Heritage Matters
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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HERITAGE MATTERS NEWS OF THE NATION’S DIVERSE CULTURAL HERITAGE Historic Preservation in the Aftermath of Katrina INSIDE THIS ISSUE Brian D. Joyner affected most, often diverse was destroyed. Other Mississippi National Park Service Conferences communities, are often the least towns such as Pass Christian and upcoming, p. 10 able to afford it. Bay St. Louis were devastated, with Internships, p. 4 Natural disasters take a heavy toll New Orleans, a city already 6 homes moved off of their piers and on a community. Human casualties feet below sea level, was overrun supports damaged to the point of National Historic Landmark and damage to property are the by the category-5 Hurricane collapse. Add to it the cumulative designations, p. 4 most obvious. The economic Katrina. Homes in low-lying, damage inflicted by Rita, and the National Register impact usually comes to mind and primarily African American, need for expertise on the best way nominations, p. 6 afterward. The loss of buildings, neighborhoods such as historic to preserve and protect resources Tribal Preservation sites, or districts due to the event the Lower Ninth Ward were caked became apparent. Officer list, p. 9 seldom receives a great deal of in mud and received massive Many preservation-related consideration. However, in the case water damage. However, Biloxi, agencies and organizations of the 2005 hurricane season, the Mississippi, was nearly washed pooled their resources during impact on the southeast’s cultural off of the map, losing landmarks the hurricane season to assist heritage was immense. With 26 such as the Pleasant Reed Home, storm victims. The American storms and 13 hurricanes this the house of a prominent African Institute of Architects (AIA), the season, the states along the Gulf American in Biloxi during the late Federal Emergency Management Coast, which include Alabama, 1800s through early 1900s, and Agency’s (FEMA) Environmental, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Beauvoir, the home of Confederate Historic Preservation, and Texas, were battered repeatedly President Jefferson Davis, where Cultural Resources Programs, over the six-month period. Those more than half of the property See KATRINA, page 11 Vann House, connected to the Cherokee Trail of Tears in Georgia, was recently listed in the National Register. See page 7. HERITAGE MATTERS This historic commercial building at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Magazine Street in the New Orleans Garden MARCH 2006 District illustrates the severe damage caused by both wind and water during Katrina. African American-owned proper- ties were particularly hard hit throughout the Gulf Coast. Photo courtesy of Carlos Sanchez, Quinn Evans/Architects, Washington, DC. HERITAGE MATTERS MARCH 2006 primarily in Isle Brevelle in lower NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Natchitoches Parish by the end of the 18th century. ACTIVITIES In Isle Brevelle, free people of color financed and built St. Creole Focus: HABS returned to Natchitoches Augustine Catholic Church in 1803, HABS Photographs at the behest of the Cane River although the current building dates National Heritage Area Commission to the 20th century. St. Charles in Natchitoches, to augment the documentation Chapel, on the other hand, is Louisiana produced during the initial HABS notable for its role as a “chapel effort. of ease” for area residents (a Virginia Price In 2002 and 2004, HABS chapel of ease is a church built National Park Service photographed public and private within the bounds of a parish buildings used for religious, for the attendance of those who In the 1930s, the nascent Historic commercial, and domestic cannot reach the parish church American Buildings Survey purposes. Many of these are Creole conveniently). As a mission of (HABS) arrived in Natchitoches, in character, proportionate to the St. Augustine, the chapel was Louisiana, and recorded examples sampling of architectural styles erected by people of color for a of the parish’s distinctive Creole seen throughout the parish and to predominantly white congregation. architecture for what would become the numbers of extant structures St. Augustine Historical Society the HABS collection at the Library associated with the Cane River now owns the Badin Roque House, of Congress. The sites selected by Creole community. The Cane River which briefly served as a Catholic HABS were located in town and Creoles are the descendants of the school from 1857 to 1859. This along the Cane River. One of those gens de couleur libre (free people house is a rare survivor of those places, Oakland, is now part of of color) who shared a mix of buildings erected with poteaux en the Cane River Creole National French, Spanish, Native American, terre (posts in the ground) and Historical Park. Seventy years later, and African ancestry, and settled Roubieu-Jones House, also known as the Carroll Jones House for the man (a free person of color) who bought it in the 1860s, is the oldest extant, fully raised Creole house in Natchitoches. Courtesy of Jack E. Boucher, HABS. page 2 (Left) St. Charles Chapel, in Natchez, Natchitoches Parish, sits just across from Beau Fort Plantation and served the Bermuda community after its dedication in 1910. Courtesy of James Rosenthal, HABS. (Right) Stunning in its appearance, the Africa House at Melrose Plantation reflects the cultural continuity between enslaved African Americans and their West African antecedents. Courtesy of Jack E. Boucher, HABS. bousillage (a mixture of moss and and her association with these raised Creole house, expresses mud). places lends the architecturally this overlay of Anglo-American Secular places, along with the significant structures a cultural traditions through a large, spiritual, weave a communal fabric credence. Research related to the central staircase leading up to through Isle Brevelle and beyond. property she owned between 1786 the gallery. The location of the Examples are the two juke joints and 1816 is ongoing. Preservation staircase suggests a central hall photographed by HABS. Juke work at Melrose continues as plan, common in British North joints, such as Woods Hall and well. One building on the Melrose America by the second quarter Bubba’s, were places of leisure for grounds is Africa House. This is of the 18th century, rather than the Creoles, offering music, games, a masonry and cypress structure the Creole vernacular. Yet, at the racing, and gathering spots in a remarkable for its appearance top of the central stair, multiple segregated era. as well as the murals within that portals of a traditional Creole In recognition of the parish’s were painted by the folk artist house confront the visitor. Fully predominantly agricultural Clementine Hunter over the course developed, national architectural character, the HABS photography of 50 years, from the 1930s through trends did make their appearance assignment covered piece-sur- the 1980s. The murals themselves in Natchitoches, but the Creole piece cabins, plantation stores, record the rhythms of life in Cane buildings are what provide a outbuildings, a cotton gin, the River—ceremonies, entertainment, focus for photographers intent former slave and tenant farmer and cotton agriculture—whereas on capturing the essence of a quarters at Magnolia Plantation, the image of Africa House, with culturally diverse place for the and Creole houses along the Cane its ties to West African building archive of American architecture. River. The sample also included traditions, was quickly seized by For more information on HABS documentation National Historic Landmarks such those anxious to find evidence of work at Cane River, contact Virginia Price at as Melrose, a plantation created Africanisms surviving slavery within [email protected]. by Louis Metoyer in the first half the African Diaspora. of the 19th century. Metoyer was The significance attached to the a free person of color born to a form of Africa House is, in part, the Frenchman, Claude T.P. Metoyer, legacy of the Louisiana Purchase, and an enslaved woman, Marie after which Anglo preferences Therese. infiltrated Natchitoches, and spilled Marie Therese is considered the over on the parish’s vernacular matriarch of the Cane River Creoles architecture. One dwelling, a fully page 3 HERITAGE MATTERS MARCH 2006 A 2005 CRDIP intern stands at a • Tule Lake in Modoc County, gravesite honoring William Anderson California, was the largest and with her intern coordinator and Army officers at Fort Drum, NY. longest-lived of the 10 camps Courtesy of Laurie Rush. built by the War Relocation Authority to house the nearly resources and historic preservation. 120,000 Japanese Americans This is part of a larger effort by the relocated from the West Coast during World War II, pursuant to National Park Service to diversify Executive Order 9066. In 1943, the cultural resources field. With the facility was converted to a the cooperation and generous maximum security segregation support of partners, the program center for evacuees deemed by continues to grow and succeed in the WRA to be “disloyal.” providing interns with rewarding experiences. The program will • The Hitchcock House is the cosponsor 10 to 14 interns during home of the militant anti-slavery the summer 2006 and 2 to 4 interns leader of the Congregational Church mission in western Iowa, during the semesters 2006–2007. Reverend George Hitchcock. He For more information, visit the website http:// www.cr.nps.gov/crdi and click “Internships.” used his home to assist in the safe passage of fugitive slaves through Cultural Resources southwestern Iowa on their NHL Designations way east and north to freedom Diversity Internship during the mid-19th century. The Program Recently, 19 new sites were Hitchcock House, a part of the designated National Historic NPS’s National Underground Michèle Gates Moresi Landmarks. Four of the sites have Railroad Network to Freedom, National Park Service particular significance to diverse illustrates the geographic reach of communities: the Granada and the Underground Railroad and its During the summer of 2005, the Tule Lake Relocation Centers, expansion westward.