HCN’s Preservation Partners

Meet Clarissa Cylich

Clarissa Cylich is the Executive Director of the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, site of HCN’s August workshop. A native of the Bronx, she left to attend Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, not intending to return to New York City. However, a summer internship scraping paint at Montgomery Place (of Historic Hudson Valley) changed her direction, as she found herself hooked on historic preservation. She headed for a year at North Bennet Street School in Boston, MA, studying Preservation Carpentry with the desire to understand how historic structures are built. Following her training, she landed back in NYC where she has spent the majority of her career in the Bronx. Life takes one along interesting paths!

After returning to school to complete an MBA degree, Clarissa treated herself to a volunteer vacation in France at La Sabraneque, helping restore a stone castle. Her career shifted as she began work at the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Bronx (aka the Bronx Zoo), but she continued to search for a way to match her affinity for historic preservation with her MBA. In October of 2006, she found the answer as she took her present position at the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum. Here she has been using her MBA skills along with her prior job experience and knowledge of historic preservation to help move the organization into the future. Clarissa has also worked tirelessly to raise the funds necessary for the masonry restoration work in the garden that is the focus of the August 3-9 workshop. There is still room for more volunteers, so sign up today!

Saving South Park

Mention South Park and most people think of the animated pop-culture comedy. But the real South Park is an amazingly beautiful high mountain valley surrounded by the peaks of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The harsh winters keep the valley sparsely populated, but on a recent early summer weekend it rang with the sound of pounding hammers. The rugged old mining town of Como, founded in 1859 by Italian miners, drew an enthusiastic group of volunteers, who arrived like the cavalry on June 7 to save the Como Depot from imminent collapse.

The 15 volunteers spent the weekend placing wall supports and temporary plywood roofing to shore up the precariously leaning depot. Como Depot is a wood frame structure that dates as far back as 1886. It served the community well on the rail line between Denver and Breckenridge, but was abandoned in 1937 when the highway was finished through South Park and the rail line went out of operation. The building’s battered exterior hides a treasure trove of history, with the telegraph office, freight and ticket rooms, telegraph wires, and decorative window and door pediments all intact inside.

The project was organized by Colorado Preservation, Inc. in partnership with Colorado Mountain College, the Denver South Park and Pacific Historical Society, the local historical society, HCN and others. The next step is to raise funds for the actual restoration of the building, which is slated to begin next year. If you would like to help save the Como Depot, contact CPI or HCN to learn more!

Workshop Spotlight

Re-Discovering the Soul of Swahili Tradition:
Conservation of a Swahili-Style Stone House
Lamu World Heritage Site, Kenya, February 2009

Cultural heritage consists of more than just buildings; it also draws on people’s traditions, such as their crafts, their art, and the stories passed on to the children. In Lamu, Kenya, an ancient city where Arab and African traditions intertwine to form the Swahili culture, there is great concern that much of the cultural heritage is being lost as the 21st century imposes on the past. HCN's participants will meet in Old Lamu in February 2009 to bring attention to some of these fading traditions such as hat making, dhou building and, particularly, coral rag construction. Join us and the Lamu World Heritage Conservation Center in helping ensure a future for these distinctive traditions. Discover more!

Heritage Hostels

Participants in our September workshop in Slovenia will be staying in the town’s historic post office that has been restored and converted to a youth hostel. With the slogan “The Wonders of Humankind Under our Roof,” an international movement is promoting hostels as a means to discover the cultural wealth of the world. This network of youth hostels in World Heritage Cities aims to promote the cultural values of those cities through stays in non-profit youth hostels within the Hostelling International network. The hope is to inspire travelers to contribute to the revitalization of their own cities by bringing home new ideas. The project entitled “Youth Hostels, a Passport for World Heritage Cities” was initiated in 2006 with 10 participating hostels. There are now over 25 hostels in 15 different countries taking part in the project. Read more!

Francis Mill Back in Action

Back in 2004 when HCN partnered with the Francis Mill Preservation Society to undertake restoration of the 1887 gristmill in Waynesville, North Carolina, YouTube didn’t even exist. Four years later, a lot has changed. This video of the newly restored mill back in action is just one of more than 80 million videos posted to YouTube since its creation! See our Francis Mill page for before and after photos; you will be amazed at what's been accomplished in four short years!

Conservation Book Fair

Save Britain's Heritage is holding a Conservation Book Fair on July 17, 2008 in Farringdon, London. Representatives from several leading historical and conservation organizations and societies, including SPAB, the 20th Century Society, the Ancient Monuments Society, Donhead Publishing Ltd and Yale University Press, will be on hand to sell their publications to the general public, as well as to meet and network. Entrance is free to all. For information, see www.savebritainsheritage.org.

Conservation of Built Heritage 2009 - Rome

ICCROM has announced its second training course on Conservation of Built Heritage, to be held in Rome March 2 through April 30, 2009. The course aims to serve a wide range of conservation practitioners and decision makers by placing technical issues within the broader conservation context in order to link them to planning and management concerns. The course is open to a maximum of 20 participants with at least four years of active experience in the conservation of built heritage. Mid-career professionals and other decision makers in conservation from different disciplines (architects, archaeologists, engineers, planners, site managers, etc.), either in a position to influence practice or having the potential to do so in the short- or medium-term are eligible to apply. Application deadline is July 31, 2008.

Complete course description and application information for this and other ICCROM courses are available at www.iccrom.org.

Conference Calendar

Thinking outside the Fox: League of Historic American Theatres 32nd Annual Conference and Theatre Tour
July 16-19, 2008, Atlanta, Georgia USA

While Atlanta systematically destroyed many historic theatres during a boom of planned development, one lone theatre — the Fox in Atlanta — became an icon for historic theatre preservation and economic redevelopment, spurring a statewide movement. The conference will investigate the role historic theatres play in large metropolitan areas and smaller communities in promoting strong downtowns, rich arts development and economic revitalization. For information, see www.lhat.org/conference_theatre.asp.

Preserving the Historic Road: 6th Biennial Conference
September 11-14, 2008, Albuquerque, New Mexico USA

Held near the historic intersection of the 17th Century El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and Route 66, this conference showcases issues of identification, preservation and management for historic roads in the United States and internationally. The four-day conference is structured around educational sessions, general sessions and field tours to historic roads' sites. Conference sessions address issues of highway engineering and technology for historic roads, highway safety, historic preservation strategies, roadside history, and highway policy and management. For information, see www.historicroads.org.

10th Docomomo International Conference: The Challenge of Change, Dealing with the Legacy of the Modern Movement
September 13-20, 2008, Van Nelle Factory, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The buildings of the Modern Movement now belong to the past and have become eligible for listing and preservation. This evolution has created the paradox of the modern monument and it has raised questions of principle concerning the issues of conservation, renovation and transformation of modern buildings. This conference will revisit the ideals and key concepts of the Modern Movement – ideals and concepts that cannot always be matched with the acts of reconstruction that are part and parcel of the practices of conservation, renovation and transformation. For information see www.archi.fr/DOCOMOMO/docomomo_electronic_newsletter5.htm.

Preservation in Progress: National Preservation Conference
October 21-25, 2008, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

The National Preservation Conference is the premier preservation conference in the United States for professionals in preservation and allied fields, dedicated volunteers, and serious supporters. If you are dedicated to protecting historic resources in your community, want to strengthen your professional network, or meet new partners in the fight for preservation, this conference will send you home with newfound energy, rededicated to your mission and knowing you have strong allies in the battle to save our heritage. For information, see www.nthpconference.org.

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