Management Plan 2013
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Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area Management Plan 2013 Housattonio c River, Kenene t,, Cononneccticiccut. PhoP tograph by the Houo satoninic Valll eyy AssAss ociiatiion. Prepared by: Upper Housatonic Valley Heritage Area, Inc. June 2013 24 Main Street PO Box 493, Salisbury, CT 06068 PO Box 611 Great Barrington, MA 01257 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Purpose and Need 1 2.6.2 Connections to the Land 15 1.1 Purpose of this Report 1 2.6.3 Cradle of Industry 17 1.2 Definition of a Heritage Area 1 2.6.4 The Pursuit of Freedom & Liberty 19 1.3 Significance of the Upper Housatonic Valley 2.7 Foundations for Interpretive Planning 21 National Heritage Area 1 Chapter 3: Vision, Mission, Core Programs, 1.4 Purpose of Housatonic Heritage 3 and Policies 22 1.5 Establishment of the Upper Housatonic Valley 3 National Heritage Area 3.1 Vision 22 1.6 Boundaries of the Area 4 3.2 Mission 22 3.3 The Nine Core Programs 23 Chapter 2: Foundation for Planning 5 3.4 The Housatonic Heritage “Toolbox” 28 2.1 Legislative Requirements 5 3.5 Comprehensive Management Policies 30 2.2 Assessment of Existing Resources 5 3.5.1 Policies for Learning Community Priorities 30 2.3 Cultural Resources 5 3.5.2 Policies for Decision-Making 32 2.3.1 Prehistoric and Native American Cultural Resources 5 Chapter 4: Development of the Management Plan 33 2.3.2 Historic Resources 7 4.1 Public Participation and Scoping 33 2.4 Natural Resources 9 4.2 Summary of Issues Raised in Scoping 33 2.4.1 Geologic Resources 9 4.3 Management Scenarios 34 2.4.2 Geographic Area 9 4.3.1 Scenario 1: Continue the Nine Core 2.4.3 Ecosystems 10 Programs 34 2.4.4 Conservation Areas for Public 4.3.2 Scenario 2: Catalyst for Sharing Enjoyment 12 our Heritage 34 2.5 Recreational Resources 13 4.3.3 Scenario 3: Promote Regional Economic Vitality and Address 2.6 Interpretive Themes 14 Regional Heritage 35 2.6.1. Creating a Cultural Center 14 Map 1: Location of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area II Table of Contents 4.3.4 Preferred Scenario: Number 2: Catalyst 4. Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage for Sharing Our Heritage 36 Area Natural Resources Map 6 4.4 Relationship to State, County, and Local Plans 37 5. Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage 4.4.1 Municipal Plans 38 Area Historical Resources 6 4.4.2 Regional Plans 39 6. Western New England Greenway 26 4.5 Housatonic Heritage Partners and 7. Berkshire (County) Regional Planning Agreed Actions 42 Commission region 38 4.5.1 Partners in Regional Planning 8. Housatonic Valley Association region 38 and Economic Vitality 42 9. Northwest CT Conservation District 38 4.5.2 Partners for Arts, Culture, and Historic Preservation 50 Diagrams 4.5.3 Partners in Education 54 1. Upper Housatonic National Heritage Area 4.5.4 Partners in Environmental Stewardship 58 Organizational Chart 23 4.5.5 Major Priorities of Housatonic 2. Process to Respond to Community Priorities 30 Heritage Partners 62 Chapter 5: Implementation Plan and Policies: Tables Catalyst for Sharing Our Heritage 63 1. Current Funding Sources for Housatonic Heritage Activities 25 5.1 Implementation Plan 63 2. Agreed Actions of Housatonic Heritage Partners 60 5.2 Policies to Guide Implementation 63 3. Potential Funders for a Sample of 13 Action Items 74 5.3 Implementation Plan: Five Goals and Corresponding Strategies 64 Matrices 5.3.1 Goal 1: Bolster Economic Vitality Action Agenda Matrix 76 by Integrating Stewardship and Economic Development 64 Selected References 81 5.3.2 Goal 2: Foster Residents’ and Visitors’ Knowledge of the Upper Housatonic Appendices Valley and Its Heritage 67 1. Enabling Legislation 84 5.3.3 Goal 3: Enrich the Experiences that Make the Upper Housatonic Valley 2. Chronology of the National Heritage Area Designation 89 a Rewarding Place to Live, Work, and Visit 68 3. Interpretive Theme Matrix 90 5.3.4 Goal 4: Broaden Public Support 4. Inventory of Natural, Historical, Cultural, for Heritage Resources 69 Educational, Scenic, and Recreational Resources 97 5.3.5 Goal 5: Preserve Heritage Resources 71 5. Thematic History of the Upper Housatonic Valley 102 5.4 Funding for Housatonic Heritage Activities 73 6. List of Organizations in the History Alliance 130 5.5 Implementation Plan: Organizational Strategies 73 7. Documentation of the Planning Process 131 5.6 Conclusion 75 8. Summary of Impact Issues Raised by Public 134 9. Structure of Board of Trustees and Council of Overseers 137 Maps 10. Strategic Marketing Partnership MOU 140 1. Location of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area II 11. Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage 2. The 29 Communities of the Upper Housatonic Area Interpretive Plan 143 National Heritage Area 4 12. Letters of Support from Elected Officials 157 3. Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area Arts and Music Resources Map 6 III Chapter 1: Purpose and Need Housatonic River as it winds through the fertile plains of the Southern Berkshires. 1.1 Purpose of this Report and culture, as well as for its nationally important This report is the comprehensive management plan resources and contributions. The purpose of a that Section 276 of the enabling legislation (P.L. 109- national heritage area is to tell the story of that region 338) directed the Upper Housatonic Valley National in a coherent and meaningful way through activities Heritage Area, Inc., to prepare for the Secretary of the that foster pride of place and encourage stewardship Interior. The purpose of the Management Plan is to: of its cultural and natural resources for the benefit of future generations. As of April 2012, there are 49 1. define the mission, vision, policies, funding, and national heritage areas in the United States. programmatic strategies of the organization; 2. provide an interpretive and operational 1.3 Significance of the Upper Housatonic Valley framework that will serve as an agenda for National Heritage Area programs and a guide for decision-making for The Upper Housatonic Valley in Connecticut and the next five years; Massachusetts forms a well-defined landscape and 3. establish the roles and actions of partners; cultural region. Scenic forested hills, open farmland, and meandering rivers surround 29 towns brimming 4. and provide an inventory of the resources with historic buildings and world-renowned cultural related to interpretive themes to be protected institutions. For over 150 years, this picturesque The management entity, the Upper Housatonic valley has been one of the country’s leading cultural Valley National Heritage Area, Inc. is typically centers and a magnet for writers, artists, and vaca- called “Housatonic Heritage.” In this report, the tioners. Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, management entity will be called “Housatonic Edith Wharton, Daniel Chester French, and Norman Heritage,” and the service area will be referred to as Rockwell all established homes here. The same land the Upper Housatonic Valley or the heritage area. and water that inspired writers and artists made the region a national leader in the marble, iron, and 1.2 Definition of a Heritage Area paper industries. A portion of the U.S. Capitol is A national heritage area is a section of our nation’s constructed of marble quarried in Lee, MA. The iron landscape that has been recognized by the United and paper industries played pioneering roles in the States Congress for its distinct geography, history, 1 Chapter 1: Purpose and Need continued Industrial Revolution, and electrical innovations made here enabled the widespread use of electrical power. A thriving electrical equipment industry continued through most of the twentieth century. While many significant events took place in the Upper Housatonic Valley, several events helped to change the course of American history. Before the American Revolution, in 1773, a group of men gathered at John Ashley’s Sheffield, MA, home (now a historic site oper- ated by The Trustees of Reservations) to draft a series W.E.B. Du Bois spent of resolutions asserting their “right to the undisturbed his formative years enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and prop- in Great Barrington. erty.” Known as the Sheffield Resolves, or Sheffield Housatonic Heritage is a key partner Declaration, this manifesto expressed the natural rights in preserving his of man which would be articulated in the Declaration homesite. of Independence three years later. It is likely that an own identity during the eighteenth and early nineteenth African American woman named Elizabeth Freeman, centuries based upon relative rural isolation which fos- known familiarly as “Mum Bett”, who was enslaved in tered a conservative strain in religious matters, populist the Ashley household, heard the rights declaration. She politics, and a spirit of independent thought. successfully sued for her freedom from slavery in 1781 in a landmark case that became a catalyst for end- As an agricultural region, farmers in the Upper ing slavery in Massachusetts, making Massachusetts Housatonic Valley had an early and keen interest the first state to terminate slavery. During the Civil in scientific farming. With the introduction of the War, Pittsfield pastor Samuel Harrison, born enslaved, Merino sheep in 1807, the region quickly became served as the chaplain to the Massachusetts 54th a national center of sheep raising and woolen cloth regiment. After Harrison protested the unequal pay production. In 1810, the nation’s first county agricul- to the African American soldiers in the Union Army, tural society was formed at Pittsfield with the pur- Congress, in June 1864, granted equal pay for 180,000 pose of serving both local small farmers and gentry blacks who fought for the Union.