All posts filed under: Historic Preservation

Dinner along the Danube

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Bratislava, Slovakia is the only world capital that borders two other countries.  (Isn’t Wikipedia a wonderful thing!)  And last evening I had the chance to enjoy some of the best of this city with my friends and colleagues from the International National Trusts Organisation (or INTO). After my all-night flight on election night, I arrived in Vienna around 9 a.m. local time and caught a bus from the airport that took me the 45 minutes to Bratislavia.  The countryside between the airport and the city was very rural, broken only by the occasional wind farm and two delightful small historic towns (one of which still maintained its historic city wall surrounding the town).  Since the hotel where I’m staying didn’t take guests until 2 p.m. and I needed to do something to stay awake, I ate a bit of breakfast and then strolled the streets of Old Town Bratislava. And I’m here to say that the historic core was hopping.  I was on the streets at lunch time and those streets were swarming with people eating …

Bearden-Brown House

Franklin’s heritage is my heritage

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Franklin, Tennessee is a gem of a little town.  I should know.  Both my parents grew up in Franklin and I spent many a summer hour visiting my grandmother’s house as I mowed her yard, played catch in the back yard, helped in the large vegetable garden that was on a lot behind the house, or ran down the street to Alfred’s (a small store in a converted church) for ice cream and candy.  Murfreesboro, where we lived, was a big city compared to Franklin, but that meant that Franklin had an intimacy that was familiar, welcoming, and walkable to a 12 year old boy. Franklin has changed through the years.  After my grandfather died, my grandmother moved to Murfreesboro to live with us and she sold the family house to the city, which let it fall into disrepair.  We would drive by on occasional trips back with her to visit friends and lament the shape of the old Bearden-Brown home place. But a wonderful thing happened.  The local preservation group – the Heritage Foundation …

Beauty in the Mountains

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I spent the last two days in the mountains of North Carolina.  A colleague and I had a meeting in the region and our timing could not have been better. Few things are as beautiful as the mountains of western Virginia and North Carolina during the fall.  This was my favorite season during the 15 years we lived in Staunton, in the middle of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.  So Tom and I were thrilled to find ourselves on a lake with a jaw-dropping historic dam and a shoreline filled with trees in all their fall glory.  We viewed a great historic property with the owner on Tuesday afternoon, but knew we had to get up this morning to see more of this wonderful place. After a restful night’s sleep (boy it is dark in the country), Tom and I hit the hiking trail this morning to walk around the lake, enjoy the wonderful light, and examine the dam up close.   As you can see from these pictures, the trees were spectacular and the dam was awesome in all …

Take Me Home Down Route 66

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Just arrived home after a week in Tulsa for the National Preservation Conference.  National Trust staff posted some great updates throughout the week on the PreservationNation.org blog which I recommend.  I did see some great art deco architecture and thought the Gilcrease Museum was a real treasure (check out the amazing Ansel Adams exhibit).  But since I spent the better part of the week in partner and board meetings, I’m not the best judge of all the city had to offer.  So I’ll just post this picture from last evening’s terrific closing party with Asleep at the Wheel and say thanks to Marty, Marcia, Cliff and all our hosts from Oklahoma for a great week. We’ll let Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel take us home with a great version of Route 66! More to come… DJB

Will Rogers: Why can’t new public schools be this cool?

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As regular readers know, I’m in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this week for the 2008 National Preservation Conference.  Tonight’s event was in this great building, Will Rogers High School, which reminds us all that public schools weren’t always bland, boring spaces. As we drove through a non-descript neighborhood, my colleagues were doubting that anything of great value could be found in this landscape.  And yet, the moment the school, with its towers rising above the treetops, came into view, it was clear we were in for a treat.  The school was built in 1938 as part of the Public Works Administration (PWA). The auditorium was an Art Deco wonder, the library a pleasant surprise, and the entire building a delight for the eyes which has to be a treat for the discerning and observant student.  I’ve posted a couple of pictures to give you a hint of what we enjoyed. More to come… DJB

An Art Deco masterpiece

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Today’s opening plenary of the National Preservation Conference was held in the spectacular Boston Avenue Church – a National Historic Landmark and Art Deco masterpiece.  Seldom have I been so surprised – and moved – by an interior. The church was built in 1929 and is filled with great detail large and small.  I took numerous pictures of the interior, several of which I’ve posted.  Today has been a gray, rainy day in Tulsa, so the exterior shot doesn’t show off the building at its best.  The stunning setting was a great place to hear the Cherokee Youth Choir, with a group of middle-school and high-school boys and girls who sang three beautiful songs in their native Cherokee. The keynote speaker was Chief Wilma Mankiller of the Cherokee Nation.  She gave a terrific talk about indigenous people, ending with the old Mohawk proverb: It is hard to see the future with tears in your eyes. More to come… DJB

Taking a Look at Tulsa

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I’m in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the 2008 National Preservation Conference and took some time this afternoon to become acclimated to my home for the next week. Tulsa is known for its great collection of art deco architecture, and on my way to the TV studio this morning to do a stint on Good Morning Tulsa I drove past the magnificent Boston Avenue Methodist Church.  What a building!  It was highlighted on the cover of the July/August 2008 issue of Preservation magazine in a beautiful photograph and – seen in the morning light – is even more stunning in person.  I hope to take some photos later in the week when we’re there for conference events. In walking around downtown on a beautiful fall day, I found a range of 20th century architecture – not just art deco.  The photo at the top of the post just gives a hint of the range of styles one sees when walking around with an open eye. The newest landmark in Tulsa just opened last August – the Cesar Pelli-designed …

Rosenwald Schools – Invested with Meaning

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I’m reading Mary Hoffschwelle’s The Rosenwald Schools of the American South, an inspiring story of a remarkable program.  Mary (Dr. Hoffschwelle) is a friend who happens to be married to Van West – one of my oldest friends from childhood and a professional colleague.  In this 2006 book, she captures the story of the Rosenwald School building project which eventually resulted in the construction of more than 5,000 school buildings for African Americans across the Southern states in the first half of the 20th century. Through its Rosenwald Initiative, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has worked with community groups to try and save the approximately 1,000 remaining Rosenwald schools.  It is very important work.  I spoke at a Rosenwald Schools conference at Fisk University several years ago and was inspired by the many stories of the former students.  I recommend a tour through the initiative’s web site to learn more about these remarkable community centers and what’s being done to preserve them.  I recommend Mary’s book as well. I came across the following in Mary’s …

Get your kicks…with vintage signs from Route 66

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On our family’s western travels this summer, we regularly crossed or traveled historic Route 66, as when we visited the beautiful — and beautifully restored — La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona (see photo at the top).  So it was great to learn that the Vintage Roadside folks were traveling to the National Preservation Conference in Tulsa by road trip along historic Route 66 – and blogging about it along the way. Vintage Roadside celebrates the “incredible history and advertising graphics of mom and pop businesses from the 1930s through the early 1960s.”  The folks at Vintage Roadside partner with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the sponsors of the National Preservation Conference in Tulsa.  You can also read about their trip on the PreservationNation.org website of the National Trust. So take a look at their blog, order one of their great t-shirts with a roadside sign from America’s past, and get your kicks on Route 66. More to come… DJB