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BY MELISSA M. CHEW
George Washington statue,
Commons (Boston, Mass.)
Parks And
Preservation
Natural partners bring
inanimate objects to life
Chicago Museum of Science
and Industry, Jackson Park
(Chicago, Ill.)
I
n modern-day park design, the
profession tends to think in terms of
active and passive features, designing
a landscape that appeals broadly to the
public and also fills the perhaps political
agendas of elected officials. However,
parks also offer an opportunity to integrate
experiences—a meshing of nature and
culture with parks and preservation that
seem to go hand in hand.
History demonstrates this meshing.
For example, during the Revolutionary
War, the Boston Commons served as
a mobilization spot for troops and later
became a location for cattle grazing, public
meetings, and officially a park in 1859.
Twenty-seven years later, New York City
began acquiring land for Central Park in
Manhattan, a park designed by landscape
architect Frederick Law Olmstead. The
Central Park Commission felt the park
should serve as an educational and cultural
epicenter, and included a zoo and museums
on the fringes. The Great Depression
brought a renovation of the zoo and other
cultural amenities. Furthermore, in the mid1800s, cemeteries as we know them today
were derived as wide-open expanses, places
where “nature and culture” can meet.
While parks were originally designed for
a variety of purposes and in a diversity of
styles, they foster a natural partnership with
culture in the form of historic preservation.
Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic
preservation states that preservation
“enhances our sense of community and
brings us closer together: saving the places
where we take our children to school,
buy our groceries, and stop for coffee—
preserving the stories of ancient cultures
found in landmarks and landscapes we
visit—protecting the memories of people,
places, and events honored in our national
monuments.”
As such, Congress authorized the
Historic Preservation Act of 1966, birthing
the National Park Service’s National
Register of Historic Places—part of “a
national program to coordinate and support
public and private efforts to identify,
evaluate, and protect America’s historic
and archeological resources.” These efforts
have been further enhanced by many local
jurisdictions that consider and support
“Local Landmark Designations” at a county
or municipal level. Some local agencies
Facing: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / appalachianviews • Above: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / tbarrat
also pursue “Certified Local Government”
status, a partnership opportunity with
the federal government that allows
“communities to make a local commitment
to historic preservation. This commitment
is key to America’s ability to preserve,
protect, and increase awareness of our
unique cultural heritage found in the built
environment across the country.”
Our tapestry of American history has
been widely supported by private, national,
state, and even local efforts. Resources
exist to help agencies achieve goals that
contribute to this great fabric of cultural
heritage.
Historic Resources
Most states, through their respective
State Historic Preservation Office, offer
a wide array of services, including
consultation, advocacy, and architecture
and engineering guide resources. Once
designated as a local landmark or placed
on the National Register, properties
have opportunities to access state and
federal funding for structural assessments,
stabilization, or restoration with appropriate
covenants to ensure the preservation
of the asset. These types of grant and
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funding programs are usually available
through competitive processes and/or noncompetitive stabilization efforts, depending
on particular circumstances. Interestingly,
the revenues to support grants and
preservation efforts come from a variety
of sources, some unlikely. For example,
in Colorado, revenues are generated from
limited-stakes gambling, most of which
occurs in historic mining towns where
particular properties or improvements
might benefit from the very funds being
wagered within their walls.
Matching these funding programs with
other private or federal funds can create
some award-winning projects that capture
forever the story of a community, yet also
provide for creative adapted re-use.
historic significance? Consider for example
our oldest national park, Yellowstone.
Roosevelt Lodge, along with 16 other
structures within the park boundaries,
can be found on the National Register of
Historic Places. Yosemite National Park
contains 30 structures so recognized.
Many state and local parks also
contain particular ranches, residences,
schools, churches, and other historic
properties preserved through formal
action but also found within acres of land
that may or may not have also played a
role in the property’s history. In Greeley,
Colo., Centennial Village serves as the
city’s museum and has 35 architecturally
unique structures set within an 8-acre park.
Halfway across the nation, Chicago has
capitalized on this concept for years. An
early visionary document for the city, the
Partnering With Parks
As properties have been set aside to
“save” open space or park land, as well
as historic resources, it is not uncommon
to find the two linked. The National Park
System, founded in 1916, was established
to care for the already preserved, unique
natural assets set aside as national parks,
and facilitated the preservation of many
more natural spaces. Yet how many of
these lands also contain structures that
have also been preserved due to their
Centennial Village in
Island Grove Regional
Park in Greeley, Colo.,
was “originated” in 1976
as a part of the country’s
celebration of the
bi-centennial. All of the
structures within the village
are original structures,
although they were all
moved on to the site.
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JULY 2016 PRB
Photos: City of Greeley Department of Culture, Parks and Recreation
© Can Stock Photo Inc. / SeanPavonePhoto
1909 Plan of Chicago, addressed reasons
for enlarging the park system, in terms
of parks promoting a sound body and a
sound mind: “We now regard the promotion
of robust health of body and mind as
necessary public duties, in order that the
individual may be benefited, and that the
community at large may possess a higher
average degree of good citizenship.” While
Chicago aims to provide museums in its
historic building in Jackson Park.” Other
areas in the country are also embracing
this concept. The city of Encinitas, Calif.,
recognized the value of using historic
preservation activities and funding to help
contribute to the financial success of the
parks and recreation department. A similar
theme emerged in the Service Portfolio
Project for Oakland County Parks and
Recreation. Also, a city-wide recreational
The American Society of Landscape
Architects cites a movement to protect
historic structures within the landscape (or
to perhaps recreate them), thus creating
the opportunity to preserve land as a park.
“Historic landscapes vary in size from
small gardens to several thousand-acre
national parks. In character they range from
designed to vernacular, rural to urban, and
agricultural to industrial spaces. Vegetable
patches, estate gardens, cemeteries,
farms, quarries, nuclear test sites, suburbs,
and abandoned settlements all may be
considered historic landscapes.”
When we choose to preserve a
building or a landscape, we also preserve
the story of that place and how it fits into
the neighborhood or community where it
is found. It becomes woven into the fabric
that makes a place special or unique. Just
as we all have our own personal stories,
preservation helps inanimate objects come
to life by allowing us to preserve and share
their unique story. The tapestry comes to
life, indeed demonstrating that parks and
preservation are natural partners. PRB
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municipal parks, there is often a historic
component as well. “Sometimes museums
have been invited to move into existing
park structures; ... In 1933, the Museum
of Science and Industry opened in an
needs assessment for Winchester, Va.,
identified historic preservation as a desired
component in a public survey. Partnering
with parks just makes sense in preserving
both historical and natural assets.
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REFERENCES:
i Greenfield, Rebecca. “Our First Public Parks: The Forgotten History of Cemeteries.” ;OL([SHU[PJ.
March 16, 2011.
ii National Trust for Historic Preservation: http://www.preservationnation.org/what-is-preservation/#.Vd-s_PlViko.
iii National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places http://www.nps.gov/nr/.
iv National Park Service, Certified Local Government Program http://www.nps.gov/clg/.
v *OPJHNV;YPI\UL, “Chicago’s History of Museums in the Park.” August 29, 2015 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/
commentary/ct-obama-museum-library-park-perspec-0220-20150219-story.html
vi Ibid.
vii Financial Sustainability Project, City of Encinitas, California, Parks and Recreation Department, April 2015 by: GreenPlayLLC.
viii Service Portfolio Project, Oakland County Parks and Recreation Commission, California, 2014 by: GreenPlayLLC.
ix City Wide Recreational Needs Assessment, City of Winchester, VA, February 2015 by: GreenPlayLLC.
x American Society of Landscape Architects, Historic American Landscapes Survey, http://www.asla.org/HALS.aspx.
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