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

Preservation Posts - May 2015

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In this issue: -Message from the Director -"Historic Theatres of Georgia" Photo Contest -FFY 2015 HPF Grants Begin Projects This Month -Looting Affects Archaeological Sites Worldwide -Revitalizing the Hardman Farm Bathtub, Part 3 -Recent News & Announcements -Upcoming Events
Message from the Director
By Dr. David Crass, Division Director & Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
"The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either." - Mick Jagger
While Sir Mick likely wasn't referencing historic preservation in this quote, it nicely captures what we in the field do. We certainly don't want to erase the past, nor do we want to pickle it in a state of suspended animation--we aim to make our past part of our present and our future. With the passage and signing by Governor Deal of House Bill 308, more historic resources will become economic engines and living parts of our communities across the state. More on the impact of this legislation will be forthcoming over the next month or so; suffice it to say here that thanks to the education efforts of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, HB308 will generate significantly more large-scale, complex projects like Ponce City Market here in Atlanta. Because the bill contains new statutory language, HPD must adhere to the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, which sets out a process for implementing new legislation. This will involve proposed amendments to our DNR Board Rules (the state equivalent of federal regulation), public comment, and of course internal vetting by Commissioner Williams and DNR's Executive Legal Counsel. Following those steps the proposed new rules will be presented to the DNR Board of Directors for a vote. At this time I estimate that it will be sometime this fall before this process has run its course.
Here at the Jewett Center for Historic Preservation we are settling in to our new quarters. While there are still items to be completed (landscaping, installation of a plaque in our lobby memorializing Mary Gregory Jewett, and the like), the building is functioning as intended, and we're moving ahead on several important projects. These include (in addition to planning implementation of HB308) the development of new Environmental Review (ER) processes that are much more efficient, the accompanying development of a new ER database (which replaces our creaky dBase II era-model), planning for a new Tax Incentives Program database (the current one is also of ancient vintage), working with a consultant on a popular history of DNR that will highlight the agency's achievements and landmark legislative acts, and initial planning for a major revision of Georgia's Living Places, a statewide context of domestic structures and landscapes which over the years since it was published in 1991 has proven to be one of HPD's most useful publications. At the agency level, we're participating in several initiatives, including a pending redesign of the DNR website. At this rate, it will be fall before we know it!
"Historic Theatres of Georgia" Photo Contest
By Charlie Miller, Outreach Program Manager Since 2010, HPD has held an online photography contest each May to coincide with National Historic Preservation Month. Past contest themes have highlighted a variety of Georgia's diverse historic resources:
State Historic Sites (2010) Mid-Century Modern Georgia (2011) Downtown Georgia (2012) The Civil War in Georgia (2013) Historic Railroads of Georgia (2014)
This year we partnered with the Fox Theatre Institute (FTI) to focus on historic theatres. FTI is a program of Atlanta's fabulous Fox Theatre that offers financial assistance, restoration support, and operations mentoring to historic theatres throughout Georgia and the region. We received 33 entries depicting theatres from across the state. After some deliberation, our judges chose a winner and a runner-up:

This photo of the Grand Theatre in Fitzgerald was taken by Kim Mohr Dulek of Savannah. It was chosen by our judges as the overall winner of our contest.
This photo of the Imperial Theatre in Augusta was taken by John Kirkland of Augusta. It was chosen by our judges as the runner-up in our contest.
All entries are available to view here. Thank you to all who participated in this year's contest, and stay tuned next year for an entirely new theme.
FFY 2015 HPF Grants Begin Projects This Month
By Carole Moore, Tax Incentives & Grants Coordinator HPD's oldest existing grant program is the federally-funded Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), which is earmarked only for Georgia's Certified Local Governments (CLGs). The HPF grant program is appropriated annually from Congress through the National Park Service to support the operations and activities of the nation's State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs). As Georgia's SHPO, HPD reserves 10 percent of each year's appropriation to award 60%/40% sub-grants to CLGs for preservation projects.
Nine CLGs are starting new projects this month as recipients of the FFY2015 grant cycle. These projects include seven historic resources surveys, one National Register nomination, and one predevelopment project. HPD Division Director David Crass said, "Because historic resource surveys are the foundation of all preservation activity, particularly for a CLG, this year we made the decision to offer priority funding for survey and National Register grant projects." He added that an additional benefit from these projects will be that "these surveys will also identify buildings eligible for our state and federal tax incentive programs."
Five of the seven survey grant projects will produce city-wide or county-wide updates to outdated surveys, most over 20 years old. These include Carrollton, Marshallville, McIntosh County, Tybee Island and Toccoa. Tybee Island and Marshallville plan to complete their city-wide surveys within the current grant cycle, while the other three CLGs will phase their surveys over several grant cycles. "HPD is encouraging updates of surveys older than 15 years because historic resources are subject to change, and also, additional resources are continually becoming eligible for National Register listing as they turn 50 years of age," said Stephanie Cherry-Farmer, HPD's survey and National Register manager. "These newly eligible properties would not have been identified in a 15-year-old survey," she added.
The City of Carrollton in Carroll County was awarded $5,325 to produce phase one of a three-phase update of its 1988 survey. Phase one will include approximately 200 resources in its downtown, InTown South, and Maple Street historic neighborhoods. The small agrarian town of Marshallville in Macon County was awarded $4,500 to update and expand upon its 1980 city-wide survey. The updated survey of approximately 200 resources also will include those located in the immediate vicinity outside the city limits of Marshallville. The cities of Toccoa and Tybee Island and McIntosh County are some of Georgia's newest CLGs, designated within the last couple of years. McIntosh County, which is located on Georgia's coast and includes the City of Darien the 2nd oldest city in Georgia - was awarded $11,070 to produce phase one of a three- or four-phase county-wide survey that will update a 1989 survey. The City of Tybee Island, a historic coastal beachfront town facing intense development pressure, was awarded $18,000 to update a 2003 city-wide survey in one phase; the updated survey will include approximately 600 resources. The City of Toccoa, located in the Appalachian foothills of Stephens County, was awarded $6,000 to produce phase one of a five-phase city-wide survey, which will update a 1989 city/county joint survey. Phase one will include approximately 160 resources in the Main Street downtown district.
Long-time CLGs Albany and Augusta/Richmond County will produce additional phases for ongoing surveys funded in previous years by HPD. The City of Albany was awarded $16,200 to complete phase two of its city-wide survey. Phase one, awarded in FFY 2014, included the Rawson Circle area, while Phase two will include approximately 600 resources located within the central business district and the Old Westside and Northside areas. AugustaRichmond County was awarded $12,000 to complete the third and final phase of a survey of approximately 566 resources located within the Summerville National Register Historic District, listed in 1980. The Summerville Historic District is an area of approximately 80 residential city blocks that contain homes built from the early 1800s through the 1950s. Augusta-Richmond County is particularly interested in surveying properties in this district that were built after the 1930 period-of-significance cut-off date. The completed survey also will provide information that could be supportive of an amendment to the National Register boundaries, which would then make these newly identified properties potentially eligible for state and federal tax incentives.
The final two grant projects that received funding this year were awarded to the cities of Brunswick and Rome, also long-time CLGs. Both involve African American-related resources. The City of Brunswick has been awarded $6,075 to produce a National Register nomination for the adjacent neighborhoods of Dixville and Habersham Park, a project which builds upon a 2008 Historic Resources Survey funded with an HPF grant. Although originally settled by displaced white planters immediately after the Civil War, Dixville quickly developed into a workingclass community of freedmen who settled there from the 1880s through the early 20th century. The house types one-story central hallway, hall-parlor, and shotgun - reflect the working-class roots of the neighborhood. Habersham Park primarily developed during the 1950s and early 60s and features simple frame ranch and bungalow house types. Mathew Hill, executive director of the Brunswick Downtown Development Authority, said, "We are hopeful the National Register listing will generate economic development in these neighborhoods as property owners use the preservation tax incentives to rehabilitate the historic homes located there." Hill also believes that "National Register districts throughout Glynn County have demonstrated more stability in value and owner-occupants than similar areas that are not part of a National Register district."
The City of Rome, in partnership with the non-profit organization Fairview/ES Brown Heritage Corporation, received $9,000 to produce a preservation plan for the historic Fairview School, located in Cave Spring. The school was named as one of the Georgia Trust's "2011 Places in Peril" as one of the few remaining educational buildings which provided education to African American children in Georgia. The comprehensive preservation plan will provide a historical overview; a structural analysis; an archaeological analysis; a current and future property use analysis; a landscape plan; a maintenance plan; and adaptive use recommendations for the school. Jeanne Cyriaque, HPD's African American program coordinator, said "The Fairview School is the last remaining historic African American school building in Cave Spring. Fairview/Brown has engaged many partners for its preservation, including the Georgia and National Trust, Georgia Humanities Council, local nonprofits, and the City of Rome. This preservation plan will provide a blueprint for future use of the building and its return to community use."
Although the $88,170 total amount for the FFY 2015 grant awards for the nine projects described above is not large, it actually represents almost $150,000 in preservation activity, considering the leveraging effect of the required local match. Indeed, for 30+ years the grant program has funded over $700 million for a variety of different projects in Georgia, including historic resources/archaeological surveys, National Register nominations, local district designations, design guidelines, historic walking/driving tour brochures, workshops and conferences, website development, video/DVD production, heritage education materials, context studies, historic structure reports, preservation plans, architectural plans and brick-and-mortar rehabilitation projects. Individually and collectively, therefore, this grant program has had a far-reaching and long-term impact on Georgia's communities as their citizens continue to work on preserving, protecting, and promoting their historic resources. More information on the HPF grant program is available here.
Looting Affects Archaeological Sites Worldwide
By Dr. Bryan Tucker, State Archaeologist
Examples of pottery still missing from Kolomoki Mounds.
Archaeological resources remain under threat both domestically and internationally. Images of the destruction of the city of Nimrud by ISIS drew attention to the destruction of world heritage. However, recent accounts indicate the destruction may only be a ruse to distract from a thriving black market trade in illicit antiquities. Experts have suggested the larger more immobile antiquities were destroyed for propaganda purposes in ISIS's war against "false idols" (BBC 2015). Smaller more mobile pieces were probably stolen for sale on the black market (Hardy 2015). According to Thomas Livoti, a University of Montana PhD student studying the effects of counterinsurgency on archaeological sites, al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban sell looted antiquities to fund their operations (Pringle 2014). In fact, in 2014 in Syria, ISIS made as much as $36 million from activities that included the smuggling of plundered artifacts (Pringle 2014).
Archaeological site looting and artifact theft is a problem closer to home as well. Looting is a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise in the U.S. In 2006, the FBI estimated that over $500 million worth of artifacts were stolen each year from National Park Service land alone (White 2006). In the US, looting and trafficking of artifacts often goes hand-in-hand with the drug trade (Patel 2009). The connection is so common there is a name for the looter addicts: "twiggers," a combination of "tweaker" (a meth user) and "digger" (Patel 2009).
Even before the rise of methamphetine use in the 1990s, looting was a problem in Georgia. In 1974, thieves broke into the museum at Kolomoki Mounds State Park and stole over 90 whole pots. Kolomoki Mounds is a large archaeological site in southwest Georgia noted for its complex of nine mounds. Kolomoki was occupied during the Woodland Period (1000 B.C.-A.D. 900). Mound A, the largest of Kolomoki's mounds, is also the largest mound in Georgia. The site was originally excavated between 1948 and 1953 by Dr. William H. Sears. These excavations produced many examples of distinctive pottery and rare complete vessels.
The vessels are important for more than their archaeological or scientific value; they are also special to the decedents of the native people who inhabited the site. These artifacts are beautiful pieces of art with several effigy pots representing animals including panthers, deer, owls, and ducks. Since the burglary, only 13 of the pots have been recovered. We hope that the vessels will be found. Now, more than 40 years later, some of these vessels may reappear in collections as unknowing family members inherit the artifacts, unaware that they were stolen. Please help us spread the word about these vessels. DNR maintains a webpage with images of the vessels and we encourage any information that might lead to their recovery. More images are available here. More information on Kolomoki Mounds is available here.
Revitalizing the Hardman Farm Bathtub, Part 3
By Josh Headlee, Senior Preservation Technician
The restored Hardman Farm bathtub.
This is the final installment of a 3-part series on the restoration of an antique bathtub at Hardman Farm State Historic Site in White County. Part 1 is available here; part 2 is available here.
The only part of the tub that was not restored exactly as the Sears & Roebuck catalog described was the interior. Instead of using enamel, it was painted with a white paint that had a higher gloss than the old paint. This would resemble the original enamel while also allowing more of the imperfections in the underlying metal to show. Since we did not wish to restore the tub to when it was brand new, this would hopefully give the impression of some age and use.
The wooden rim pieces were stripped of the white paint. They were then repolished to reveal the beauty of the original oak. A few interesting finds were made during this process. First, the name "BOOTH" was discovered stenciled on the bottom side of the rim (See figure 1). This turned out to be the manufacturer. A few small nails were discovered stuck into the top of the rim directly behind where the faucet would be. These nails were left in place for possible interpretation of their use. Also, a number of small lead areas were found throughout the top of the wooden pieces. Often in the past, lead was used to fill holes. Not only did this reveal that the wood had been previously damaged, it might also explain why the tub was painted over since there would have been no way to stain the lead to match the wood. The easy solution was to simply paint over it. Painting everything white would have also made the tub resemble the enameled claw-foot tubs that became popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
With the metal treated and painted and the wood re-polished, the tub was carefully reassembled and taken back to the Hardman Farm. Once the tub was restored and back in place, it was obvious that it needed a faucet and handles. A few old tubs in various stages of deterioration were found in a discard pile near the main house. An easily-accessible tub still contained its faucet, handles, vent, and drain pipe. The fixtures were carefully removed from the old tub with the aid of a lot of lubricant. The pieces were then cleaned and placed on the restored tub, but something was wrong. The handles on the fixture were so close to the rim of the tub that they could not turn. It was obvious that these were not the original fixtures for this tub. Since it was likely going to be impossible to find the original fixtures for this tub, it was determined these would simply have to do. The handles would not turn, but they were on the tub and it looked better than having nothing there. Before leaving the site, I decided to take one more look over the discarded tubs. Towards the back of the pile of rusted up equipment and broken objects was a tub with a fixture still on it. This fixture was smaller and had a different type of handle configuration. After lots of blood, sweat, and tears, the faucet/handle set was removed. When it was cleaned and placed on the restored tub, it fit perfectly. With the alternate handle configuration, the handles are free to turn.
I have little doubt that the fixture on the tub now is the original fixture for that tub.
So, in essence, we answered the question of whether to preserve or restore. We chose to restore the tub to its almost original state. Although we removed a layer of the tub's history, hopefully we have restored it to its original beauty. Furthermore, it seems a bit wrong to paint an artifact a color that you know it wasn't originally. While it has been restored, it is really only a partial restoration. There are enough dents in the metal and dings in the wood to show its use while bringing forth its hidden beauty. You can see the tub in person along with the rest of the beautiful Hardman Farm State Historic Site in Helen, Georgia. More information is available here.
Recent News & Announcements
May is National Historic Preservation Month
On May 12, Governor Nathan Deal signed an official proclamation recognizing National Historic Preservation Month in Georgia. The annual month-long celebration was started by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1973.
2015 Historic Landscape & Garden Grant Program Now Accepting Applications The Garden Club of Georgia is now accepting applications for its 2015 Historic Landscape and Garden Grant Program, which provides funds for the preservation and restoration of Georgia's historic gardens and landscapes. Non-profit organizations, local governments, and local garden clubs are eligible to apply for the 50/50 matching grant in amounts up to $3,000. Grants will be awarded only to projects that are historically documented, and projects must be completed within one year. Eligible applicants must be a local government, non-profit organization, or a garden club or civic organization. Eligible sites must be at least 50 years old and open to the public. Detailed guidelines and the one-page application may be found at the Garden Club of Georgia's website. Applications are due by August 1.
Jones County is Georgia's 90th Certified Local Government - (press release - May 21)
Upcoming Events
November 5, 2015 - Historic Preservation Commission Training Thomasville Save the date! Details will be posted here as they become available.
References for Looting Affects Archaeological Sites Worldwide Pringle 2014 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140626 -isis-insurgents-syria -iraq -looting -antiquities archaeology/
BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/world -middle -east-32273672
Sam Hardy 2015 https://conflictantiquities.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/iraq-mosul -museum -nergal -gate -nineveh -destruction/
White 2006 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0426/p03s03 -ussc.html
Patel 2009 http://archive.archaeology.org/0903/etc/drugs.html
www.georgiashpo.org
Title image: Hardman Farm State Historic Site. Photo by Jonathan Hillyer. Copyright 2015 DNR Historic Preservation Division, All rights reserved.
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