Q&A with Still Standing Co-Producer Katie Andres
Advocating for Wells Barns has been a passion project for Katie Andres for years. And a major part of her advocacy work took the form of the recently-released documentary Still Standing: The Barns of J.T. Wells & Sons. Along with her production partner Jill Kuchman, Katie worked to bring the story of Wells Barns to a broader audience. After Still Standing was named a 2024 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winner, we reached out to Katie to hear more about her experience in making the documentary and why she continues to advocate for Wells Barns.
Read More
"We know every rock in this building." - Checking in with the masons restoring the historic Louw-Bogardus Ruin in Kingston
This guest blog post from our colleagues at Friends of Historic Kingston shines a light on an exciting rehabilitation project they are overseeing on the Frog Alley ruin, just outside Kingston’s Stockade Historic District. Using traditional masonry techniques, tradesmen Derrick McNab, Tim McDonough, and Manuel Roque are stabilizing the iconic structure.
Read More
Empowering Youth Through Sustainable Trades Training: Historic Ithaca's Work Preserve Program
In this guest blog post, Historic Ithaca’s Marketing Coordinator Bethany Parisi details how their Work Preserve program “has been making an impact on the lives of individuals with barriers to employment since its inception in 2010.”
Read More
Voices of Preservation: Urban Renewal and Historic Preservation in Newburgh
In this guest blog post from the team behind the Picturing Urban Renewal project, Ann Pfau, David, Hochfelder, and Stacy Sewell look at the legacy of urban renewal in Newburgh, NY. The Picturing Urban Renewal website has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. They post research findings on Substack at Researching Urban Renewal.
Read More
Far from Golden: Hochul’s Silence on Penn Station in her State of the State Address
This photo essay has been cross-posted and lightly condensed from our colleagues at RethinkPennStationNYC. The League has been collaborating with local advocates to speak out against redevelopment plans that include widespread demolition of buildings surrounding Penn Station since including the Penn Neighborhood on the 2022-2023 Seven to Save list. ReThinkPennStationNYC is proud to be a founding member of the Empire Station Coalition, which is a collection of more than 15 neighborhood and block associations, think tanks and civic organizations advocating for real and equitable solutions at Penn Station. The Empire Station Coalition shares these same values and is doing much to keep this debate open and before the public.
Read More
Bricks and Beliefs: Preservation of Tangible and Intangible Heritage in the Ukrainian Village in New York City
In this guest blog post, Preservation Consultant Andrew Roblee shines a light on a historic space providing much-needed social services to Ukrainian refugees in the East Village of Manhattan. The First Ukrainian Assembly of God has called its 1867 Second Empire building home since 1937. In recent years, the building’s exterior has suffered from deferred maintenance that the congregation is committed to addressing. But while they tackle their preservation projects, they are also proving essential services and a community gathering place to both longtime congregants and recent refugees who have fled Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Read More
Excellence Award Spotlight: Claudette Brady
Claudette Brady has been a staunch advocate for her Brooklyn community for decades. Spearheading the campaign for historic district designation of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Claudette rallied her neighbors and made historic preservation meaningful for the people of the neighborhood. In the years since that successful campaign, Claudette has continued advocating for historic preservation, uplifting the history of traditionally underrepresented people, and centering them in the conversation about what we preserve and for whom.
Read More
Sleeping with the Ancestors: Author Talk with Joseph McGill, Jr. and Herb Frazier
In this Preservation Book Club webinar, we were joined by Joseph McGill Jr., founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, and his co-author Herb Frazier. They discussed their book Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. This book is the personal account of one man's groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in the countless oft-overlooked former slave dwellings that still stand across the country, the fascinating history behind those sites, and how he has used the experiences to shed light on larger issues of race in America.
Read More
Voices of Preservation: A Call to Save Carmel's Belden House
In this guest blog post, Rob Yasinsac (@hudsonvalleyruins) shines a light on the historic Belden House. The house is not currently listed on the State or National Registers, but it is eligible. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection owns the building and has announced plans to demolish it.
Read More
Demolition of the Great Northern Grain Elevator: A Legal Perspective
This guest blog post from Jeff Iovannone provides an analysis of the demolition of the Great Northern Grain Elevator in Buffalo from a legal perspective. This piece was originally written for his Historic Preservation Law course at Cornell University.
Read More
Voices of Preservation: Historic preservation must be a part of the Micron planning efforts
In this editorial, the Preservation Association of Central New York’s President Andrew Roblee lays out how historic preservation can play a crucial role in a revitalized Central New York. Micron Technology’s planned semiconductor fabrication facility in Clay (about 15 miles outside of Syracuse) would have a profound effect on the region for many years to come. As a recent article from the Syracuse Post-Standard asks, “Micron would change Syracuse area for decades to come. Are we up to the challenge?”
Read More
Giving New Life to a Historic Building – The Historic Ford Block
The Downtown Oneonta Historic District is included on the League’s 2022-2023 Seven to Save list. As part of our outreach, we contacted local nonprofit Springbrook to learn more about their current Historic Tax Credit project in the downtown district. In addition to graciously hosting us for a tour of the building, they also shared this guest blog post. Keep reading to learn more about the revitalization of the Ford Block building.
Read More
Voices of Preservation: Deconstructing Our Understanding of Preservation
In this guest blog post, Andrew Roblee, President of the Preservation Association of Central New York, explores how deconstruction can fit into the field of historic preservation. PACNY is one of the founding partners of CR0WD, the Circularity, Reuse, and Zero Waste Development task force.
Read More
Where Activism and Preservation Meet: Author Talk with Catherine Fleming Bruce
In this Preservation Book Club event, author Catherine Fleming Bruce discusses her award-winning book The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements. Catherine touches on her inspiration for the book, the importance of writing for a general audience, and her own grassroots preservation campaigns to save places related to civil rights — restoring the physical buildings and preserving the stories of the people who made history there.
Read More
The Little Brothel That Could: The Story of 72 Sycamore Street and Eliza Quirk
This guest blog post from Preservation Buffalo Niagara’s Preservation Planner Tabitha O’Connell shines a light on the Eliza Quirk House. PBN is working to restore the historic 1847 rowhouse in downtown Buffalo. In 2020, the League awarded PBN a Technical Assistance Grant to fund a Specialized Conservation Study focused on the building’s exterior brick, and they recently received a $500,000 Environmental Protection Fund grant from NYS to support the necessary rehabilitation work. PBN was also one of the League’s 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners and we are excited to share this update from them about “the little brothel that could.”
Read More
Lessons from Lee: What you need to know about IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions
In this new series, League Trustee Lee Miller will be sharing easy ways to make a big difference when it comes to supporting the League.
Read More
Self-Help for Preservationist Advocates: Growing Grassroots Constituencies and Effective Local Advocacy
Guest blogger Chris Skelly (Skelly Preservation Services) shares his 15 Questions on Being an Effective Preservation Advocate.
Read More
Saving African American History on Long Island: The Peter Crippen House
The Town of Huntington received a Technical Assistance Grant from the League in 2020 to fund an Engineering Structural Analysis of the Peter Crippen House (TAG is a regrant partnership program between the League and the New York State Council on the Arts). We reached out to their Town Historian Robert Hughes to get an update on the project.
Read More
Walking with Calvert Vaux: The Hoyt Drive Warren Truss
Scenic Hudson received a 2020 NYSCA-funded Preserve New York grant to fund a Cultural Resource Survey of 12 historic steel truss bridges that were built to provide access to the Hudson River over the Hudson River line railroad tracks. With their Survey recently completed, we reached out to Scenic Hudson’s Director of Land Use Advocacy Jeffrey Anzevino to see if he would be interested in sharing a bit about this exciting project.
Read More
A Central Tech Testimonial from High School Sweethearts
As we advocate for the future of Syracuse Central Tech through our Seven to Save program, we wanted to reach out to alumni who had firsthand experience with this special place. Paul and Kathy Zory were kind enough to share the following note expressing their support for revitalizing the space, along with several photos and an editorial written by Kathy back in 2001. The Zorys attended Syracuse Central Tech in the 1960s and as Paul put it, “Central is special to us anyway because we were high school sweethearts who have been married for 47 years!”
Read More
