Preservation posts, 2020 April

7/8/2020

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

IN THIS ISSUE:
A Message from the Director Section 106 in the Time of COVID-19 Reorganizational Efforts in the Research Room: Maps, Guides, and More 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
"Spoon bread, get your spoon bread! Spoon bread loooooves butter!" A Tavern Waiter ca. 1965, Colonial Williamsburg
Last month I wrote a short piece on the role of historic preservation in creating familiar places to which we want to return after a disaster or social disruption. This month I'd like to give an example of that from my own life. Hugging friends, going to church or a museum, or even just loitering in the local hardware store on a Saturday morning will all return in due course. In the meantime, we muddle along as best we can. I think memories can help us with that.
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7/8/2020

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For my part, I have found over the last few weeks that my mind will, at odd moments, take me to a place from my past that I loved and still love--Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I've written in the past about how Williamsburg taught me the importance of history. My parents took my brother Steve and I there twice a year, every year, for Easter and Thanksgiving, until I left for college. We stayed at the Colonial Williamsburg Motor House, a wonderful "colonial" mid-century motel complete with shuffleboard that is now, alas, no more. And yes, I'm aware that especially in the 1960s, the town presented a very sanitized and biased view of our collective past, a shortcoming that the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has mightily (and effectively) labored over decades to rectify.

Dave with his 1964 World's Fair camera (still got it!) and brother Steve wait to eat lunch at Chowning's Tavern, ca. 1965
Years later while in graduate school at the College of William and Mary, I took a summer internship with the National Park Service and traveled the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown every day to write what I firmly believe still stands as the single most boring thesis ever ginned up by a desperate and half starved twenty-something. That drive from the town to the NPS curation facility along the James River has also stuck with me. Such beautiful Tidewater country, but burdened with such a dark history.
I think remembering episodes in our lives like those I've described have a very important purpose. Oscar Wilde wrote that "memories...are the diaries that we carry about with us." Calling on that diary is why in times of dislocation, memories, especially of places we love, help re-ground us and remember who we are.
Take a moment to travel in your mind's eye to one of those places you love during these troubled times and see if it helps. And if you want to virtually visit someplace new, the
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7/8/2020

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National Trust for Historic Places has some great new content up here.

Section 106 in the Time of COVID-19

By: Stacy Rieke, Environmental Review Historian stacy.rieke@dnr.ga.gov
We are in the middle of a what is shaping up to be a generation-defining event: the corona virus/Covid-19 worldwide pandemic and the way both business and the business of daily life are conducted is undergoing a monumental shift. To address questions related to the pandemic and the Section 106 review process nationwide, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has provided guidance on their website. Basically, the guidance indicates that the ACHP does not anticipate any changes in the Section 106 review process for any federal agency. However, the ACHP has offered guidance related to Section 106 reviews should a State/Tribal Historic Preservation Office (S/THPO) need to close due to the pandemic. For reference, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) provides a report on their website, updated periodically, noting the operating status of SHPOs nationwide.
Against this backdrop of change and uncertainty, the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office is pleased to be able to say that Section 106 reviews in Georgia are on-track and proceeding as normal through the review process. Environmental Review (ER) team members are available to accept project submittals and answer questions as always. We are currently operating (relatively) normally, and Section 106 reviews are being processed with no change in the federally mandated 30-day review period and with only a few internal process adjustments.
While in-person research in HPD's file room is currently suspended, there are several publicly available online research resources that can stand-in for in-person research when preparing project materials for a Section 106 review. These resources include Georgia's Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources GIS (GNAHRGIS) database, the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) database, Historic Aerials website, and county tax assessor websites, among others. The basic information needed for a project submittal can, as always, be found on the last page of the Environmental Review form located on our website.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Georgia SHPO limited the electronic submittal of Section 106 reviews and requested paper copies of all project-related materials. This paper-based process was dictated by internal system-based infrastructure limitations, but with all ER team members suddenly teleworking, a paper-based review process was neither feasible nor sustainable. Luckily, the ER team was already in the process of upgrading our internal project tracking system and moving to a new digital review system. Teleworking for the past several weeks has given ER team members the opportunity to test the functionality, capabilities of our new ER project tracking system. Our internal review processes are improving daily based on what we continue to learn through this crash-course in digital reviews. The Section 106-related silver lining of this situation may be the relatively smooth transition of the ER team to a more fully digital review process.
For now, submitting Section 106 review materials can still be done with a hardcopy, but electronic submittals are possible, as well. Simply send the appropriate ER team member an email with a single PDF attachment containing all project-related materials or, for larger files, send a file-sharing link through Microsoft OneDrive. For those sent by email, we
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recommend sending a separate email to make sure the email with the attachment made it through. And during this time, if you submit the `old fashioned way' of hardcopy, please do not request a delivery signature so that we can limit in-person contact. If in-person project drop-off is necessary, leave the package on the cart outside our office's front door during regular business hours.
One day we will all return to a more "normal" pattern of life, but the efficiencies the ER team is in the process of creating for Section 106 reviews in Georgia will not be lost and may even remain. Right now, we are also working to implement a more efficient, permanent means to digitally submit projects so stay tuned! From SHPO's ER team to you and yours: we wish you health, safety, and better days ahead. Here's to making sweet Section 106 "lemonade" out of the bitterest of pandemic "lemons!"

Reorganizational Efforts in the Research Room: Maps, Guides, and More
By: Hannah Murphey, Survey Program Coordinator hannah.murphey@dnr.ga.gov

Some good news for researchers: our research room survey files are undergoing some work that will help facilitate projects and research! For the past few months, new Survey Coordinator Hannah Murphey has been working to overhaul our survey files and their finding aids. This started in September with a wholesale shifting and reshuffling of the files,
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to better integrate larger survey files (such as DeKalb County's 1976 survey) and to make room for recent and future survey files. Older files were consolidated and older surveys, not previously noted in the File Users' Guide, were discovered during this process. The File Users' Guide is the go-to resource for determining what survey files exist and what's been surveyed in Georgia. In turn, the File Users' Guide was updated and expanded with more contextual information and an easier-to-scan format. The File Users' Guide is available both on our website in PDF form and in the research room as a packet.
In December the new project of cataloguing and re-organizing all of paper survey maps and quad maps began. The project aims to identify where all survey maps reside and to inventory all files. This began with a full reorganization of the county and quad map drawers. A reference document is currently in process that will indicate which quad maps exist in the drawers versus the survey files, as well as what surveys are associated with them. Once this is completed it will be accessible to all researchers in the file room, so they are able to cut down on their time hunting down references and spend more time doing research!
This project is also helping us to identify documents in need of preservation and digitization. Maps have been graded on a "good, fair, poor" scale, with the maps in poorest shape earmarked for priority digitization at a later stage. Luckily, only a small percentage of the maps in our file rooms are of "poor" quality, and the majority are on the good end of "fair". The maps in most need help are, predictably, the maps that are most used. This is one of the reasons we encourage researchers to bring digital cameras with them to our research room, as copying maps is not always an option.
Once the total map cataloging is completed, a master document of all map contents and locations for all historic resources survey maps will be available to researchers in PDF format and in paper form. While the current situation with COVID-19 is troubling, our Historic Resources Survey Program is using this time to further these organizational efforts so you can look forward to a more organized, easier-to-navigate filing system. Once we are able to re-open our doors to the public for research, we sincerely hope that the public will be pleased with what it finds!
News and Announcements
A grant application package for the Hurricane Irma Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) subgrant program, administered by our office is now available on our website . Applications must be postmarked on or before May 15, 2020. Contact melanie.holthaus@dnr.ga.gov for more information.

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 deadline is June 19, 2020.

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.
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7/8/2020

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The National Park Service (NPS) announced $14 million in African American Civil Rights Historic Preservation Fund grants to fund 51 projects across 20 states and the District of Columbia. Five grants were awarded in Georgia for over $1.5 million in Americus, Atlanta, and Fort Oglethorpe! Congratulations to these awardees! More information can be found here.
Upcoming Events

May: The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) will offer a free Stay-atHome series of four webinars to introduce decision makers, project managers, consulting parties, and others with limited experience to the main requirements of Section 106 review. Webinars will take place in May. Find out more and register for one or all four of the webinars.
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 allison.asbrock@dnr.ga.gov.

Copyright 2017 DNR Historic Preservation Division, All rights reserved.
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