that make which society created policies “wiring diagram” in Figure 1 American cities—Newark, We can identify this process in “let’s do lunch” possible. that put people at risk, and which captures the idea of this N.J.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Roanoke, the post-hurricane disaster then blamed people for being complex interconnectedness Va.; St. Louis, Mo.; San Fran - response in the Gulf. Hurri - at risk. people describe in good places. cisco, Calif.—I found that canes Katrina and Rita, and In many ways, the story David Jenkins, a man functional poor neighbor - the flooding of New Orleans, of AIDS is a story of “what not who lost his boyhood home to hoods were destroyed in the caused massive damage to an to do when faced with a big urban renewal, has spent many name of “progress.” 5 The poor enormous area. In the immedi - problem.” hours exploring this idea of did not have a voice in decid - ate aftermath of the catastro - But what should be done? place with me. On one occa - ing on the “progress.” The seri - phe, disaster relief was slow, sion, he drew a map of the spe - ous losses they endured were inadequate, and disorganized. How Places Should cial places in his childhood written off as the “costs of But what emerged immediately Work neighborhood: the resources of progress,” often summed up in was a counter-proposal to people, animals, food, and the quip, “You have to break a full emergency intervention. In order to answer that ques - learning that made the neigh - few eggs to make an omelet.” What emerged was the idea tion, I have studied how places borhood work for him. In Fig - Over time, the blame for the that the poor would make bet - work. 4 Places are like nested ure 2, I have indicated some of degradation of collective life ter “progress” if they never dolls, with home as the small - these special resources he devolved from the policy-mak - went back home. They could est and most central, nested in marked on his map. ers who instituted urban be “mixed in” in cities like

36 ...... 37 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ond anniversary, the outlines the city plans to demolish the fund was started in 1966 with ...... of recovery were quite clear. area and then developing tools $100,000 from the Sarah The French Quarter was doing for invigorating the neighbor - Scaife Foundation. Manches - I have noticed that well, wealthier neighborhoods hood without displacement. ter has benefited from the preservationists tend were working, and landlords The tools that they devel - fund, as have other neighbor - were benefiting from major oped were quite remarkable. hoods. Other the years the to appreciate place. increases in rent. Meanwhile, One of the most important is fund has grown. Now it is They understand poor and working people were that Ziegler and Van Trump a major funding source, pro - stranded in other cities or have always worked in part - viding loans to more than what a historic site trailer camps or, if they had nership with the Manchester 30 Pittsburgh neighborhood adds to the workings managed to get home, were neighborhood. Many commu - organizations. suffering because schools had nity groups are engaged in the On its website, Pittsburgh of the modern world. been slow to reopen, few bus work. The local people are History and Landmarks Foun - Preservationists have lines were running, and rents part of what is happening dation describes its achieve - had gone through the roof. there. It makes Manchester ment as demonstrating that skills in working for Though media continue to feel like a safe and welcoming “grassroots, nonprofit historic stabilization of place, talk about the “progress” being home for those who settle preservation … can be a cata - made in the Gulf, the real there. lyst for urban renewal” rather than its progress stopped when the real A second important tool (www.phlf.org/global/mission. destruction. estate scam started. is the inventory of neighbor - html). I would say that its ...... hood structures, which resulted work demonstrates that hon - Preservation Can in a series of maps that docu - esty is the best policy. Rather Promote a Better Way ment everything in the neigh - than using doublespeak to dis - borhood. These maps are place and impoverish the poor, Preservationists can point to a not hidden in a vault. They PHLF has used participation, just and beautiful alternative, are living documents, used transparency, and commit - Houston and Atlanta, their the Manchester neighborhood by community leaders in ment to create new vitality in Figure 2: “Good Things” children could go to better in Pittsburgh. Arthur Ziegler their every day of restoring abandoned urban areas. A make a place work: schools, and the adults could and James D. Van Trump, co- the neighborhood. I vividly brief glimpse of this powerful David Jenkins’ map of benefit from being near founders of Pittsburgh History remember the maps from a work can be obtained on his boyhood home in wealthier people. In the mean - and Landmarks Foundation, 1998 visit. What struck me YouTube (www.youtube.com/ southeast Philadelphia. time, the land they had began their work in historic then was that the maps created watch?v=VI2mJz7KGOM). vacated would be redeveloped preservation in 1964. 6 While a shared understanding of Arthur Ziegler and James for the benefit of wealthier working through the historic the neighborhood and gave Van Trump demonstrate the people. Manchester neighborhood, transparency to the redevel - kind of savvy that preserva - This false “win-win” they realized that a beautiful opment efforts. tionists bring to American effectively stopped the recov - and historic community was A third element is that cities. I have noticed that ery from the emergency and threatened with destruction. they were able to develop a preservationists tend to appre - set in motion a displacement They worked with community revolving loan fund which ciate place. They understand scenario that is still playing residents to preserve the helps to provide money for what a historic site adds to the out. By the August 2007 sec - neighborhood, first defeating building and renovating. This workings of the modern world.

38 ...... 39 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ...... Preservationists have skills in observations suggest that most injured “here” and the dis - NOTES working for stabilization of of the injury gets swept under placed “there.” Furthermore, 1 Levenson J. The Secret Epidem - I recommend place, rather than its destruc - the rug, hidden out of sight, it should be understood that, ic: The Story of AIDS in Black tion. They understand how to and covered over as “progress.” without a resolution of both America . New York: Pantheon; a task be added 2004. reach the general public and The residents pushed out of “here” and “there,” no recov - to the work of they are willing to stick to the the way are stranded—like the ery is possible. 2 Wallace R. “A Synergism of task until it is done. Most poor from New Orleans who Many may think this is Plagues: ‘Planned Shrinkage,’ preservation societies, Contagious Housing Destruc - and that is the American cities are in desper - are suffering in trailer parks. an extreme statement. After tion, and AIDS in the Bronx.” ate need of such leadership. As At that moment, recovery all, if the French Quarter is Environmental Research preservation of was the case in Pittsburgh, stops, as it did when land spec - functioning, isn’t that some 1988;47:1-33. enlightened leadership from ulation trumped rescue in the progress in the Gulf? I am the whole story and 3 Fullilove MT. “AIDS and preservationists can have a Gulf. A society that sits in arguing that the apparent Social Context.” In Ellen G. the big picture. major effect on the substance limbo, pushing the vulnerable recovery signified by the Feigal Alexandra M. Levine, of urban life. out of the way and then leav - reopened hotels and restau - and Robert J. Biggar, editors...... ing them in pain, is a society rants in the French Quarter is AIDS-Related Cancers and Their Treatment . New York: Marcel Acknowledging and that has created a substantial an illusion. The history and Dekker; 2000. p. 371-385. Addressing Root weakness in its internal con - culture of the city remains in nections. diaspora. That it will be irrev - 4 Fullilove MT. “Psychiatric Shock Implications of Displacement: This affects all organiza - ocably lost seems highly likely, Contributions from the Psychol - Root shock, like other kinds of tions, whether they are bowl - given the deep commitment of ogy of Place.” American Journal of traumatic stress, is a very ing leagues or preservation many levels of government to Psychiatry 1996;153(12):1516- painful experience. The pain is societies, because all organiza - a vision of “progress” that sim - 1523. not resolved in a day or a tions are forced to work from ply tries to eliminate the poor. 5 Fullilove MT. Root Shock: How week. In fact, it can endure for incorrect assumptions about If preservation of the Gulf is an Tearing Up City Neighborhoods decades. Once a neighbor - the nature of our problems and important task, then it must Hurts America and What We Can hood has been destroyed—its the possible solutions. Mis- confront the complex reality Do About It . New York: Ballan - wires cut and residents dis - information poses enormous that the Gulf is spread all over tine/One World; 2004. persed—the synergies of that hazards. America. Visionaries, like 6 Moe R, Wilkie C. Changing settlement are lost to all of us In light of that, I recom - Ziegler and Van Trump, can Places: Rebuilding Community in forever. The shock reverber - mend a task be added to the find solutions even to prob - the Age of Sprawl . New York: Owl Books; 1999. ates far beyond the local area work of preservation societies, lems as complex as this. Let to touch caring people every - and that is the preservation of us give them our utmost where. It is not a coincidence the whole story and the big support. that many preservation organ - picture. This implies learning ...... izations came into being in the to look at landscapes in a new aftermath of the massive urban way. The wanton destruction Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, is renewal projects of the 1950s. of historic neighborhoods has on the faculty of the New York State Reasonable people saw the cleared out what was there and Psychiatric Institute at Columbia destruction and decided to it has created new uses of other University in the Division of Social Psychiatry. She is the author of Root stop it. spaces. The new set of con - Shock: How Tearing Up City Neigh - At the same time, my cerns should be about both the borhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It.

40 ...... 41 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 mate, sun, and slope all affect soil chemistry and micro- ...... taste. Arugula, lettuce, and climate on crop or livestock bok choy taste different in composition and flavor. The “taste of place” The Taste of Place Cuba and in Vancouver, as a While terroir expresses reflects the first-hand tasting of the prod - the flavor, the word also ...... ArlinWasserman ucts of two farms showed. describes a group of foods unique qualities I want to thank you for moments that built or chal - When we taste a unique from the same region and shar - of each small and welcoming a foodie to close a lenged our country or that flavor, it triggers memories as ing the same type of soil, conference about historic commemorate the contribu - surely as when we see a weather conditions, variety, special place preservation. While all that tion of a single person or a famous building or hear a and production savoir-faire, on the earth. has gone on this past week has historic movement. The sig - popular song. We think of the which contribute to give its focused on our senses of sight nals can be subtler. When I first time and the last time we specific flavor profile. Some ...... and sometimes hearing, we lived in rural Michigan, the tasted something similar, of might argue that it also close with a focus on taste. It’s remnants of barns and farm - when we visited a winery or includes history, tradition, the an interesting choice and one houses in the midst of Sleeping milked a cow or went into a continuous ownership of a that makes me wonder why I Bear Dunes National Park told bakery, or the friend or parent farm through generations, and am here to close the confer - stories both anonymous and who cooked food for us when other considerations. ence. So let us start with some meaningful of settlers who we were young, or the sense As proponents of historic of what we’ve considered over came west and settled near the of the sea and spray as we preservation, we also under - the last several days. lakes to clear and farm the slurp down an oyster. stand the meaning of market - What qualities make up land until the soil gave out and ing. In that spirit, I would offer the identity of a place? What the snows grew too deep. “Terroir,” or Regional a more poetic sense of terroir: is it that tells our senses that In Alabama, the vision Flavor The “taste of place” reflects it is unique? What signals tell of outsider artists working in the unique qualities of each small us the quality of a place, its Gees Bend with paint, fabric, The ability of a place to shape and special place on the earth. authenticity, and its meaning? metal, and the discarded rem - the flavor of food at levels that Soil, climate, and the skilled hands We can look at the architec - nants of society have redefined are deeper and more subtle of artisan farmers differ from ture and how the buildings an area once shaped by the than simply choosing species one side of the hill to another. The facilitate the life of the com - legacy of slavery, segregation, and variety is called “terroir” same seeds—chardonnay grapes munity. We can look at how and poverty. in French, roughly translating or the humblest of beans—taste a community’s streets and We see, we listen, we to “a taste of place” in English. different because of these influ - structures sit on the land - remember, and we understand Terroir denotes the special ences. Our industrial economy scape, and take in the views the sense of place. characteristics that geography wants us to believe that all foods from porches, street corners, But what about taste? bestows upon food. It embod - are the same—yellow corn, win - and tall buildings. Can that most magical of ies the sum of the effects that ter wheat—but when we learn We look for signals about senses also help us understand the local environment has to taste and discern we can savor its history. As a Philadelphia the meaning and uniqueness had on the manufacture of the the taste of sun and mist and native and now Washington, of a place? Does flavor capture product. To soil scientists and rich earth. D.C., resident, I know that meaning? agronomists working in land When you bring together sometimes a single building or Simply put, yes. Food per - grant universities across the the authentic foods of a place, a town square is iconic and sistently expresses the place country, it is the influence of you assemble a kind of heritage brings to mind the great where it is grown. Soil, cli -

42 ...... 43 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 palate of flavors. In the Emilia Union’s special designation genomic technology, which Romagna region of Italy, as geographically identified, other countries don’t permit, where Parma is located, you foods must stand on three pil - and because of the challenges can offer a delicious meal that lars: location, genetic authen - of preserving the pedigree of a brings together parmesan ticity, and artisan production food item as it moves through cheese, parma ham, and a methods. Bringing this into many hands in a global supply bottle of Lambrusco made the kitchen and then to the chain. Put simply, if one is not from the region’s grapes. table, we can look at the three careful, in the U.S. corpora - It’s a bit like Garani - qualities that make up authen - tions can effectively own the mals ™, the children’s clothing tic pizza: the use of tomatoes “name” of a place and prevent of my youth, where you are grown in the soils of the San producers from that area from sure to assemble a good- Marzano region, mozzarella gaining the value inherent in looking outfit by matching made from the milk of tradi - their location. the labels on the sleeves and tionally bred water buffalos, In other words, in the waists of your clothing. Make and the artisan method of European Union, we know sure the clothes you’re wearing cooking in a wood-fired oven that parmesan cheese was all have orange lions or blue until blackened blisters appear made in Parma, Italy, from monkeys and you’re sure to on the crust. milk produced in that region, please. One thing you can hear while in the U.S., we know on the other side of the that Philadelphia Cream From the European per - “Geographically Atlantic is that Guinness Cheese, named after my home spective, geographically iden - Soil, climate, sun, and Identified Foods,” doesn’t travel well, meaning town, was made by Kraft. tified foods are more than just slope can all affect the taste of a crop. That’s why “Local Foods,” and that when the beer travels That all said, U.S. con - about country-of-origin label - from Ireland to the United sumers are in favor of country- ing. The Union proposed that the same type of lettuce Brands States, something is lost in of-origin labeling, or knowing 43 foods be initially protected grown in Cuba and In the European Union, the the flavor and during the voy - the nation that produced each under world trade accords, Vancouver will taste tags on foods are ones of age. Geographically identified item of food. More than 80 with a method for other coun - different. Photo by Arlin geographic identity. Some of foods also don’t “travel” well. percent of Americans want tries to petition for more. Italy Wasserman. Europe’s best-known geograph - In the United States, such labeling to be mandatory, also has about 300 more foods ically identified foods include there’s a host of forces that and are more likely to buy food poised for designation while France’s champagne, a work against a sense of geo - grown in the U.S. and pay a Asian countries about 500 sparkling wine made from graphic identity. There are premium price for it (National additional. grapes grown in the eponymous laws around commercial Farmers’ Union Survey, Janu - Preserving this informa - region; Italy’s parmesan cheese speech and who owns the ary 19, 2004). Official policy, tion is a challenge in the com - and parma ham; and Greece’s names of places. Branding fueled by concerns about the plex U.S. food supply chain, feta cheese and kalamata takes up some of the mental safety of Chinese imports, now one that stretches to Latin olives, along with another space that Europeans associ - is following opinion, although America, China, across 50 recipe for olives flavored with ate with place. There’s a bias earlier the current administra - states. One response to the kritamo, a wild fennel growing against preserving geographic tion opposed origin labeling lack of identity has been the along the shores of Crete. identity because foods in the when the U.S. experienced its U.S. “Local Foods” move - To receive the European U.S. are grown using trans- first cases of mad cow disease. ment. Its strongest proponents

44 ...... 45 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 products are everywhere. A place, how can we create an For the well-being of ...... brand is the mark of the maker American “Taste of Place”? farmers and agricultural com - and an indicator of quality The first step is to identify and munities, the premium price Like the best of and consistency. The first cultivate diverse producers, may be the most interesting brands, place is an branded food products were artisans, and crops that all item in that list. So here taste invented in the 12th century evoke unique local taste. In is a way to increase differen- attribute that is in Schabziger, Switzerland. each region, it will take a com - tiation of products and create unique and intrinsic, There, a cheese maker created mitment to local flavor and new price points and experi - Sap Sago ®, a hard grating exceptional quality. This must ences. Like the best of brands, and one that allows cheese formed into small come along with a willingness place is an attribute that is consumers to infer cones. Branding became more to embrace the miracle of the unique and intrinsic, and one popular with industrialized 24/7 supermarket model, rec - that allows consumers to infer meaning and express standard production. For those ognizing that almost every meaning and express their their identity. concerned with animal wel - family relies on the modern identity...... fare, we should note that live - grocery store for food and that As this conference ends stock branding is unrelated, asking people to go out of their here in Minnesota, we are very its origin based on the other way and make additional trips aware that winter is just meaning of “brand” to describe to farms and farmers’ markets around the corner. That was a hot stick. will interest a relatively few the inspiration for Hemming - By creating a branded households. We must also rec - ford in Quebec’s Napierville would argue that “local” product, you convey a host of ognize that in countries where Valley, previously known as Some savvy consumers means grown within 50 or 100 meanings: quality, safety, and this works, private and public “The Wastelands.” The com - now visit farms and miles of your kitchen table, a trustworthiness. If done well, programs work together to munity of 1,703 now pro - farmers’ markets to seek definition grounded in local brands can provide a sense protect the “taste of place.” claims the slogan “Country out locally produced economics and reducing the of authenticity along with tra - In the end, the food must Flavors and Historic Roots.” foods. But for a regional distance food travels between dition, and cultural and indi - be appealing, both good tast - It’s where Breton traditions “taste of place” to catch farm and table. But for most vidual identity. You can give ing and also offering a propo- meet the Northwoods through on, such foods should be people local has a more vis- consumers a place in the sition that consumers can the artisan production of iced readily available at stores ceral meaning, if less accurate. world and an emotional con - understand and appreciate. cider. This is a beverage that where more people shop. Surveys, polls, and purchasing nection with brands such as This includes a unique flavor, blends the tradition of hard habits all show that when con - Harley Davidson and Star - offering a premium experi - cider production carried by its sumers say they want local bucks. These are many of the ence at a premium price, and French immigrant population food, they really want food things that community and recognizing that most con - to its bounty of apple orchards. that is made using artisan and place can also mean, and this sumers blend both local and The province has worked with authentic practices, either is the core of the challenge locale—or an authentic sense growers to cultivate a new arti - grown nearby or from some - before us. of place—in their minds. san food industry. To be a part where they’ve heard about. Again focusing on the con - of it, growers must adhere to They value production meth - Toward an American sumers and their sense of per - specific iced cider definition ods rather than place. “Taste of Place” sonal satisfaction, it’s about and standards. Mostly, consumers respond building interest in food itself, Iced cider is a beverage to branding. Branded food Within our branded market - and not farming practices. produced through the alco -

46 ...... 47 F ORUM J OURNAL W INTER 2008 ...... holic fermentation of the the commodity farming model juice of pressed frozen apples. that urges farmers to increase The value we truly This juice should have a nat - production as a response to gain from this ural sugar concentration of at both low and high prices and least 30 Brix (a measure of both abundance and scarcity, taste of place is sugar content) before fermen - rather than responding to mar - one of preservation tation and a residual sugar ket signals like most other content of at least 130 grams businesses. Thinking about of rural working per liter after fermentation. Garanimals, it also values landscapes, culinary Finally, its alcohol content many kinds of food and not must be greater than 7% and just one, promoting both crop traditions, and less than 13% per volume. Ice and nutritional diversity. It is a agricultural cider production must follow model that resists scaling up specific standards, the prod - and instead favors replication communities. uct must have a unique taste across all communities, sup - ...... profile, and the producers porting traditional growing must cultivate their own practices and production apples and conduct all their methods. own pressing, development, ...... and bottling on site. The value we truly gain Arlin Wasserman is the founder of from this taste of place is one Changing Tastes, a consultancy that of preservation of rural work - provides brand strategy and manage - ing landscapes, culinary tradi - ment consulting to food companies and community organizations that market tions, and agricultural commu - sustainable and artisan food products. nities. We begin to create a He is a recipient of a Food and Society market that trades in place and Policy Fellowship, funded by the W.K. culture not commodities, Kellogg Foundation, through which he where the value is created by explored food marketing practices across the world that emphasize place. who and where, not just how He is the vice president of corporate cit - much, and from culture and izenship of Sodexho, a Paris-based hos - history. Taking a step back, pitality company whose 340,000 food becomes one more path employees help make it the world’s to building a local economic leading food service provider. engine fueled by tourism and built around farming. Place also transforms our farming economy by creating value that helps farmers make the profits on margin, not vol - ume. This is the opposite of

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