HISTORIC GARDEN/LANDSCAPE INTEREST GROUP TO TOUR FLORENCE

The members of the Historic Garden/Landscape Interest Group are scheduled to tour several Florence gardens on May 15. For more information please contact Mike Rushing at jmikerushing@coosahs.net.

JOHN PAUL HUGULEY VISITS BIRMINGHAM

From Charleston, South Carolina, the birthplace of America’s preservation movement, Mayor Joe Riley and American College of the Building Arts Founder John Paul Huguley recently brought Birmingham and Alabama preservationists a unique opportunity to encourage craftsmanship in our state.

Riley addressed the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission on the importance of preservation to a city, and he and Huguley met with preservation and business leaders, architects and contractors in regard to a proposed “Hometown Scholarship.” Endowment of an Alabama Scholarship would provide perpetual support to Birmingham students who would return to Alabama first as undergraduate summer apprentices and eventually as highly skilled full time professionals.

Founded by Birmingham-Southern College graduate and Gadsden native John Paul Huguley twelve years ago, the American College of the Building Arts is the country’s only four-year liberal arts college focused on developing the minds and hands of traditional building artisans. Students train in a single major of architectural stone, carpentry, forged architectural ironwork, plaster working, preservation masonry, or timber framing around a classroom curriculum of courses that include English, economics, and historic preservation.

“In Charleston in 1989, when Hurricane Hugo devastated the city, it was discovered that the greatest restoration challenges were not just with funding or laws protecting the historic structures, but the shortage of skilled artisans,” Huguley explains. “Students who complete our baccalaureate program are truly educated artisans.”

For more information, and to read a feature on the school in the September/October 2009 issue of Preservation, visit ACBA’s website at www.buildingartscollege.us or contact John Paul Huguley at 843-577-5245.

HUNTSVILLE NAMED DISTINCTIVE DESTINATION

Congratulations! Alabama's own Huntsville has been named one of the 2010 America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. We're proud to share with the world what you no doubt already know -- that Huntsville offers heritage travelers a unique opportunity to experience the largest collection of antebellum homes in Alabama AND sites associated with the birth of the American Space movement - all in one city.

Huntsville, Alabama joins 11 other great destinations on our 2010 list. And for the first time, the public will determine which of the 12 destinations will be the 2010 Fan Favorite. Starting today you can vote for your favorite city or town on this year's list. And when you vote, you can enter to win a complimentary two-night stay at any Historic Hotel of America (no purchase necessary).

You can vote as often as you'd like at www.preservationnation.org/ddd from today through February 28 (open to legal residents of the U.S., 18 years of age or older).

We hope you'll take this opportunity to support Huntsville, Alabama (or any one of our other 11 honorees this year) with your vote. We also hope that you'll share the link with friends, colleagues and family who share your interest in experiencing America's authentic heritage when you travel for business or pleasure.

Thanks for your support of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Best,
The Dozen Distinctive Destinations Team

PS. For ten years the National Trust has used the Dozen Distinctive Destinations program to highlight how historic preservation helps communities create a sustainable future and a strong economy through heritage tourism. Love the list? Support the work of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and help us spread the word about the power of preservation.

2009 PLACES IN PERIL ANNOUNCED

In observance of National Historic Preservation Month, the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) and the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation (ATHP) announce Alabama’s most endangered places for 2009.

Since 1994, the AHC and the ATHP have joined forces to sponsor Places in Peril, a program designed to highlight some of Alabama’s most significant endangered historic sites. This year’s list includes 10 sites.

“Places in Peril is a valuable tool in directing public attention to the many cultural resources in Alabama under threat from neglect or demolition,” said Frank White, executive director of the AHC.

David Schneider, executive director of the ATHP states, "This list reminds us that much remains to be done to help Alabamians recognize that our historic places are essential assets for community revitalization. They also represent one of the greenest approaches to providing places in which to live and work."

The 10 sites listed as Places in Peril for 2009 are:

  • Grove Court Apartments, Montgomery, Montgomery County
  • The Lyric Theatre and Office Building, Birmingham, Jefferson County
  • Wadley Depot, Wadley, Randolph County
  • Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church and Community Day School, Hamburg, Wilcox Co.
  • Allen & Jemison Building, Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County
  • Historic Schools of Birmingham, Birmingham, Jefferson County
  • Prewitt Plantation Slave Cemetery, Northport vic., Tuscaloosa County
  • Uniontown Historic District, Uniontown, Perry County
  • Town of Hobson City, Hobson City, Calhoun County
  • Ogletree-Wright-Ivy House, Auburn, Lee County

The Places in Peril list carries no formal protection, but it does build awareness in local communities about endangered sites, and can help generate support to preserve these places.

Still Endangered Landmarks

Two nationally significant historic sites have previously been listed as “Places in Peril” but are “Still in Peril”.

Barton Academy, Mobile

Listed as a 2005 Place in Peril, Barton Academy is one of Alabama’s finest early Greek Revival buildings and one of the nation’s oldest remaining public school buildings. The Board of Education previously used the building for their central office, but it is now vacant, leaving the future of the building in question. Local advocates suggest it could be transformed into an arts magnet school, which would be a good use for Alabama’s first public school building.

Click here to read more. (.pdf)

Old Tallassee Mill, Tallassee

The Old Tallassee Mill was listed on the 1994 and 2001 Places in Peril lists. The city of Tallassee, the Tallassee Chamber of Commerce and the Talisi Historical Preservation Society are working together with the Alabama Historical Commission to preserve the striking mill complex for future community use. There is also an effort underway to list the mill to the National Register of Historic Places.

Click here to read more. (.pdf)

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

HISTORIC PRESERVATION, AN INTRODUCTION TO ITS HISTORY, PRINCIPLES, AND PRACTICE; Norman Tyler, Ted J. Ligibel, Ilene R. Tyler. W. W. Norton, publisher. 2nd edition, 2009.

Books on preservation tend to fall into two categories. The first are the inspiring books full of beautiful photographs of successfully restored homes, public spaces and landscapes. Large format, they usually occupy a prominent place on our coffee tables. The second category of preservation books is usually a little hard to locate in our homes, having been misplaced somewhere on some bookcase rarely visited. That is the how-to, nuts and bolts manual of preservation. Many of us have no such book, satisfied to be inspired, but not empowered to be activate in preservation. HISTORIC PRESERVATION deserves a place in the home of anyone interested in the activities of preservation. First published in the year 2000, and reissued this year, this manual covers topics ranging from the history of the preservation movement in the United States through a menu of approaches, planning and guidelines we will find essential to getting preservation goals accomplished. Useful also are sections on preservation resources, architectural terms, and further reading found at the back of the book. If we could have only one book on the practice of historic preservation, this may well be that book.

PARTICIPATE TO SAVE ALABAMA'S WILD LANDS AND WATERWAYS

There’s now a tangible way to directly help protect Alabama's wild, scenic state land and waterways where the native plants we love thrive. A new program called the Wildlife Heritage License lets you help save the state's wild areas. You can sign up online at the official state website for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, www.alabamainteractive.org/dcnr/license/index.cgi for either $10 a year or $200 a lifetime. The funds help our existing state and wildlife programs to continue. In addition, the funds help operate and care for 768,000 acres within the Alabama Wildlife Management Area System.

For people who participate in outdoor sporting, the license also pays to hunt small game except waterfowl in Alabama’s 35 Wildlife Management Areas, Waterfowl Refuges and Community Hunting Areas. It also allows sportspeople to fish at the 20 state-owned public fishing lakes (daily permit required) or to fish with a hook and line from the bank in public waters in all 67 counties (freshwater only). In addition, it lets sportspeople use Alabama's 10 Public Shooting Ranges.

ALABAMA TRUST DECORATIVE ARTS STUDY GROUP

The Decorative Arts Study Group of the Alabama Trust on January 31 toured two Greek Revival houses in Eutaw, Alabama, and a third a few miles to the west of Eutaw. In the 1840’s in Alabama, Federalist style architecture was giving way to Greek Revival, and in furniture Rococo Revival (made by New York cabinet makers such as John Belter and Joseph Meeks), was beginning to supplant the Classical style (also commonly called Empire because Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte popularized the style during the early part of the 19th century). Pam and David Harmon at Everhope Plantation, Danky and Al Blanton at Kirkwood and Rebecca and Norris Sears at Freemont graciously opened their homes to the Study Group. Each of these magnificent homes have been furnished with Classical and Rococo Revival furnishings, period portraits and Paris porcelains to accompany the furniture.

After the tour of homes, several members of the Decorative Arts Study Group headed to Hal Hunt’s auction house in Tuscaloosa where numerous pieces of Belter furniture are on display to be sold at auction in the near future. It’s hard to imagine any other location in the county with so much extraordinary Rococo Revival and Classical furniture as was seen during the tour of the three houses and auction site during the trip.

In the 1840’s and 1850’s, Greene County and other areas of the Blackbelt along with the Mississippi Delta produced far more cotton than any other region in the country and in the process many millionaires. Small towns like Eutaw, Marion, Selma and Natchez host numerous architectural jewels that were built during the flush times of high cotton production and high prices spurred on by the voracious appetite of European and Northern textile mills.

For the Study Group, touring the homes of the Harmons, Blantons and Sears was like stepping back in time because each home has been carefully restored and furnished to recapture the grandeur of the houses’ early periods. It should be mentioned that for Alabama Trust members who were not able to join the Study Group’s tour, the Harmons and Blantons provide a major service to the Blackbelt tourist industry by having their homes open for tours to the general public on a regular basis. A trip to Everhope and Kirkwood will be a memorable experience for those who appreciate man’s ability to create beauty from wood and stone.

The Alabama Trust Decorative Arts Study Group is headed by Jack and Emily Burwell. This Interest Group focuses on the furniture and art of nineteenth century Alabamians. To participate in this group, please contact Jack and Emily Burwell at jpbc@bellsouth.net.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS

February 19, 2010 Southern Garden Heritage Conference, Athens, GA. www.southerngardenhistory.org, information: ashenk@uga.edu
March 12-28, 2010 Spring Garden Tours, Jasmine Hill, Wetumpka, AL. www.jasminehill.org
March 19-21, 2010 Annual Pilgrimage and Tour of Homes, Selma, AL. www.pilgrimage.selmaalabama.com
March 21-26, 2010 Blooming Mobile: Festival of Flowers, Bellingrath Garden And Home.
April 9-11, 2010 Eufaula Annual Tour of Homes, Eufaula, AL. www.eufaulapilgrimage.com
April 30-May 2, 2010 Annual Meeting, Southern Garden History Society, Mt. Vernon, VA. www.southerngardenhistory.org.
May 1-2, 2010 Huntsville Pilgrimage Association Annual Homes Tour, Huntsville, AL. www.huntsvillepilgrimage.org
May 2, 2010 Historic District Spring Garden Tour , Decatur, AL. www.decaturcvb.org
May 15, 2010 ATHP Garden/Landscape Interest Group garden tour, Florence, Alabama. For information contact Mike Rushing at jmikerushing@coosahs.net.
June 5-26, 2010 Historic Tuscumbia Walking Tour, Tuscumbia, AL. www.colbertcountytourism.org

Newsletter Archives