With Your Coffee

University of Vermont Alumni House, 61 Summit Street.

Happy weekend and happy Preservation Month! And, Happy Mother’s Day! I’ve rounded up recent links for your weekend reading.

• In honor of Preservation Month, watch this movie about Jane Jacobs: Citizen Jane. (Note: if you can’t see it in person, you can watch it via Verizon or AT&T on demand.)
• A volunteer historical society in Putney, VT is running the Putney General Store after it has suffered a series of losses and challenges.
• A new use for a historic church.
• The 1980s/1990s mansions of the Hamptons (Long Island, NY) are being demolished for new homes. What do you think of that?
• This basketball court in Paris dates to 1893. Not quite how they are built today!
• Prohibition in Vermont.
• The debate on playgrounds being too creative.
• A modernist house, House II, in Hardwick, VT is for sale.

Have a lovely weekend, and hopefully spring is on its way to you. Cheers!

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Heard in a Gilmore Girls Episode

Have you heard?! Gilmore Girls is coming back for a revival season – an 8th season. I’m so excited that I can barely contain myself. It’ll be a mini season (about 4 episodes), but it’s better than nothing. Here’s a fun fact for you: the show started in 2000, and at the time I was the same age (15) as Rory Gilmore (the daughter). Almost 16 years later, I’m still watching the show. But now, when I watch season one, I’m almost as old as Lorelai (the mother, who was 32 when the show started). HAAAA. Whatever, I’ll love Gilmore Girls forever and ever.

Lorelai and Rory dreaming about The Dragonfly Inn in Season 1. Source: http://gilmoregirls.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonfly_Inn

While re-watching a Season 4 episode (“Chicken or Beef?“), I noticed a perfect preservation line to go along with Preservation Month and #thisplacematters. Lorelai and Sookie are standing on the porch of the Dragonfly Inn, taking it all in before restoration commences. Lorelai says to Sookie:

Just sometimes, it hits me. This place had a long history before us, has a long future after us. I keep thinking it’s apart of our lives, but, really, it’s the reverse. For a little while. . .I don’t know. . .it’s like we’re apart of its life.

And that is why preservation is important. Happy Preservation Month!

p.s. Join the UVM Historic Preservation Alumni Association for a behind scenes tour of a local rehabilitation project.

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Burlington! Join the UVM Historic Preservation Alumni Assc tomorrow (5/19/2016) for a behind the scenes tour of the rehabilitated Summit House. 3:30pm, 61 Summit Street. Details here: https://uvmhpalum.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/event-summit-house-tour-may-19/ #uvm #thisisvt #rehabilitation #historicpreservation #alumni #uvmhpaa #housetour #behindthescenes

A post shared by Preservation in Pink (@presinpink) on May 18, 2016 at 6:18pm PDT

With Your Coffee

#ihavethisthingwithfloors = one of the best internet trends lately. This floor is in the women’s’ bathroom at the Vermont State House. Yes, even the bathroom floor is beauitufl in that building. 

Happy weekend, friends! How are you? Hopefully Spring has sprung where you are. I can see flowers, green grass and buds in Vermont! Why am I always talking about the weather? Because I get so excited for warm weather in Burlington; I can’t help it. Today I spent the day in Montpelier with all of the Vermont preservation consultants and the Division for Historic Preservation staff at a training for preservation consultants. How fun it was to see everyone together. Side note: most of us are graduates of the University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program. Also, Happy Preservation Month! I hope you have fun weekend plans, including watching the Kentucky Derby, wearing big hats, and drinking Mint Juleps. Or something equivalent. Cheers! xo.

• It’s Preservation Month. Are you taking a Jane Jacobs walk? There are plenty in New York City. I wish I could join! 

• People think preservationists get all tied up about paint colors. Well, I LOVE stripes (seriously, I just painted my bathroom in stripes), so I can’t help but like this house. IF it’s a spite house, it totally backfired.

• New York City Landmarks Turns 50! Happy birthday! The hard part of being a preservationist is not being able to save everything, right? But just because it’s not historic, doesn’t mean people don’t value it. Hopefully people continue to appreciate the building and love it until it has gained historic significance.

• Wouldn’t you love a shotgun house in New Orleans? Ah, they’re so adorable. And such an interesting history to them. 

• Montreal subways are neat. But, built in the 1960s, they are incredibly Soviet looking. Don’t you think so? 

• Read about some Kentucky Derby traditions. 

• Instagram account of the week: @ihavethisthingwithfloors

What’s going on in your world? Any interesting news? I’d love to know!

Happy May!

Happy Preservation Month!

Image courtey of @ellemoorehp.

 

May is Preservation Month

The month of May is National Preservation Month, as led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation:

May is National Preservation Month and this year’s theme is “Celebrating America’s Treasures.” Throughout our nation’s communities there are significant places that have contributed to our American experience – whether it is a battlefield, a ship, church or house museum. Through the support of programs like Save America’s Treasures, thousands of preservation projects in cities and towns from coast to coast have worked to preserve these irreplaceable and tangible reminders of our roots.

By declaring National Preservation Month’s theme as “Celebrating America’s Treasures,” we hope that communities and organizations across the country will help spread the word that programs like Save America’s Treasures not only protect the places that tell our nation’s story, but also create jobs and spur economic development in our Main Streets.

Share with the National Trust your plans for Preservation Month. Many organizations across the country are hosting workshops, tours, information sessions, and public events to share their historic places and resources with everyone. Check with your local organizations or your State Historic Preservation Office/State Historical Society.

If you haven’t seen the National Trust’s section on teaching historic preservation, check it out. It is geared towards school age kids, but has interesting, helpful information for all ages. There is a preservation blackboard (note to college kids: not that blackboard) for sharing ideas.

So what can you do? Start with some of those resources, learn a new fact, spread the good news about historic preservation, and encourage others to follow suit.

It’s a month-long preservation celebration!

Preservation Month 2010

It’s Preservation Month! May 2010’s theme is “Old is the New Green.”  It’s my pleasure to use the National Trust of Historic Preservation’s proclamation for Preservation Month (get it for your organization and community too!)

WHEREAS, historic preservation is an effective tool for managing growth and sustainable development, revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride and maintaining community character while enhancing livability; and

WHEREAS, historic preservation is relevant for communities across the nation, both urban and rural, and for Americans of all ages, all walks of life and all ethnic backgrounds; and

WHEREAS, it is important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped us as a people; and

WHEREAS, “Old is the New Green” is the theme for National Preservation Month 2010, cosponsored by Preservation in Pink and the National Trust for Historic Preservation

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Kaitlin O’Shea, do proclaim May 2010 as National Preservation Month, and call upon the readers of Preservation in Pink to join their fellow citizens across the United States in recognizing and participating in this special observance.

What can Preservation in Pink help you do for Preservation Month? It’s simple — share what you’re doing and make your own proclamation. Preservation + Sustainability and “green” can be taken in so many ways. What does it mean to you? Local shopping? Environmentally friendly products and building materials? Walking? Visiting historic sites? Heritage tourism?

Share your thoughts and ideas here — and stay tuned for fun Preservation Month posts (and goodies, perhaps) from PiP throughout the month!

Preservation Month!

Get excited, preservationists! May is Preservation Month. There is an entire month before you to celebrate, encourage, and advocate historic preservation. While you are probably doing this on a regular basis, knowing that organizations and individuals across the country are taking that extra step for preservation is hopefully added motivation.

What is Preservation Month? From the National Trust’s press release: “Since the National Trust for Historic Preservation created Preservation Week in 1971 to spotlight grassroots preservation efforts in America, it has grown into an annual celebration observed by small towns and big cities with events ranging from architectural and historic tours and award ceremonies to fundraising events, educational programs, and heritage travel opportunities. Due to its overwhelming popularity, in 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation extended the celebration to the entire month of May and declared it Preservation Month to provide an even longer opportunity to celebrate the diverse and unique heritage of our country’s cities and states and enable more Americans to become involved in the growing preservation movement.”

Each Preservation Month has a theme and this year it is “This Place Matters”, an effort of the National Trust that is designed to raise awareness about the places that really matter to people.

Provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (and adapted for Preservation in Pink), the Preservation Month Proclamation:

WHEREAS, historic preservation is an effective tool for managing growth, revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride and maintaining community character while enhancing livability; and

WHEREAS,  historic preservation is relevant for communities across the nation, both urban and rural, and for Americans of all ages, all walks of life and all ethnic backgrounds; and

WHEREAS, it is important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped us as a people; and

WHEREAS, “This Place Matters” is the theme for National Preservation Month 2009, [encouraged by] Preservation in Pink and sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation

NOW, THEREFORE, [readers of PiP, take action, call upon the people of your town and city to join with] fellow citizens across the United States in recognizing and participating in this special observance.

_____________________

What is your organization or town doing? What are you doing? Happy Preservation Month!