Preservation posts: the online journal of the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Dec. 2013

Preservation Posts - December 2013
In this issue:
- Message from the Director - Georgia Preservationists Gather in Macon for 2013 Preservation Summit - Georgia State University Partnership Supports CLG Program - Recent News & Announcements - Upcoming Events
Message from the Director
By Dr. David Crass, Division Director & Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Last month I was honored to assume a seat on the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) Board of Directors. NCSHPO's role is written into the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, As Amended, and serves both as the voice of the state offices at the federal level and as a policy-making body. At the latest board meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, SHPO architectural reviewer Pilar Cannizzaro led board members on a tour of several preservation projects, including Los Alamos National Laboratories, where the first two atomic bombs were assembled, and Santurio de Chimayo, an early 19th-century church and associated village where land-use planning has become a significant issue.
However, the project that spoke most deeply to me was at the pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo). Ohkay Owingeh was settled over 700 years ago and is the largest of the Tewaspeaking settlements. In 1598 Don Juan de Oate colonized the Rio Grande Valley and visited the center of the pueblo, which is known as Owe'neh Bupingeh. Like the other Rio Grande pueblos, Ohkay Owingeh was traditionally oriented around plazas, which contained kivas (subterranean ceremonial structures).
Much of life took place in the plazas, which were surrounded by multi-story adobe dwellings and store houses for grain.
Starting in the 1970s the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development built detached homes in subdivisions outside the traditional center of the community in a wellintentioned effort to lift the living standards of the tribal members. Unfortunately, while it was successful in doing so, the effort also led to the nearabandonment of the traditional homes and plazas, disrupting pueblo social and economic interactions and further fracturing traditional lifeways. Similar effects took place throughout Indian Country. Elders at Cochiti Pueblo, which is located about 25 miles southwest of Santa Fe, say that the plaza weeps at night because children no longer play there. Tribal authorities finally won the ability to set their own housing policies with the passage of the 1996 Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act.
In 2005, the New Mexico SHPO awarded a $7,500 Historic Preservation Fund grant to train six Ohkay Owingeh high school students in documentation techniques. Over the ensuing years the tribe leveraged this initial tiny grant into more than $8 million through the Section 106 process, which requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of their activities on cultural resources. You can read about this and other Section 106 successes here.
Working closely with the SHPO, the tribe developed a preservation plan and has now returned 29 families to new or rehabilitated affordable housing around the plazas as part of
the Owe'neh Bupingeh Rehabilitation Project. Tribal committees worked with Atkin Olshin Schade architects to develop culturally-appropriate design guidelines. Currently the project is over 50% complete.
The Ohkay Owingeh story speaks to historic preservation on multiple levels. First, the Section 106 process is periodically caricatured as being purely a bureaucratic exercise. But Section 106 was absolutely critical as a framework for a process which allowed Ohkay Owingeh citizens to restore life to the core of their community. Tomasita Duran, the Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority Director, told our group that this is her mission, to help her people return to their traditional place.
Second, the return to the plazas began with a $7,500 planning grant. As architect Shawn Evans told us, the lesson is "guard your small grant programs, because they can lead to big things." More to the point, this is an excellent example of how two separately administered SHPO programs, Section 106 and HPF grants, can work together in such a way that the end product is much more significant that it would have been had they worked in isolation.
Finally, the Owe'neh Bupingeh Rehabilitation Project demonstrates the importance of SHPO flexibility in applying the Secretary of the Interior's Standards to Section 106 projects. As professionals we believe deeply in the value of the Secretary's Standards, and we should. We defend those standards to ensure that projects adhere to best practices, and we should. But what we should not do is let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The New Mexico SHPO had to be very flexible in applying some of the Secretary's Standards in order make this project a success. Had the SHPO not done that, the plazas at Owe'neh Bupingeh, like the plaza at Cochiti, would still be crying at night. Instead, they are once again the center of life for the people of Ohkay Owingeh.
Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, built 1889. New and rehabilitated housing flanks the shrine; one of Owe'neh Bupingeh's four plazas lies directly behind the church.
Georgia Preservationists Gather in Macon for 2013 Preservation Summit
By Leigh Burns, Outreach Program Manager
On Thursday, November 21st, HPD and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation hosted more than a dozen preservationists from around the state at the annual Preservation Summit. Attendees either represented a preservation non-profit partner, or a state partner agency focusing on historic preservation. For a fourth year, the event was held at the historic Hay House in Macon. Built in the 1850s and owned by the Georgia Trust, the house boasts some of the finest architectural details and furnishings in the southeast.
The focus of the Preservation Summit both this year and in years passed is to discuss and share preservation successes, discuss programming plans for the upcoming year, update our partners on the recent legislative session, and plan for any impending statewide or national preservation conferences and workshops. We also hear directly from our preservation non-profit and state agency organizations on how HPD and the Georgia Trust might assist them better with their ongoing local and regional efforts. Preservation nonprofit organizations and state agencies that sent representatives included Historic Augusta, Inc., Historic Columbus Foundation, Historic Macon, Madison-Morgan Conservancy, Fox Theatre Institute, Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance, Buckhead Heritage Society, Middle Georgia Regional Commission, Georgia Mountains Regional Commission, Georgia Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Following lunch in the lavish music room and the afternoon preservation update sessions, participants had the opportunity to visit the Bealls Hill Historic District with Josh Rogers, Executive Director of Historic Macon. Mr. Rogers' work has included countless projects that utilize historic preservation tax incentives to increase community and economic development. He has worked in partnership with many local groups to make these successes possible, especially Mercer University, Middle Georgia Regional Commission, the City of Macon and NewTown Macon.
We thank our partners at the Georgia Trust and the dedicated staff of the Hay House for their hospitality and partnership. In addition, a big thanks to Josh Rogers for a fantastic tour and, most of all, to the participants who joined us in Macon.
More information about local non-profit partners around the state is available here. Information about the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is available here. Information on visiting the Hay House is available here.
Georgia State University Partnership Supports CLG Program
By Clint Tankersley, HPD Intern
Created in 1980, the Certified Local Government (CLG) Program brings preservation into Georgia's communities through a partnership between the federal, state, and local governments. The majority of preservation occurs at the local level and this program seeks to provide those communities with the tools and training to best protect their historic resources. Since the program originated, countless cities and counties have been designated by the National Park Service. One needed area of improvement for the CLG program were improvements to the records database for Georgia's 86 CLGs. This is where I came into the picture. Through a partnership between HPD and Georgia State University, I was charged with the task of updating the records and identifying local historic districts within the designated CLGs.
Under the supervision of Leigh Burns, I sought to identify, compile, and map every local historic district for all CLGs in Georgia. This project was broken down into four phases: (1) search for records of local historic districts within HPD's electronic files, (2) search for records of local historic districts with HPD's paper files, (3) contact each CLG regarding its local historic districts, and (4) compile the CLG data.
The electronic files were divided by county and city names, and accurate organization made it easy to locate the individual historic districts within each local government. Unfortunately, the historic districts within the electronic records were not distinguished as either local historic districts or as National Register districts. This required more digging and research, which comes easily to a GSU graduate student like me. Despite their limited utility, these electronic files provided a decent foundation for me to work off of as I moved into the next phase of the project.
As expected, the second phase of the project proved to be the most time-intensive. Every CLG community had its own dedicated folder, filled with every piece of information or correspondence sent to HPD that related to that particular CLG. While some of these CLG records were quite interesting and would make great stories by themselves, the vast majority of the information in these records did not refer to local historic districts. But I was still able to glean a surprising amount of information from what we had on hand. After many long hours poring over thousands of CLG program pages, I finally finished my search of HPD records and was ready to move on to the next phase of the project.
After spending a great deal of my internship hours with only filing cabinets and paper records to keep me company, I was eager and excited to interact with the hard-working staff and HPC members behind all of the CLGs that I had been reading about. I sent out an email to every contact, explaining the scope of the project and listing all the local historic districts (if any) that HPD had on file for that CLG. The CLG contacts were generally responsive and their help was crucial to the success of the project. I cannot thank everyone enough who helped to verify the records!
This project is ongoing, but the results so far have been quite interesting. As of the most recent update, Georgia's CLGs contain 168 local historic districts. This number will likely increase as we continue to hear back from our local contacts. This project should be finalized by spring 2014, and a comprehensive list of all local historic districts within Georgia's CLG communities will be available online. Once finalized, the list will certainly be an excellent tool for assessing the quality and strength of Georgia's local historic preservation programs. In a future phase of the project, HPD would like to have all the districts mapped in a GIS format for access through its website.
More information about Georgia's CLG program is available here. More information about my graduate program at Georgia State University is available here.
Recent News & Announcements
Capitol View Manor Historic District Listed in the National Register of Historic Places (press release - December 30)
Unusual Civil War Artifact on Display at Sweetwater Creek State Park (press release - December 16)
FFY 2014 Historic Preservation Fund grant applications are now available. Applications must be postmarked by February 3, 2014.
The December 2013 issue of Reflections is now available.
Upcoming Events
April 11-12, 2014 - 2014 Georgia Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) Training - Athens Details and registration information will be posted here as they become available. Registration will open on February 1, 2014.
Please send your comments or suggestions to charlie.miller@dnr.state.ga.us.
Not a member? Subscribe now! Our mailing address is: Georgia Historic Preservation Division Department of Natural Resources 254 Washington Street, SW, Ground Level Atlanta, GA 30334 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2013 Georgia Historic Preservation Division All rights reserved. Title image: Traveler's Rest Historic Site in Stephens County. Photo taken by Shawn Apostel of Toccoa, winner of our 2010 National Historic Preservation Month photo contest.