Preservation posts: the online journal of the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Apr. 2015

Preservation Posts - April 2015 Preservation Posts - April 2015

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In this issue: -Message from the Director: Measuring Heritage -Statewide HPC Training Convenes in Dahlonega -Revitalizing the Hardman Farm Bathtub, Part 2 -The Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative -Recent News & Announcements -Upcoming Events
Message from the Director: Measuring Heritage
By Dr. David Crass, Division Director & Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
"We take too much of our heritage for granted. Harriman State Park is not Mt. Vernon. Nor is it Yosemite. But heritage cannot be measured on a scale..." Mary E. Reed, Harriman: From Railroad Ranch to State Park
"Heritage cannot be measured on a scale." What an elegant way to express something historic preservationists have very much in common with conservationists. I'm constantly reminded of these words in our new offices at Panola Mountain State Park. This is a park that went through some tough times during the recent recession, but is on track this year to host well over 125,000 visitors. They come here to hike, bird watch, bike, picnic--or just to let their kids run around on the lawn.
What many of the visitors here don't know, however, is that there are historic resources both on the park and at the adjoining Arabia Mountain Heritage Preserve. One of the great things about HPD's relocation is that it gives us an opportunity to work with our Parks, Recreation, & Historic Sites Division as well as the Preserve to interpret and showcase these resources for an audience, many of whom have not heard the message of historic preservation. Look for more on this down the road.
Things have finally settled down after our move to our new building (a move that involved something on the order of 35-40,000 files and books), and so Laura Beth Ingle and Rachel Rice of our office organized an Earth Day picnic and hike so that we could get to know the park a bit better. It was a gorgeous day up on Panola Mountain, and the native plants were putting on quite a show, with diamorpha (a tiny sedum that grows in solution pools), atamasco lily, and mock oranges in bloom. Hat tip to Laura Beth and Rachel for a great example of leadership!

HPD staff atop Panola Mountain.
I recently had the opportunity to go on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation's Spring Ramble in Athens. Despite at-times torrential downpours, and a tornado watch, the weekend was a smashing success. A personal highlight for me was a visit to the Blumberg House (1952), a highstyle ranch house that retains its original doors, cabinets, floors, hardware, bathroom fixtures and lighting fixtures. Thanks to Didi Dunphy and Jim Barness for hosting the Ramblers!

The 1952 Blumberg House.
On a related note, the Trust recently hosted a discussion involving HPD and the other NGOs in the state to discuss our tax incentive program and how we might enhance it within the ever-present budgetary strictures. Dr. Leslie Sharp (an HPD alumnae and now Associate Vice Provost at Georgia Tech) moderated the discussion and did a masterful job. Thanks to both Mark McDonald and Leslie for putting this together! A working group to develop some detailed steps we can take going forward will follow our initial session. As always, if you have questions or concerns about our programs, don't hesitate to call!
Statewide HPC Training Convenes in Dahlonega
By Marcy Breffle, Outreach Program Assistant

Attendees enjoy an evening reception at the c.1860 Vickery House.
Last month, preservationists from around the state gathered to attend educational sessions and discuss issues at the Georgia Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) Training in the City of Dahlonega. Offered through a shared partnership between HPD and the Georgia Alliance of Preservation Commissions (GAPC), this two-day training took place on Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11. It was attended by nearly 80 HPC members, staff, and local government officials.
The training was held at two historic venues, the Holly Theatre and the Smith House. Sessions were taught by several experienced preservation professionals and offered valuable insights to training attendees. Friday sessions delved into preservation law, HPC best practices, and design guidelines. Following the conclusion of sessions on the first day, registrants were led on guided walking tours of Dahlonega's historic downtown and the Gold Museum by members of the Dahlonega Historic Preservation Commission. After the tours, training attendees gathered at the historic Vickery House (c.1860) for an evening reception filled with good food and great company. Sessions continued on Saturday and covered a diverse range of topic areas, including heritage tourism, historic theatres, commercial architecture, and revolving funds. A panel of experienced preservationists provided perspectives on several issues and challenges that can test commissions in small towns. The training concluded with the GAPC annual meeting and many attendees were given the opportunity to share recent preservation success stories.
We appreciate the commitment of our dedicated speakers and tour guides, as well as the GAPC board members who support HPD's ongoing educational efforts for Georgia's preservation commissions. We'd like to thank our gracious hosts in Dahlonega and all that joined us there.
More information about the training is available here. To learn more about the Georgia Alliance of Preservation Commissions, please visit their website at www.georgiahpcs.org.
Revitalizing the Hardman Farm Bathtub, Part 2
By Josh Headlee, Senior Preservation Technician

The bathtub prior to restoration.
This is the continuing saga of the restoration of an antique bathtub at Hardman Farm State Historic Site in White County. Part 1 is available here.
Once the wooden rim was removed, the rusted areas of the steel- and tin- clad tub body were brushed. This was done with a stiff bristle brush and plastic paint scraper in order to remove as much of the loose rust and paint as possible without damaging the metal. The wire brush was only used in the heaviest of rusted areas since its steel bristles could scratch the underlying metal. Unfortunately, the most rusted areas had rusted entirely through the metal.
It was while brushing and scraping that I noticed the underlying layers of paint on the body of the tub (Figure 1). I also noticed that the cast-iron feet were painted. It was obvious that the tub had not always been painted white. While I continued to brush down the tub, knowing that the rusted areas would need to be treated regardless, I realized that more research would need to be done.
The discovery of the underlying layers of paint brought forth a big question. Should we restore the tub to the time of the underlying paint or to the period when it was painted white? This was a difficult decision to make. Was the white paint an integral part of interpreting the tub and its attachment to the Hardman Farm? Would removing the white paint remove a layer of the tub's history? Obviously it would. However, painting an artifact when you know it was not manufactured that way seemed wrong as well. Painting the tub white might preserve the tub to a later time than what we wanted to interpret.
Furthermore, we still did not really know what the original color of the tub was. Were the underlying layers of paint that I discovered the original color, or simply an earlier paint job by the owners? A search on the internet for antique wooden-rimmed tubs was of little help. Dozens of tubs like ours were found. We even found the 1891 patent for the tub (Figure 2). However, every image of a "restored" tub was different. They were painted or enameled in every color of the rainbow. I began to wonder if the tub was simply bare metal when purchased and made to be painted or sealed by the buyer. The discovery of a reproduction of a 1902 Sears & Roebuck catalog in our research library helped to solve the mystery (Figure 3). Deep within the pages of this thick catalog for everything from the latest fashions to farm equipment was the "Stationary Bath Tub" complete with a polished oak rim. The image clearly shows it to be our type of tub. The description, while brief, is quite detailed. "... [T]he whole outside is polished in a green tint, relieved with gold bronze." and "...coated inside with a white enamel." From this I realized that the underlying layers of paint were very likely the original colors. It was obvious that the "bronze relief" was relegated to the feet of the tub, which extend all the way up the sides to the underside of the "polished oak rim" (See Figure 1). After a great deal of thought, we decided to restore the tub to its original color. Since all the white paint needed to be stripped off, the tub was brought to the Preservation Lab in Stockbridge. An environmentally-friendly paint remover and plastic scrapers were used to remove the white paint. There was a good chance the paint on the tub might be lead based, so all of the removed paint was carefully contained within tarps and plastic sheeting to be disposed of properly.
The process of removing the white paint also removed too much of the underlying original paint to preserve it. This allowed the entire tub to be rust treated and primed properly. Since the paint was likely toxic and could not be saved in any degree, it was going to be difficult to match the original color. A close approximation to the original color was chosen with the help of photographs, color swatches, and charts. The color chosen likely dried more green than the original (which would have been slightly more grey in color), but it is an extremely close match. An almost exact match was made of the bronze on the legs.
Thus far we have made the decision to do at least a partial restoration of the tub. It was felt that by removing the old flaking white paint we would be taking the tub back to an earlier time and thus allowing for a better interpretation of the Hardman Farm house. Even though a lot of progress has been made, the work isn't finished. In next month's article the work on the tub is completed, but another mystery needs to be solved as the tub is being installed back into the house. Information about Hardman Farm, Georgia's newest State Historic Site, is available here.
The Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative
By Stephanie L. Cherry-Farmer, National Register & Survey Program Manager

The historic landscape at National Register-nominated Rose Hill in Milledgeville.
In honor of National Landscape Architecture Month, this article explores the Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative.
Landscapes are a fundamental component of Georgia's diverse spectrum of historic resources. Georgia's historic landscapes include everything from individual gardens and parks, existing today much as they were designed decades ago, to cultural landscapes that include a variety of property types and natural terrain, developed and altered over time. Although landscapes of all types play a critical role in our ability to understand and experience historic sense of place statewide, landscapes are generally under-appreciated as historic resources, both because of their constantly-evolving nature and the challenges that their identification and interpretation often present. While Georgia indisputably retains historic landscapes of exceptional significance, identifying those landscapes, and methods and sources for additional evaluation and research on Georgia landscapes, remains a budding endeavor.
The Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative (GHLI) is dedicated to increasing Georgia's collective knowledge of its historic landscapes and generating public interest in the state's remarkable landscape heritage. The initiative aims to build the public's general appreciation of the beauty and aesthetic of landscapes into a basic understanding of the historic context of those landscapes, respect for their significance, and awareness of their preservation needs.
Launched in 2002 in an effort to supplement the then-new national Historic American Landscapes Survey of the National Park Service, the GHLI convened representatives of historic preservation organizations in Georgia, including the National Park Service's Southeast Regional Office, the Georgia Historic Preservation Division, and the Cherokee Garden Library of the Atlanta History Center, with leaders in the Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. Under the direction of the late Landscape Architect Jim Cothran, FASLA, the group assumed the mission of identifying, recording, and promoting Georgia's rich garden heritage.
The GHLI serves as the companion effort to the Historic Landscape and Garden Grant program, an ongoing program administered by the GHLI partners, as well as the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Facilitated by early Historic Preservation Division and Garden Club of Georgia efforts to promote Georgia's historic landscapes, this annual grant program offers funding for landscape preservation. The 2015 grant application will be available this summer, with a deadline of August 1st- details are available here.
The Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative's primary foci have remained the same since its founding: document and inventory historic landscapes statewide, and engage the general public with historic landscapes and their preservation.
As a means of focusing their efforts, the GHLI adopted the book Garden History of Georgia: 1733-1933 as an initial framework for inventory efforts. This definitive guide, published in 1933 by the Peachtree Garden Club of Atlanta, documents 163 exceptional Georgia gardens dating from the late 1700s through the 1930s. Detailed narratives and precise sketch plans present a picture of what each of these landscapes looked like in 1933, and armed with this evidence, the GHLI set about creating an up-to-date inventory of these gardens. This effort not only documents the current status of each garden, but collectively serves as a representative metric of the general conditions of historic designed landscapes in Georgia today.
Since 2002, the GHLI has documented 181 historic landscapes in Georgia. All but a handful of the gardens in Garden History of Georgia: 1733-1933 have been documented. As a result of broadening public interest in landscape heritage, the GHLI recently began documenting resources not included in this book, based on community initiative- there's no greater evidence of the GHLI's successful work in getting the public excited about historic landscapes than the community advocacy that has generated some of the GHLI's more recent landscape documentation efforts.
Better still, anyone can take advantage of this survey work, thanks to the Cherokee Garden Library of the Atlanta History Center. All of the GHLI inventory work, including narrative descriptions and developmental histories of each garden, site plans, extensive photography, planting lists, research bibliographies, primary source documentation, and more, is housed at the library and available for public use.
The benefits of the GHLI extend further than inventory. The GHLI has offered student internships for over a decade, giving historic preservation and landscape architecture students the opportunity to engage with Georgia's historic landscapes. Students complete 200 hours of work over one semester, usually completing survey work, but also participating in outreach endeavors, which are directed by the Garden Club of Georgia. With over 14,000 members statewide, this group is Georgia's key grassroots catalyst for historic landscape preservation. Through educational programming, events, and publications, the Garden Club of Georgia elevates the work of the GHLI and an appreciation for the preservation needs of historic landscapes to a diverse statewide audience. New opportunities for landscape interpretation and preservation are continually evolving, and there are exciting things on the horizon. On the national level, the National Park Service continues to advance the National Register Landscape Initiative, started in 2013 as a way to examine opportunities for the National Register of Historic Places to better accommodate the listing of cultural landscapes. In Georgia, representatives of the GHLI are working in conjunction with the Garden Club of Georgia and the Cherokee Garden Library on a book that will highlight 30 extant historic designed gardens throughout the state, expanding upon the GHLI's inventory work. Scheduled for release in 2017, the GHLI hopes this volume will further help the public engage with Georgia's rich designed landscape heritage.
HPD is proud to partner with the Cherokee Garden Library of the Atlanta History Center, the Garden Club of Georgia, and the National Park Service to support a deeper appreciation for Georgia's historic landscapes and their preservation potential through the Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative.
Are you aware of a historic landscape that the Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative should document? The public is encouraged to contact Staci Catron at the Cherokee Garden Library of the Atlanta History Center to get involved. She can be reached at scatron@atlantahistorycenter.com. The GHLI is ready to help you explore, survey, and research historic landscapes in your community!
The author thanks Staci Catron, Director, Cherokee Garden Library, for her assistance in
compiling information to support this article.
Recent News & Announcements
National Register Nominations Now Available Online The National Park Service has completed digitalization of Georgia's National Register nominations. These nominations and photographs are available here.
Scroll down the page and click "Spreadsheet of NRHP List." An Excel document for the entire country will populate. You can find Georgia and click on the text or photograph link on the right. At the moment, the spreadsheet goes through listings as of September 2014. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please contact one of our HPD National Register staff.
2015 "Historic Theatres of Georgia" photography contest - we're holding our 6th-annual Preservation Month photo contest! Entries are due by May 25. Full details are here.
Nine Georgia Communities to Receive Federal Historic Preservation Grants - (press release - April 28)
Forest Avenue Historic District Listed in the National Register of Historic Places - (press release - April 14)
Upcoming Events
May 2, 2015 - Archaeology Day - Stone Mountain Create replica Native American pottery, hear stories from the past, see stone tools crafted, decorate your own rock art and much more. Archaeologists from HPD and other organizations will be on hand. Free and open to the public. Details are available here.
May 12, 2015 - "Assessing a Cemetery's Needs" workshop - Cave Spring Co-sponsored by HPD and the Georgia Municipal Cemetery Association, this workshop's featured speaker is Neale Nickels, Director of Preservation at Atlanta's Historic Oakland Cemetery. Details and registration information are available here.
May 28, 2015 - Mythbusters: National Register vs. Design Review Edition - Macon Join a panel discussion that debunks the myths about the National Register. Learn exactly what restrictions and benefits are associated with listing a property on the Register. Panelists include Stephanie Cherry-Farmer, National Register and Survey program manager, Daniel Weldon, Development Review Officer at Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning, and Annie Barnes, Preservation Planner, Middle Georgia Regional Commission. Hosted by the Historic Macon Foundation. Details are available here.
November 5, 2015 - Historic Preservation Commission Training Thomasville Save the date! Details will be posted here as they become available.
www.georgiashpo.org
Title image: This 1950s former school building was listed in the National Register on March 24 as part of the Forest Avenue Historic District in Elberton (Elbert County).
Copyright 2015 DNR Historic Preservation Division, All rights reserved.
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