2022 August Preservation ePost

Seismic Safety Series Continues in August

The next session in the free webinar series Home, Safe Home: Seismic Safety and Rehabilitating Historic Homes takes place August 30th. This session will address the types of buildings and building materials that are vulnerable in earthquakes, how an earthquake might affect your property, how to use the California Historical Building Code, and more.

The Home, Safe Home webinar series is offered by the Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) through a grant from FEMA and in collaboration with the California Preservation Foundation (CPF), Page+Turnbull, and other preservation partners. Our thanks to CPF for hosting the series on their media platforms. Previous sessions can be viewed via the OHP Webinar Archives page and CPF YouTube channel.

Image: Impacts of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, Santa Cruz, CA (photo courtesy of the USGS).

Public Listening Sessions for

Regional Resilience Grant Program

The Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) invites you to participate in Public Listening Sessions for the new Regional Resilience Grant Program. Through the historic 2021 Climate Resilience Budget, the OPR received a total of $250 million in funding for the Integrated Climate Adaptation & Resiliency Program (ICARP) to provide grant support to local, regional, and tribal community efforts to identify climate resiliency priorities and respond to the greatest climate risks in local regions.

ICARP launched stakeholder engagement efforts for the new Regional Resilience Grant Program (RRGP) as part of the public Technical Advisory Council (TAC) meeting on Monday, July 18, 2022. Additional listening sessions are taking place through mid-August, including general, regional, and tribal sessions. Please consider joining one of these sessions!

New Grant Program Launched

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s (NTHP) African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in partnership with Lilly Endowment, Inc., has launched a new initiative and grant program: Preserving Black Churches. As noted on the NTHP website, this grant program will provide funding "to strengthen capacity for historic congregations, preservation organizations, and community groups to better steward, manage, and use their historic structures.” An information session will be presented online, August 10 at 10:30 a.m. PT.

Deadline for Letters of Intent: September 2.

In addition to the NTHP, the following National Park Service grant programs are accepting applications as well:

Underrepresented Communities Grant Program: Grants support the survey, inventory, and designation of historic properties associated with communities currently underrepresented in the National Register of Historic Places and among National Historic Landmarks.

Application Deadline: August 10.

History of Equal Rights Grant Program (HER): Grants support efforts to preserve sites related to the struggle to achieve the ideal of equal rights in America.

Application Deadline: September 13.

Preservation Fellowship From the ACHP

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Foundation announces the launch of the 21st Century Leaders Fellowship Program. According to the Foundation, the program "provides early-career preservation professionals with a comprehensive understanding of historic preservation policy formulation and implementation at the national level." Fellows will have the opportunity to "explore how national preservation policies and programs are created and carried out, develop new networks within a dynamic professional environment, and acquire skills to prepare for a leadership role in historic preservation." The Fellowship comes with a stipend and commences in January 2023.

Deadline to apply: September 15, 2022.

Designating California!

With the recent launch of the National Trust’s new initiative, Preserving Black Churches, we wanted to feature one of California’s historic Black churches. Shiloh Baptist Church, Sacramento, is a Mid-Century Modern church constructed between 1958 and 1963, designed by Sacramento’s first licensed African American architect, James C. Dodd. The building is home to the Shiloh Baptist congregation, with roots going back to the Siloam Baptist Church established in 1856, and an active presence in the life of the city and Sacramento’s African American community.

During Sacramento’s redevelopment era of the 1950s, which displaced many community enclaves out of the center of the city, the church relocated from downtown to the neighborhood of Oak Park, where work began on the new church building. Due to financial hardships, completion of the church took five years, with much of the work being done by the church’s pastor Reverend Willis P. Cooke, and members of the congregation.

Shiloh Baptist was the first major commission of master architect James C. Dodd and is a skillful example of Mid-Century Modern church design. The main sanctuary plan is square, but oriented at a 45-degree angle to the street so the building appears diamond-shaped. The triangular roof rises to one and one-half stories above the sanctuary, placed on a diagonal, which distinguishes it from the rest of the building. The wooden frame building has stucco finish with redwood fascia and louver accents, and a composition shingle roof. Stained glass windows and an elevated cross are prominent features of the building front.

Shiloh Baptist Church achieved listing on the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 2012.

State Historical Resources Commission

The SHRC meets quarterly each year. Commission meetings are open to the public and live-streamed through the Cal-Span network. Meeting dates, times, and agendas are posted to the SHRC Meeting Schedule and Notices page of the OHP website.

For upcoming nominations, visit the Pending Nominations page. Nominations already heard by the Commission are listed on the Actions Taken page, and video recordings of SHRC meetings are posted to the Meeting Recordings & Summaries page.

Learn more about the responsibilities and role of the SHRC.

News, Education, & More

HistoriCorps is accepting registrations now for volunteer participants in its Architectural History Program with sessions taking place August 22 through September 16, 2022. Participants will work at sites in Idaho and Utah, photographing, measuring, and documenting historic structures on National Forests lands to aid in the management and care of the sites. The program is free, with meals, tools, and training provided by HistoriCorps.

For a full listing of volunteer projects being offered this summer and fall by HistoriCorps (including in California), visit their Upcoming Volunteer Projects page.

Registration Now Open for 2022 PastForward Conference

The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) is now accepting registrations for their 2022 PastForward Conference. Three themes will be explored this year: Historic Preservation is Climate Action; Encouraging Inclusion and Diversity Through Historic Preservation; and Understanding Preservation's Role in Real Estate Development. The conference takes place online, November 1-4, with early, on-demand sessions offered in October. Registration is required for both conference and on-demand sessions.

NTHP Offers Diversity Scholarships

The Diversity Scholarship Program convenes established and emerging leaders in the historic preservation community at the annual PastForward Conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For thirty years the program has provided over 2,500 scholarships to participants from historically underrepresented groups in the preservation movement. This year, scholars will receive complimentary registration for PastFoward Online 2022 and have the opportunity to participate in bi-monthly convenings to be held through September 2023. Deadline to apply: September 2, 2022.

NPS Heritage Documentation Programs Competition

The Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) of the National Park Service is inviting submissions for the 2022 Leicester B. Holland Prize Competition recognizing the best single sheet drawing of a site appropriate for inclusion in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection at the Library of Congress. The HDP includes the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS), and Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).

Submission Deadline: September 1.

Historic Roads Conference Heads West

This year, Historic Roads will hold their Preserving the Historic Road International Conference in Portland, Oregon, September 22-24. Historic Roads is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving historic roadways throughout the United States and beyond. The conference provides an opportunity to learn about and share the latest technology, engineering, research, and advocacy dedicated to identifying and preserving historic roadways.

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