Obsidian Communications Technical Support Center

Historic Preservation

Introduction

Conserving our past for current and future enjoyment.

Overview

This section includes resources for preserving historic buildings, written records and oral histories, including City, County and State Historic Preservation Groups and Neighborhood History Projects.

Page Index

Key Issues

Common Problems and Solutions

Successful Strategies

Annotated Web Resources

Topic Library

Sub-Topics and Vendors

Key Issues Related to this Topic

Use your history to strengthen neighborhood identity. Researching and publicizing the unique history of your neighborhood can strengthen the cohesiveness and identity of your neighborhood. Enhancing the historic qualities of your neighborhood can also increase property values and strengthen commercial areas.

Use the press to publicize neighborhood history. Your local neighborhood papers are always looking for stories and will often publish articles and photos on neighborhood history.

Preserve historic buildings. The MCDA and St. Paul PED are reducing the rate of demolition of historic buildings, in part, because of the need to preserve affordable housing. The ReUse Center in Minneapolis is providing an alternative to demolition, through its home deconstruction crews who collect historic building materials and fixtures for re-use. Historic building and homes in your neighborhood can be registered to help with their preservation. Some state and federal funds are available to supplement city programs to restore and maintain historic buildings. The Steven’s Square neighborhood recently published a flyer for a self-guided historic building tour of the neighborhood. Milwaukee Avenue in the Seward neighborhood is a nationally recognized preserved housing district.

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Common Problems and Solutions

Demolition of historic buildings. Many neighborhoods have listed historic homes and commercial buildings on the national record of historic buildings to aid in sparing them from demolition. A second good approach is the Minneapolis Neighborhood Early Warning system being developed by six groups, CURA and the City of Minneapolis to identify and track buildings that are at risk of becoming boarded and vacant.

High cost of renovation and maintenance. Special local, state and federal funds and tax credits are available to help defray the cost of renovating and maintaining historic buildings.

Developing effective record keeping systems. Maintaining organizational memory is a key challenge for neighborhood associations. With a frequent turnover of volunteers and paid staff, it is vital that easy to understand filing systems, financial systems, and volunteer and staff mentoring systems be developed to help the neighborhood develop and maintain its knowledge base and community wisdom over time.

Isolated elders with rich memories. Many neighborhoods are using volunteer and student interviewers to record and transcribe the stories of long-time neighborhood residents.

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Successful Strategies

Design new buildings to look compatible. Neighborhoods can influence the design of new residential and commercial structures so that size, scale, form and materials blend in with adjacent historic buildings.

Record and share oral histories. Many neighborhoods are using volunteer and student interviewers to record and transcribe the stories of long-time neighborhood residents. These stories can be published and used as source material for neighborhood arts and theater projects. The Seward Neighborhood group has produced several plays based on the oral histories of residents. The West Bank neighborhood published a cookbook featuring the many ethnicities in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood.

Celebrate your history with festivals. Many neighborhoods host annual festivals and celebrations to celebrate the unique historical features of their community.

Preserve neighborhood archives and records. Maintaining organizational memory is a key challenge for neighborhood associations. With a frequent turnover of volunteers and paid staff, it is vital that easy to understand filing systems, financial systems, and volunteer and staff mentoring systems be developed to help the neighborhood develop and maintain its knowledge base and community wisdom over time. Jay Clark and several neighborhoods active with the Twin Cities Training Program for Neighborhood Organizers (612) 625-2513 have developed a protocol and best practices for neighborhoods to archive their records to preserve them and make them usable over the long term.

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Local preservation resource- Minneapolis
Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission 06/15/04
Can assist in assessing the historic significance of buildings or areas, and reviews proposed building changes to such buildings or districts

Local preservation resource- State
Minnesota Historical Society 06/15/04
Assistance with both physical and cultural preservation, including a link to the State's Historic Preservation Office, the local administrator of the National Register of Historic Places

National historic preservation resource
National Parks Service 06/15/04
Information on projects and funding

National historic preservation organization
National Trust for Historic Preservation 06/15/04
The national organization for preservation in the U.S.

State preservation advocacy organization
Preservation Alliance of Minnesota 06/15/04
Statewide historic preservation advocacy organization

National clearinghouse
PreserveNet 06/15/04
Nationally-based clearinghouse of preservation information

Local preservation resource- St. Paul
St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission 06/15/04
Can assist in assessing the historic significance of buildings or areas, and reviews proposed building changes to such buildings or districts

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