Historic New England: Summit 2022, Day 2

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A light blue, black, and white striped header image with the words Historic New England Summit 2022 Day 2

October 14 was Day 2 of Historic New Summit 2022 held at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. Like Day 1 of the event, the theme was “Recovering New England’s Voices”. According to Historic New England’s Carissa Demore, “We are all recording our memoirs on the places where we spend time,” and I am glad for the opportunity to record memories at the Summit. Below are highlights from the event.


A Civic Gateway: Revisioning the Otis House

Nader Tehrani of Boston-based architecture firm NADAAA presented innovative ideas for restoring and renovating Otis House, a museum and historic document collections space operated by Historic New England (HNE). The building is located between the main campus of Mass General Hospitaland Government Center. Constructed as a private home in 1796 after a design created by Charles Bulfinch, the house is connected to row houses with floors at different levels from the original structure.

Tehrani hopes to improve accessibility to the building and flexibility of use within the space, increase programmatic opportunities and engagement with local residents, and reinterpret the history of the structure. A central staircase, community space at street level, reinvented terrace, and other improved connections between buildings will unify the currently disjointed campus.

Tehrani drew from his experience redesigning the Fleet Library at RISD, also called the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Building. The design team “smuggled” modern safety systems such as sprinklers into the existing details on the ceiling of the building. Prefabricated additions inside the structure were installed in less than thirty days and are designed to be dismantled in the same period of time. Other inspirational works include NADAAA’s design for a new STEAM library at Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; a significant addition to the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, and incorporating the Joseph Reed heritage façade onto the Melbourne School of Design.


Preservation and the Politics of Urban Growth

Mayor of Hartford Luke Bronin presented “Historic Preservation Efforts within the City of Hartford”, demonstrating the many renovations of historic buildings while praising the knowledge of his wife, Sara Galvan Bronin, currently nominated to become chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). Mayor Bronin also invited attendees to the upcoming 400th anniversary of the city, coming in 2035.

Out of the many beautiful buildings and historic areas shared by Mayor Bronin, my favorites were Pratt Street Historic District, revitalized as part of the American Rescue Plan and closed off to car traffic; soon-to-be-established Coltsville National Historical Park, which includes Colt Armory and Colt Park; and vibrant Parksville Market, proudly advertised as “the first food hall in Connecticut”.


Intersectional Emergency: Climate Action in New England

This three-person panel was led by Ed Carr, Ph. D., an environmental expert and professor at Clark University in Worcester. He described the climate issues experienced by the city, as income inequality shaped its infrastructure. Wealthy owners of industry lived in the greener, uphill, western part of the city, while immigrant workers lived in triple-decker neighborhoods at the base of hills and prone to flooding. Even historically middleclass areas like Elm Park experience serious flooding, with a meter of standing water as plumbing systems fail. Despite these challenges, he remains optimistic around the ability to solve issues related to climate change.

Eric Kramer of architecture design firm Reed Hilderbrand focused his discussion on “A People’s Future for the National Tidal Basin”. The Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. regularly floods the National Mall, creating a dangerous pathway for visitors and killing the iconic cherry trees with brackish water. The firm proposed changing the edges of the basin, adding trees, relocated cherry trees, and planning for additional modifications as the Atlantic Ocean rises due to climate change. He described the Tidal Basin as an important place for American rituals and believes these rituals must evolve to fit the new climate.

Andy Gapinski, Director of Horticulture at Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, advocated for “Conservation in the Midst of a Global Crisis”. The 291-acre arboretum was designed in 1872 by Frederick Law Olmsted as part of the Emerald Necklace in Boston. Gapinski laments that 40% of the plants in the world are threatened with extinction from an increase droughts and pests like the Asian Longhorn Beetle, Emerald Ash Borer, Dutch Elm Disease, Chestnut Blight, and Beech Leaf Disease. Publications like “State of the World’s Trees” by Botanical Gardens Conservation International and the City of Boston’s “Urban Forest Plan” describe the potential catastrophe but also give guidance for solutions like seed banks, botanical gardens, and global collaboration. The arboretum currently partners with the U.S. National Arboretum and USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository, along with local Zoo New England (Franklin Park Zoo & Stone Zone) and Mass Wildlife.


Net Zero 2030: Decarbonization and Old Buildings

In this lighting talk, Dr. Luis Aguirre-Torres passionately illustrated the efforts of the Ithaca, New York as the city strives to become carbon neutral by the year 2030 as part of its Green New Deal. Dr. Aguirre-Torres comically described his belief before starting the project that “There are no politics in local government”. After gathering data from what information was available, he estimated that 410,000 metric tons of CO2 were created by city residents each year and worked with the community to devise ways of reducing this output. Classic methods like electric vehicles, use of solar power, carbon capture, decreasing use of natural gas, bikeshare systems, and replacing outdated machinery are all works in progress. A major breakthrough was realizing that deconstructing buildings to save material for reuse would dramatically reduce the carbon output of the city. Ithaca is not yet a success story, but it demonstrates potential initiatives for other cities to try.


Climate Q&A with the Audience

Carr, Kramer, Gapinski, and Aguirre-Torres returned to the stage for a discussion guided by questions from the audience. Gapinski and Kramer explained the importance of forest species diversity and cultivating native plant meadows for insect life. Aguirre-Torres and Carr called for more democratic engagement, from conversations within the community and voting. All speakers agreed on the necessity to transform current policies and person-level actions related to carbon emissions, and that these changes should be incremental to minimize impact on daily life.


Resiliency Requires a Traditional Trades Infrastructure

This fascinating conversation highlighted the need for workers who know how to rehabilitate historic structures, the scarcity of tradespeople, and the training processes to prepare students for the workforce.

Nicholas Redding of Preservation Maryland, the friends group of NPS Historic Preservation Training Center, described “The Campaign for Historic Trades” and the Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP). The focus of the organization is to recruit students, place them into jobs, and prepare them for work beyond the parks and federal properties. This new system was developed in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Other barriers associated with trades training include a lack of national standards and the society stigma on physical labor.

A soon-to-be-released report on “Status of Historic Trades in America” shows that building rehabilitation employs more than 1.3 million workers, with over 10,000 jobs opening up each year. Work is not lacking, as about 40 million buildings in the United States are over 50 years old and will require rehabilitation. Additionally, workers experienced in historic preservation receive an average of 9% wage premium pay.

Preservation Maryland worked with Newport Restoration Foundation to create an open-source curriculum, lowering the barrier to entry. Redding encouraged organizations looking to train tradespeople to partner with other groups and not try to be all things.

Sarah Turner, President of North Bennet Street School, praised the organization of the Summit before explaining the importance of the vocational school. She emphasized that the work was not niche or anachronistic, although the fields are highly specialized and somewhat invisible. Additionally, the intersection of traditional had skills and modern technology have revolutionized the field, allowing craftspeople to make even better products.

Turner is encouraged by the shifting of national conversation, as college is no longer considered the only route for success and career changes become more acceptable. In fact, the pandemic triggered the “Great Redirection”, as many of the School’s 160 students in full-time training programs are pursuing second careers. The school works to make itself more accessible, creating shorter experience than the typical two to three year commitment for the programs, and offering scholarships.

Partnerships are a key to the success of the school. The carpentry program is called in for projects in local communities, giving them real-world experiences in the field, while piano tuners in training tune the instruments at the Boston Public Schools, allowing students to witness a rarely discussed career.


Sustainability and the Auction Market

Karen Keane, CEO of Bonhams Skinner, and familiar to me as an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow, spoke on “Preserving Our Material Culture Collecting in the Marketplace”. Even with the recent name change, her company retains the values it had since its inception. Other updates to the business include “Discovery Auctions”, where items are liquidated at bargain prices. As for its size, the organization handles over 70 auctions per year in their Boston and Marlborough locations, and has fourteen sales rooms around the world, more than any other auction house.

Keane described visiting families for in-home evaluations of furniture, praising their decision to give their beloved pieces a new home rather than contributing to the nine million tons of furnishings thrown away in the United States each year. The circular economy, where high quality objects are repeatedly bought and sold, decreases carbon emissions and other harm to the ecosystem. Buying antique jewelry, for example, prevents the damage done by mining.

Keane noted the change in values as new generations enter the auction market. While older generations enjoyed amassing vast collections, younger collectors purchase fewer pieces. The popularity of objects changes over the years, and early to mid-20th century design is currently trending. Due to ever changing demands, Bonhams Skinner recently added fossils and cars to the items available for purchase.


Growing Community through Agricultural Preservation

Jane Hennedy, Site Manager of the southern Rhode Island HNE sites Casey Farm and Watson Farm, spoke on the “Cultivation Community at Casey Farm”. Farmers participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), raising crops and caring for animals to produce enough food to feed over 150 families. The initiative includes pick-your-own crops for members and students raising heritage breed chicks in their classrooms through Project CHICK. Other community events included the annual egg hunt and seed sale, along with renting out the venue for weddings.

As Casey Farm promoted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the organization recognized the important contributions of Black and Indigenous people throughout its history. The Nettukkusqk Singers performed at the installation of Three Sisters: RainKeep, a sculpture with a 500 gallon water tank, and again at the Rhode Island Slave History Medallion.

Lynne Bryan Phipps, Executive Director of Beechwood Integrative Equine Therapy, described a scientifically proven method of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional eating. Her program works with Brown University to rigorously test the methods of therapy. The work of therapy horses is so important that the facility was declared a mental health emergency program in Rhode Island during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beechwood partners with Paul Cuffee School in Providence, Ocean House in Westerly, and other Rhode Island organizations to provide care and relaxation for people of all ages.

Phipps works with warm-blood horses whose lineage had been traced as far back as the 13th century, where they brought knights into battle. She knows the personality and history of each horse. Unlike other therapy programs, she does not work with rescue horses because of the trauma in their backgrounds, which can adversely affect patients. She believes many people with trauma feel more safe being in nature or with animals then being in a doctor’s office or at church, as harm was done to them by other humans.

Uli Lorimer, Director of Native Plant Trust, spoke about “Conservation Horticulture & Advocacy”. The nature trust is the 1st plant preservation organization in the United States, with its botanical garden, Garden in the Woods, located in Framingham, Massachusetts. The garden is 45 acres, with several trails, and open from mid-April to Mid-October. In addition to this space, the Native Plant Trust works with the public in preserving plants, with conservation, horticulture, and public programs acting as the three pillars of the organization. The Trust publishes Plant Diversity Report, Go Botany, and many other resources. It offers public programming, over 250 courses, and special events.

Lorimer described by the growing awareness of the importance of native plants and their effect on climate change, but thought more awareness is needed around the care of different species, genetic diversity in plants, and the impact of pesticides on pollinator species. He believed plants act as bridge between humans and the natural world. Those interested in eating locally and growing native plants should join a CSA, but also keep in mind that access to a garden or natural places is a luxury and not yet accessible to all.


Opening Doors: Preservation Easements

Carissa Demore, Team Leader for Preservation Services at HNE, answered the question, “What does it mean to manage a living archive?” While HNE once had over 60 museum properties, the organization has pared down its collection to a more manageable 38. Properties were sold to private buyers as part of a preservation easement program. Currently, 119 properties are protected, acting as authentic pieces of New England’s cultural landscape. Unlike newer homes, which have what Demore described as “nauseatingly apparent” misappropriation of New England architecture, historic homes connect to the community with residents knowing who are and where they came from.

Demore quipped that “It only takes two things to preserve an historic place: Money and technical know-how”. She told the story of Jim, a successful corporate businessman and historic homeowner who spent an entire summer clearing vines from stone walls with his nephew. This work was neither productive nor sustainable, as the vines would grow back each summer. Fortunately, Jim retired and became a farmer, raising sheep and alpacas to eat the vines and grass on his property. Jim also bought a storefront in town to rent to local artists and joined his town’s zoning board, an example of connecting to the house’s community.


History Lessons: Transformations in Teaching…Good and Bad

Dr. Francoise Hamlin of Brown University moderated a discussion focusing on K through 12 education. She focused on the questions of “How do you solve problems from the history of schools?” and “How do you support teachers?” As a history professor, Dr. Hamlin teaches students who choose to take history classes, but she laments that hey are not well-prepared for college. The students are great at taking test on history and civics, but they are unable to support their opinions in writing or form original arguments. Dr. Hamlin must dismantle what the students learned in high school and teach them to use primary sources and think for themselves. She described the greatest difficulty of having a hard time doing “fun stuff when always going back to the basics”.

As part of her efforts to improve the public school pipeline to college, Dr. Hamlin works with Primary Source, a non-profit in Boston that builds toolboxes to aid teachers in approaching difficult topics and a printable curriculum catalog. She hopes teachers will use these resources to overcome the teaching to the test method brought on by Common Core.

Claudia Wu works with the Center for Civics Engagement & Service Program at Newton North High School to improve civic engagement among the students. Now that Massachusetts education standards require a full year of civics for eighth graders, along with two civic action projects, public schools are incentivized to add civics classes. The Massachusetts Civic Learning Coalition made resources and advocated for policies to further improve civics education.

Dr. Kenann McKenzie of Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life @ Tufts University, where I was a teaching assistant during grad school, works with K through 12 teachers on professional development. McKenzie worried that comprehensive history is not taught until university. Public schools do not emphasize the contributions of the many diverse groups in the United States, while they should instead “see contributions as a wealth of knowledge, not threats to what we understand as the status quo”. History is needlessly politicized, and people jump to conclusions about neighbors who are unlike them.

Dr. McKenzie recently faced these issues during a school committee meeting, when a fellow parent accused her of introducing Critical Race Theory to the district, even though school committees do not choose school curriculum. Many community dialogs followed the encounter, allowing Dr. McKenzie and others to have conversations with worried people. The conversations allowed members of the community to better understand each other.


New England’s Tradition of Summer Festivals

While introducing the upcoming panel, Lisa Simmons and Timothea Pham from Mass Cultural Council described many fun and educational festivals taking place around Massachusetts throughout the year. The Council has sponsored over 1300 festivals since the program started in January 2016. Highlights included:

Anne-Marie Soulliere of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate at Yale School of Music was the moderator of the panel. Her funny comment before the discussion was that she had played the piano in Mechanics Hall as a high school senior in 1965, but a wrestling ring was in the middle of the floor. Soulliere described the life of Ellen Battell Stoeckel, who left her entire fortune, her home Whitehouse, and surrounding 73 acres of property with 22 buildings, to Yale as a music school upon her death in 1939. Since then Yale has expanded the property to include a Music Shed built in 1906, along with renovating the former stable and carriage house in 2020. The school hosts Norfolk Chamber Music Festival each year.

Chris Serkin had a close connection to Worcester, as his mother- and father-in-law live in the city. In 1951, his grandfather, Rudolf Serkin, founded the Marlboro Music Festival held on the campus of Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont. The intention of the festival was for the greatest musicians to join younger musicians as collaborators. The festival had a positive economic impact on the town, selling out concerts every summer and hosting benefit concerts. When Marlboro College failed during the pandemic after hosting the festival for 71 years, Marlboro Music Festival bought the 50-acre campus and has recently built new rehearsal facilities and a music library in a New England barn style.

Jim Naughton, a Tony award-winning actor, described his experiences at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, initially directed by Williams College professor David C. Bryant and Yale professor Nikos Psacharopoulos. The festival continues to be held annually at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He first started going to the festival in 1972. He recalled working all year to afford to go to the festival and developing a “symbiotic relationship with the people in the town”.


Dvorak’s Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90 with Dr. Melvin Chen

Besides being the Dean of Yale School of Music and Director of Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Dr. Melvin Chen is an accomplished pianist. He played the piano trio with a pair of Norfolk Fellows, described as violinist Evan Johanson and cellist Alan Lee Ng. A unique feature of the piece was the “dumkas”, or thoughts, which express six separate movements within the piece, each of which has a happy and sad section. The musicians played beautifully in the resonant hall and received a well-deserved standing ovation.