Preservation posts, 2020 March

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Preservation Posts - March 2020
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Keep Up with the Latest in Preservation News

IN THIS ISSUE:
A Message from the Director Hurricane Irma Disaster Assistance Grant Applications Available Now! Georgia's Agricultural Heritage and Section 106 News and Announcements Upcoming Events
A Message from the Director
by: Dr. David Crass, david.crass@dnr.ga.gov Division Director & Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
"I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road." Stephen Hawking
As I write this brief column, I am, just like everyone else, adjusting to new ways of doing things. Our office is open for business, while virtually all our dedicated staff are teleworking. Our business functions, from Section 106 reviews to the Office of the State Archaeologist to the National Register process, are all functioning normally (with the
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occasional digital glitch). I will, however, admit to struggling with Microsoft Teams. It's a challenge when you grew up using a party line dial telephone.
As we all focus on social distancing, keeping our hands clean, and following the rest of the guidance to flatten the curve (and prove Hawking correct) it's worth taking a moment to reflect on how historic preservation can contribute to recovery. My colleague from Texas, Mark Wolfe, perhaps put it best in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, when he said that our role is to make sure that people have communities to return to that they both recognize and care about. Community landmarks, historic neighborhoods and town squares, much loved public parks and old business districts--these are all aspects of our society that help to bind us together. They remind us of challenges the country, our state, and yes, our local communities have faced in the past--and over which they prevailed. That is why I often speak not of historic resources, but of historic assets. It's not just that they are financial assets, although that certainly is true. They are also, just as importantly, cultural assets. Our business as historic preservationists is to ensure that those historic assets continue to, in the words of the Preamble to the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, "give a sense of orientation" as "living" parts of our communities.
Stay safe, monitor guidance from Governor Kemp's office, and remember to treasure the historic assets in your communities.
Hurricane Irma Disaster Assistance Grant Applications Available Now!

A grant application package for the Hurricane Irma Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) subgrant program, administered by the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources is now available on HPD's
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website at https://georgiashpo.org/disaster-recovery-grants. This subgrant program has been made available through the award of a Hurricane Harvey, Irma, and Maria Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund grant (HIM ESHPF grant, CFDA No. 15.957) from the National Park Service (NPS) to the Historic Preservation Division. This package includes the application forms, instructions, and criteria used to evaluate grant applications for building or site-specific predevelopment and development projects.
The purpose of the HIM ESHPF subgrant program is to assist Georgia historic property owners with recovery from Hurricane Irma by addressing historic property needs unmet through other funding sources (FEMA, GEMA, Insurance, etc.). The HPD may award up to $400,000.00 in total in HIM ESHPF subgrants to private, public, and nonprofit historic property owners, and we encourage all interested in this grant to apply. This is a reimbursement grant, and project cost reimbursements are based on invoices and receipts that are directly related to work items in the scope of work and budget which must be approved by the HPD and NPS. No project match is required, and there is a minimum project cost of $5,000. There is no maximum project cost.
Owners of historic buildings, structures, and objects in Georgia counties designated for general public assistance and individual assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for Hurricane Irma are eligible to apply. The following counties were not designated for general or public assistance by FEMA for Hurricane Irma and are therefore historic resources located in these counties are ineligible for assistance:
Bartow, Bleckley, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Columbia, Dade, Douglas, Dekalb, Fannin, Fulton, Floyd, Gordon, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Richmond, Walker and Whitefield
For the purpose of this grant program, only predevelopment and development projects will be considered. Essential criteria for a qualified grant application include demonstrating the property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places; demonstrating property damage was caused or worsened by Hurricane Irma; placing a preservation easement of up to 20 years on the property deed of all awarded development grant projects; compliance with applicable federal and state laws, regulations, and standards, including meeting federal procurement requirements; and signing a funding agreement. All project work and final products must be clearly stated in the grant application along with a line-item detailed budget. Project work must meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation, must follow OMB regulations in 2CFR200 and the Historic Preservation Fund Grant Manual, and will be reviewed by HPD prior to project commencement. If the property is not listed, but is eligible to be listed, please contract grants coordinator Melanie Holthaus before submitting an application at Melanie.Holthaus@dnr.ga.gov.
All grant applications will be evaluated and awarded based on information provided in the application, scoring criteria, funding availability, and reviews by the HPD staff and the NPS. If you apply for more than one project (i.e. a predevelopment AND development project), you must complete a separate application for each one.
Applications must be postmarked on or before May 15, 2020. Grant awards are expected to be announced in July 2020. Projects may begin as early as August 2020 upon HPD and NPS approval and must be completed by December 2021. If you have questions about the grant program or the application process, please don't hesitate to contact me at melanie.holthaus@dnr.ga.gov.

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Georgia's Agricultural Heritage and Section 106
By: Santiago Martinez, Environmental Review Historian santiago.martinez@dnr.ga.gov

As many Georgians know, agriculture is a fundamental part of the state's economy, generating billions of dollars per year and supporting tens of thousands of jobs. Georgia is the world's largest producer of pecans and is consistently a national leader in peanut and broiler chicken production. Other significant crops include onions, blueberries, cotton, watermelon, and of course, peaches, to name just a few. Unsurprisingly, agriculture is also a fundamental part of the state's history. At every stage, from before the arrival of Europeans, to today, agriculture has played a prominent role in Georgia's development. Georgia's agricultural heritage is evident from the many reminders that dot the state's landscape. The most well-known of these reminders are no doubt the numerous plantations that draw visitors from all over, such as Wormsloe, Jarrell, and Pebble Hill. Less well-known are the everyday examples of farms and ranches spread throughout the state that have maintained a strong link with the past. When federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) engage in projects in rural areas of the state that require Section 106 review, it is often these lesser-known reminders of Georgia's agricultural past that come to the forefront.
Agricultural properties present some unique challenges when evaluating their eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) for Section 106 purposes. For example, they often lack the distinctiveness of resources one might find in more urban areas such as a Queen Anne home or an Italiante storefront (though this is not to say that
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they are any less significant). It can also be difficult, despite the ubiquity of farms and ranches in Georgia, to find agricultural properties that retain the characteristics that made them historically significant, largely due to the ever-changing nature of agricultural production. In many places around the state, fields that were once used for growing crops are now covered in thick tree stands, thus dramatically altering the overall character of the property. It is also common for the structures on agricultural properties to undergo changes. What was once a small farmhouse may have had several rooms added to it as the family inside grew. Outbuildings such as barns or sheds may be repurposed, altering their appearance. These changes could potentially hinder a property's eligibility if they impact the property's ability to convey its significance as a historic farm or ranch.
Given this complexity, one may be left wondering just how agricultural properties are evaluated. The answer can be found in a text called, Tilling the Earth: Georgia's Historic Agricultural Heritage A Context, which provides some guidelines for determining whether a farm or ranch may be eligible for listing in the NRHP. Essentially, to be considered an agricultural property, a farm or ranch must contain at least two of the following:
1. An extant historic farmhouse or main building for an agriculture complex. 2. One or more agricultural outbuildings or ancillary structures from the period of
significance (typically barns, corn cribs, smokehouses, chicken houses, grain bins, silos, etc. The key is that the buildings can easily be associated with an agricultural purpose). 3. An identifiable agricultural landscape with few changes from the period of significance.
In order to be eligible for listing in the NRHP, an agricultural property must be historic (at least 50 years old) and meet the typical integrity requirements expected of any eligible property. The two-out-of-three requirement ensures that properties still retain the core characteristics that make them agricultural while also allowing room for the type of change and evolution expected of farms and ranches. In certain exceptional cases, a property could be eligible while only meeting one of the three criteria, but this would be limited to extremely rare cases such as an intact cotton gin or turpentine still since so few remain intact.
Tilling the Earth also points to the growing need for ensuring that agricultural properties are preserved, noting that, "...fewer people than ever are engaged in farming. Changes in technology and the economics of farming, involving larger machines and production facilities, have increased farm size." This trend has also meant that outbuildings are often left to the elements once they have outlived their usefulness, particularly on smaller farms where the resources to care for old buildings may not be present. Encroaching urban growth and the widening of highways and roads also pose a threat to historic farms and ranches. Together, these factors are resulting in, "...the gradual disappearance of historic agricultural resources [which] leaves the state with fewer visible reminders of a significant part of its agrarian past." Agriculture will likely continue to dominate the state's economy for some time to come, but we must also make sure that it continues to be recognized as a crucial component of Georgia's history as well.

Tax Incentives Program Update

If you have submitted a tax incentives project in the past few months, you may have noticed some changes to our business process. As well as hiring two new employees (one of whom we will introduce you to in this column), we have made some changes to how we
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review applications. To better assist our applicants and reduce our review time frame, we are focusing the review process on two main conditions that will be applied to projects, when necessary, to bring them into conformance with The DNR and SOI Standards for Rehabilitation. This streamlined new conditions process will allow us to increase our verbal guidance and technical support early in the review process. This, in turn, should help applicants achieve successful tax incentives projects.
Our two new conditions will focus on Problematic Work Items/ Treatments or alternatively, Requests for Information. To address problematic work items, we recommend that applicants reference standard NPS publications including the Guidelines for Rehabilitation, Preservation Briefs, Interpreting the Standards (ITS) Bulletins, Preservation Tech Notes, National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) Reports, and other available preservation/rehabilitation resources to develop appropriate treatments. Applicants should also reference relevant guidance to support proposed treatments if applicable. The new review process is collaborative and early indications are that it results in increased support for successful project applications.
As with any programmatic change, we expect there will be a learning curve both for consultants and our reviewers. If there are any questions or concerns you would like to share with us, please feel free to reach out to me so that we can work through them together.
Meet Caroline, one of our new Architectural Reviewers:
Caroline joined the Historic Preservation Division in December 2019 as a Tax Incentives Architectural Reviewer. In her role, Caroline assesses the proposed work and the completed work on historic properties to determine whether the work meets the Secretary of the Interior's Standards.
In 2013, she graduated with a Master's degree in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors from the Wallace Collection in London before earning a second Master's degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia in 2019. Between earning her degrees, she has interned and worked with a variety of organizations including the National Park Service, the Georgia Museum of Art, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Portman Archives. Caroline's areas of specialty include pre-Civil War Southern material culture and the long eighteenth century in Britain and France. Additionally, she has published several articles on the decorative arts and material culture. Originally a native of South Carolina, she now lives in Buckhead.
How did you become involved with historic preservation?
I've always been interested in history. Some of my earliest memories are watching documentaries from the History Channel taped by my mom for long car trips (before the History Channel became obsessed with Ancient Aliens and Bigfoot). I've always enjoyed reading historical biographies and consider the historic properties I work to preserve to be the stage where people from the past would play out their lives.
What do you like most about your job?
I love that every project is different! One day, I'm reviewing a small Craftsman style bungalow and the next, a mansion in Savannah.

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What do you like to do outside of the office?
Having just moved to Atlanta, I am still trying to find my place. In the meantime, I'm enjoying all the great restaurants in my area.

News and Announcements
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is seeking nominations for their 2021 Places in Peril. The Georgia Trust's Places in Peril program identifies historic sites threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development, or other threats. Get more information here.
The National Fund for Sacred Places is accepting letters of intent for their grant programs through April 22, 2020. The National Fund administers monies through planning grants, training and technical assistance, coaching, and capital grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000. Through this partnership, the program was designed to award roughly 50 houses of worship a total of $10 million over four years. Submit your letter of intent today. The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. is accepting applications for their Historic Landscape Preservation Grants. Funding is provided in the form of 50/50 matching grants at a maximum of $3,000. Grants are funded for a one-year period. For more information, visit their website.
Upcoming Events
Check back for future events!
Would you like to see an event listed? Email allison.asbrock@dnr.ga.gov.
Want to Contribute?
Submit a Guest Article Preservation Posts is published to inform the public about historic preservation issues and developments from the perspective of the SHPO. In keeping with that purpose, HPD occasionally solicits guest articles that are directly related to our statutorily mandated programs. Please note that we do not publish opinion pieces. We also retain editorial control as well as the right to reject any submission. To pitch or submit a piece, or ask questions concerning an idea, email HPD's Certified Local Government Coordinator, Sarah Rogers at sarah.rogers@dnr.ga.gov.

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