SHPA Series: Space for Place

Hello All,

We are moving along with our plans for the May event at the Superior Schoolhouse in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

For Participants:

Please send me a brief (less than a paragraph is fine) summary to include with press releases.

This should include; Event One's works, a tiny bit of your creds, and also a sentance about why you have interest in Preservation, or what element of Preservation you focus your work.

For Interested Parties:

Please send info on what you will be contributing to the event: time, food, interesting lighting devices, etc.

We need contacts on a printer, who would be willing to press our event flyers, and or flip books for a reasonable cost.

Thanks So Much!

Historic Preservation Needs Your Help

ACT NOW to Restore Funding for Historic Preservation Programs

The Star Spangled Banner is just one

of 1,200 sites and collections that have

received critical funding through the

Save America's Treasures program.

(Photo Credit: Ira Block/National

Geographic and Jeffrey Tinsley)

Last week, President Obama released his FY 2011 budget request that would eliminate funding for Save America’s Treasures (SAT) and Preserve America (PA), and cut funding for National Heritage Areas by 50 percent. These critical historic preservation programs matter now more than ever -- not only because they protect our national heritage but because they serve as economic development engines and job creators in the thousands of communities they serve. For example, Save America’s Treasures alone has been responsible for more than 16,000 jobs since it was created just ten years ago.

We’re asking you to act now and use our easy online form to send a message to your members of Congress asking them to support restoration of funding for Save America’s Treasures and other preservation programs as the House and Senate work on their respective budget bills. Simply enter your zip code. It’s easy and takes a few minutes. We have provided a sample letter but we encourage you to personalize it.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to support restoration of funding to Save America's Treasures and other preservation programs.

Forward this message to at least five of your friends and colleagues asking them to send a message as well.

Share this information on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks using this link:http://bit.ly/savepresfunding.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

For additional information, visit:

http://www.preservationnation.org/save-americas-treasures

National Trust for Historic Preservation

1785 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20036

202-588-6000 / 800-315-6847

[email protected] / http://www.preservationnation.org/

Update Your Email Preferences - View as HTML - Forward to a Friend

Unsubscribe from receiving email, or change your email preferences.

http://www.clevelandhistory.blogspot.com/

http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=8411

The Cozad-Bates House: a Journey to Freedom

by Guest Writer on February 12th, 2010

Written by Kerry Adams

Constructed in three phases between 1853 and 1872, the Italianate Style Cozad-Bates House continues to present a commanding presence along busy Mayfield Road in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. Previously owned by University Hospitals, the building had been chopped into 18 apartments and then left vacant for many years. Without the benefit of local landmark status or any preservation protections, the house seemed destined for a very uncertain future as development began to encroach upon the area.

The rescue and renaissance of the Cozad-Bates House was long an ambition of the Cleveland Landmarks Commission and the Cleveland Restoration Society, a Local Partner of the National Trust, but the effort really picked up steam in 2003 through the heroic efforts of 73-year old Joan Southgate, who raised the profile of the property’s potential involvement in the Underground Railroad (UGRR) during the 1850s. Scholarly research provided insight that not only was Cleveland a hotbed of UGRR activity, but nearby neighbors Horatio and Cyrus Ford were safe house operators. Since the Cozad family were also known abolitionists, it appeared very probable that the original portion of the home may too have harbored slaves on their way to freedom in Canada.

To raise awareness about the importance of the Cozad-Bates House and Cleveland’s UGRR activity, Ms. Southgate, a social worker and activist, walked 519 miles along the trail blazed by slaves from Southern Ohio to Southeastern Canada. She founded the non-profit, Restore Cleveland Hope, carefully crafting the name to include the UGRR’s historic code name for Cleveland – “Hope.” Her mission evolved into classes and workshops which involved participants in UGRR safe-house re-enactments. Joan chronicled her journey in the book, In Their Path.

The tide continued to turn in 2004, with the support of late United States Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, and various city and county officials who urged University Hospitals to maintain the house and expansive lawn as a monument to Cleveland’s Underground Railroad legacy.

In April 2006, University Hospitals finally transferred ownership of the property to University Circle Incorporated, a community development corporation that has worked in partnership with Restore Cleveland Hope and the Cleveland Restoration Society to restore the building as an Underground Railroad learning center. Over the past three years, the Cozad-Bates House has become a Local Cleveland Landmark and the exterior has been secured. A recent grant from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission will fund complete roof replacement and restoration of the house’s signature cupola. On-going fundraising by Southgate and UCI will pave the way for a historic structure report and feasibility study.

Kerry Adams is a Senior Historic Preservation Specialist at the Cleveland Restoration Society

As forwarded by M. Ogle

Space for Place is beginning preperations for its first, May 2010, exhibition at the Cleveland Heights Superior Schoolhouse.

Currently, we are contacting participants, and beginning to inform the local area of this event.

If you would like to be involved, please don't hestitate to contact us.

Any and all ideas will be considered.

There are fantastic examples of video documentaries, informative and innovative installation work, and a great volume of Cleveland photography that have been submitted. SHPA is excited to be able to present this material and appreciates those involved.

Space for Place challenges you to learn to see.

Below are just several of the many sites that depict preservation's expansive outreach in Portland, Oregon.

http://www.visitahc.org/

http://portlandpreservation.wordpress.com/

http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2009/index.htm#LA

http://www.ohwy.com/or/h/histplor.htm

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/preservation/

In order to get together and do something: first take hints from successful others, and then mobilize for change!

Portland offers numerous examples of how a pedestrian friendly transportation system makes all the difference in continuing urban use, and perpetuating a fantastic place to call home. It also shows the wonderful addition forestry/green space can add to a city.

This city has it all, and it can provide much inspiration for other urban areas that are just taking to the idea of preservation as a city planning tool.

Famicos Notre Dame Building: Roman Catholic Notre Dame Academy - Cleveland, OH

Ohio

Famicos Notre Dame Building, affordable senior housing Cleveland, OH

Credit: www.famicos.org PROJECT DETAILS

Project Name: Famicos Notre Dame Building

Historic Name: Notre Dame Academy

Denomination: Roman Catholic, Order of the Sisters of Notre Dame

Architect: William Jensen

Construction Date: 1915

Date of Closure: 1964/1978

Date of Reuse: 1999

Address: 1325 Ansel Road Cleveland, OH 44106

Neighborhood: Glenville, Hough and St. Clair- Superior

Reuse: (Principal) 21 units of low income housing on the first floor and 52 units of low income elderly housing on upper floors. (Secondary) Health and child care services/offices.

Building Size: 103,000 sq. ft.

Project Cost: $9.7 million/ $94 per sq. ft.

Financing: Historic Tax Credits through National Equity Fund City of Cleveland Cleveland Housing Trust Fund HUD Famicos capital campaign State of Ohio grant Enterprise Foundation

Designation: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1988.

Significance: Played a unique role in the history of the city of Cleveland, the Archdiocese and the lives of many Catholic women.

Recognition: National Trust/HUD Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation, 2001.

Source: http://www.preservationnation.org/assets/photos-images/resources/case-studies/historic-houses-of-worship/Famicos-Notre-Dame-Building-exterior.jpg

Little Havana Bungalow Restored

By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Jan. 12, 2010

Little Havana bungalow, saved from demolition and now restored

Credit: Hugh Ryan Construction This month workers are putting the finishing touches on a 1921 bungalow in Miami's Little Havana.

Located a block from the Orange Bowl, the Hubbard-Alvarez bungalow had been abandoned for years when a developer proposed tearing it down. But the nonprofit Dade Heritage Trust bought the house in 2003 and began restoring it as offices for Citizens for a Better South Florida (CBSF), which will buy the house later this month.

"The house was a disaster," says Kelly Altosino-Sastre, executive director of CBSF, an environmental-education group. "I saw it for the first time about two years ago and I said, 'Oh, no.' You could see the ground straight thorough the holes in the floor."

Altosino-Sastre's group worked closely with the Dade Heritage Trust during the renovation process, and will purchase the house outright later this month, thanks to a capital-improvements grant from Miami-Dade County.

"It has been a wonderful win-win for us," says Becky Roper Matkov, president and CEO of the Dade Heritage Trust. "It's in a neighborhood where there are a lot of bungalows that had been treated very badly over the years."

CBSF is looking forward to moving in next month, Altosino-Sastre says. "It's just an absolutely beautiful house. We talk about having meetings on the veranda," she says. "People are going to be jealous of our office."

Original posting at http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2010/todays-news/little-havana-bungalow.html

January 25, 2006

http://www.cleveland.com/religion/index.ssf/2010/01/clevelands_landmarks_commissio.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland's Landmarks Commission is recommending that six more Catholic churches be designated as historical city landmarks, which would give them some protection against demolition or structural changes.

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese, which has been closing churches in an ongoing downsizing plan, opposes the designations that City Council will now consider adopting through legislation.

In letters sent to the commission and copied to council members sponsoring the designations, the diocese called the proposals "extremely offensive."

"We do not seek nor do we approve of landmark designation ..." said the letter written by diocese finance officer John Maimone.

Councilman Anthony Brancatelli, who is sponsoring five of the six designations, responded: "I find it a tad unusual that the diocese would be taking my actions as 'extremely offensive.' "

"These are absolutely beautiful churches architecturally. Whether they like it or not, this is the step we have to take. We're going to hear it in council and we're going to pass it."

Diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said, "The diocese has no response to make regarding this matter at this time."

The six structures are St. Adalbert, on East 83rd Street, Immaculate Heart of Mary on Lansing Avenue, Sacred Heart of Jesus on Krakow Avenue, St. Lawrence on East 80th Street, St. Hyacinth on Francis Avenue and St. John Nepomucene on Independence Road.

Gus Chan, The PDKim MacMaster, music director of St. James Parish, practices the bagpipes before choir rehearsal in September. The Lakewood City Council passed legislation protecting the interior and exterior of landmark structures.They would be added to a list of 31 Catholic churches already designated by council as landmarks.

The designations come at a time when the diocese is in the process of closing 50 churches, mostly in inner-city neighborhoods. The downsizing is in response to a shortage of priests and dwindling congregations.

The diocese has closed more than 30 churches so far and has begun removing and storing sacred artifacts. Some of the structures are for sale, according to real estate Web sites, but the diocese does not publicly disclose its plans for the properties.

Tayek, however, has said that some structures, if too deteriorated, could be torn down. The diocese demolished St. Andrew's on Superior Avenue at East 51st Street last February.

Of the six churches recommended as landmarks, four of them -- St. Adalbert, Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Lawrence and St. Hyacinth -- have been either closed or ordered closed.

As landmarks, it could make it difficult for the diocese to sell the empty buildings because the restrictions placed on them by the historical designation might narrow the number of possible buyers.

A landmark structure cannot be demolished or structurally reconfigured without permission from the Landmarks Commission. In the case of churches, that includes removing stained glass windows, said Brancatelli.

"It requires them to be very overt and public about anything they do to a landmark building," he said.

Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell is sponsoring legislation to landmark St. Adalbert, a 99-year-old structure that traces its roots to Cleveland's first black Catholic congregation.

"It's vital to this community, it's significant to people of color," she said. "I will stand up and fight for St. Adalbert as a historical landmark."

Meanwhile, Lakewood City Council last month adopted legislation aimed at protecting St. James Catholic Church from the wrecking ball after it closes in June.

The new law sets up a process to protect both the interior and exterior of the church. Landmark laws protecting interiors of churches are rare and could draw a legal battle over private-property rights.

"It's a little unusual," said Mayor Ed FitzGerald. "It's an additional layer of protection. We made sure in the legislation that the diocese or any other owner of the property will have due process. I feel confident."

Similar legislation has been introduced in Cleveland City Council, but seems to have little support.

"With interiors it gets a little dicey," said Brancatelli. "It opens up a gray area."

Reader Comments-

Posted by seded

January 25, 2010, 9:35AM

Yes lets save all the old buildings. Who going to mantain these while they slowley fall down? I love this line"It's vital to this community, it's significant to people of color" Oh boy I can see the hair flying if was said. " Its important to white people. Can you see them marching "No justice no peace" Signs, Al Sharp Jesse Jackson the whole nine yards.

Posted by moresteps

January 25, 2010, 9:55AM

seded,

i think that you are missing the point. this is not a black/white issue. this is an issue of heritage.

there have been comments about the importance of churches to irish, polish, hungarian peoples. and no hair flew.

Posted by seded

January 25, 2010, 10:15AM

If the people supported the church, they would not have closed it! The time to support the treasured buildings has passed. How many closed unmaintained buildings do we have to look at? Is cleveland a museum the city that was?

Posted by robo9595

January 25, 2010, 9:55AM

We have a church designated as a historical monument on West 117th and Lake Rd. It has been empty for decades and is an incredible eye sore to what is otherwise a beautiful neighborhood. I think that these are very nice chuches, but I don't want city officials to create more eye sores.

Posted by citizenX

January 25, 2010, 10:03AM

I am grateful that Councilman Brancatelli shows a conscience and stands up to the Diocese here--this is not about Catholics and non-Catholic history as other commenters have posted-this is OUR HISTORY. And the pillage going on is comparable to the desecration committed by the Nazis in WWII--Councilmembers, please do not engage in some secret meetings to sell off these treasures for your thirty pieces of silver as one of your members did for St. Andrew by preventing landmark designation. See photos of St. Andrew here--it was the only NEO church in the Benedictine Order: http://realneo.us/content/wheres-god

Posted by metropark1

January 25, 2010, 10:09AM

In a world with double digit unemployment, threats of terror attacks, broken families, homelessness and one environmental crisis after another (earthquake, flooding, fires) coupled with 50 million aborted babies and counting, Churches are closing instead of remaining open and helping people in need. Because from where I sit, I have not seen the need diminish, but increase. Pray for America.

Posted by northcostguy

January 25, 2010, 10:22AM

What right does the city have to shove this designation down the diocese's throat? The property owner has the right do what he wants to with his property. Granted, it has to be safe and follow zoning laws, but if the city wants to control the property it needs to purchase it at fair market value. I agree with the diocese (I don't say that very often), this is extremely offensive. The same thing is hapening in the "historic" district in Berea. The methodist church there wants to tear down a house IT OWNS to expand the church, but neighbors won't allow it. Completely ridiculous.

Posted by rpuck1

January 25, 2010, 4:53PM

what about the closed school?

are you saving them.....lol...

omalley at least you call the church for a comment this time....

who is going to pay for all the broken stain glass?

the landmark commision?

dumb

stupid city can even keep cops on the street and this is what council is doing....

Posted by mcath

January 25, 2010, 9:32PM

I applaud Cleveland's Landmarks Commission. Bishop Lennon cares nothing about this city. He is damaging our ethnic communities, displacing elderly parishioners and turning people away from the Catholic Church. Of course he is offended. He is only interested monetary profit and making himself look effective to the church hierarchy.

I

Worth a Thousand Words

New Yorkers Turn to the City's Archives to Guide Restorations

By Jodi Liss | Online Only | Jan. 11, 2010

WPA photo of 122 Delancey Street, next to Manhattan's Essex Street Market

Credit: New York City Municipal Archives New Yorkers have always known there is someone who cares about their homes at least as much as they do.

Yes, the tax man.

Which is why, in the late 1930s, city officials used Works Progress Administration funds to hire dozens of unemployed workers to photograph every single building in the city for the Department of Finance. By 1941, those photographers had taken more than 700,000 pictures.

Today the tax photographs, mainly housed in the city's Municipal Archives in Lower Manhattan, are a godsend to homeowners seeking to restore dilapidated or damaged properties.

One such homeowner was DK Holland, who bought property in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in 1986, partly because it included a small residence and a store next door. Though Holland recognized that the tiny structure (once a tack house for livery stables, but a private residence since 1855) was unattractive and decrepit, she decided to live there in 1990. Ten years later she began to restore it. Because Fort Greene is a historic district, she had to find a tax photo to get the city's permission and guidelines for a renovation.

"The day I found my tax photo was one of the best days in my life," Holland says.

DK Holland's house

Although the photograph of Holland's house focused on the store around the corner she located her neighbor's tax photograph, too. In it, she saw her own house, a modest single-family house with period windows, framed by a wooden porch and a fence with a barn door. With the advice of neighbors and the New York City Landmarks Commission, she was able to restore the porch, fence and windows.

*

Joseph Delgado used the city's tax photographs to guide the restoration of his Brooklyn home.

Credit: Steph Mantis By the early 1980s, the city's tax photos themselves were in need of preservation and repair. Originally shot on highly degradable (and toxic) 35-millimeter black-and-white nitrate film stock, they were disintegrating, even liquefying. Then-director Kenneth Cobb sought and received about $500,000 in grants from five groups, including the Andy Warhol Foundation, to preserve them. The photos were sent (as "Hazardous Material") to a Colorado company specializing in movie restoration, transferred to microfilm, and returned. Today, the one-inch film canisters are stored in a large freezer in the basement of the Department of Records, with microfilm copies available for researchers.

In the foreground of each photograph stands a black sign that denotes the block, lot number, and borough of the subject. Reel after reel, it's an extraordinary legacy, a literal snapshot of the Depression-era city, with its tenements, barber shops, dance halls, delicatessens, billboards, dime stores, faceless office buildings, and factories. Much of the city looks rougher, more working-class, less self-conscious and less image-driven than it has become. Bedding hangs out of windows on sweltering summer evenings, clotheslines connect apartment buildings, and children play on stoops. A few magnificent cars of the 1930s stand parked by curbs. A horse-drawn cart makes a delivery. Collapsing slums jostle more middle-class housing.

Yet there are no records of the names of the photographers. Occasionally, a worker stands in a photograph, holding a sign that identifies the location of the building. In the archives, there is only a single photograph that archivists suspect is a record of the group.

In the mid-1980s, the city decided to update its tax photographs, so once again the Department of Finance sent photographers to document the city—this time in color. In this new round, there were more than 800,000 buildings in the ever-expanding city.

*

Joseph Delgado's Brooklyn house before restoration, which was guided by a city tax photograph taken in 1939.

Credit: Joseph Delgado Like Holland, the 1930s photographs proved invaluable to Joe Delgado, a former Wall Street trader turned licensed contractor who bought a four-story building in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, in 2007.

His building was a disaster. A previous owner had covered the building's facade with white Permastone, added pink awnings, installed an after-hours club and two bars in the basement, and rented the top floor to drug addicts. "Nothing original was left," Delgado says. "The lady at the Landmarks Commission looked at the building and told me it had been a carriage house."

Hoping to restore his new property, Delgado set out to learn about its history. After weeks of searching, he finally located a tax photograph that showed a little girl on the steps of a brick double townhouse built in the 1870s. Now, at least, he had the guidance he needed. Prompted by the photograph, Delgado removed a massive addition from the back (complete with the club's tiny stage and shag carpeting). He restored the facade and the original window lintels and sills, which had been hidden behind the Permastone. He also rebuilt the cornice and back wall. Last fall, he installed exterior doors, custom-built from antique wood, to replicate the doors in his tax photograph.

Delgado's neighbors have stopped to thank him for the improvements. His efforts paid off. "Finding the tax photograph made the restoration easier," he says, "but not less expensive."

Google This

New York City historians, researchers, preservationists, paralegals, and bureaucrats probably make the most use of the tax photographs, but film companies access them, too. People also give them as gifts, to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries—or use them to research their family history. According to Michael Lorenzini, the curator of photography for the Municipal Archives, one man found the photo of his ancestral home and, in it, his grandfather, as a boy, leans out a window. In another, the researcher's father is mowing the lawn.

Now the city is considering a deal with Google to digitize the collection, hoping to sell more of the tax photographs. In the meantime, they can be viewed on microfilm during business hours at the Department of Records and Information Services at 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan. Prints can be purchased for $35-60 each, and ordered online, by mail or in-person. For an additional $5, the Department will research the 1940s block and lot number.

Visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/taxphotos/home.shtml for more information.

Jodi Liss is a freelance writer based in New York City.