As May is National Preservation month, Essex Heritage is reflecting on 4 years of preservation work completed on Bakers Island Light Station. 

"It isn't easy preserving a historic asset that is inaccessible for almost 7 months of the year!" says Annie Harris, CEO of Essex Heritage, "but all the challenges that we face help to strengthen our ability to understand our partners preservation issues around Essex County."

Since taking ownership of Bakers Island Light Station, Essex Heritage has completed several projects, including the cleaning and patching of the lighthouse's exterior as well as the painting and resurfacing of the entire masonry surface of the granite stone tower. In addition to the work that's been done to the lighthouse, significant time and resources have also been invested in the restoration of the lighthouse keeper and assistant lighthouse keepers' cottages, not only preserving the buildings for long term enjoyment, but making them habitable for members who wish to experience a more immersive experience through our "Overnights at the Light" program, our daytrips, and our special themed trips out to the island.  "Getting people to engage with the site, understand its history, and have access to a usually very inaccessible resource is an incredible feat but we are lucky enough to be able to do it every summer."

Jake Dougherty, the executive director of Wheeling Heritage, was named to a national list of honorees by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Trust's "40 Under 40: People Saving Places," recognizes 40 movers and shakers-all age 40 and under-from a variety of backgrounds and industries. These innovators are expanding our view of what it means to save places and tell America's history.

Dougherty was honored for his work in economic revitalization. While his focus is on Wheeling, he also championed state-wide efforts. As a member of the WV Abandoned Properties Coalition, he successfully led a grassroots effort to increase the West Virginia State Historic Tax Credit.

"Jake worked diligently to ensure West Virginia's incentives for preservation are some of the best in the country," said Renee Kuhlman, director of Policy Outreach at the National Trust. She noted that Dougherty created a financial model that can be used by other states to evaluate the effectiveness of their state historic tax credits.

"This recognition speaks to the quality of work Wheeling Heritage produces every day and the positive direction Wheeling is headed," Dougherty said. "Wheeling is fortunate to have a community that supports and cultivates young leaders who are passionate about the success of our city and state."

Click here to learn more about the "40 Under 40."

Augusta, Georgia's historic Mother Trinity Church is the birthplace of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) denomination. Yet, after 158 years of worship at its original location near the banks of the Augusta Canal, the African-American  congregation's historic sanctuary was resting on contaminated soil. By 1997 Atlanta Gas Light Company bought the church property and the congregation relocated. Eventually it became clear the utility planned to demolish the old Mother Trinity. 

	"The building mover is now hard at work," Sherrouse said. "We're hopeful that one day Mother Trinity will again shine her light in this community and beyond."

In 2016 Augusta Canal NHA stepped in, spearheading the "Save Mother Trinity" initiative. ACNHA convened more than fifty community stakeholders to look at how the church could be reused for a meaningful, sustainable purpose working with Partners for Sacred Places. 

"But first and foremost, we needed to save and stabilize the structure," explained ACHNA Executive Director Dayton Sherrouse.

The clock was ticking. The gas company was under orders to clean up the property by 2019. Finally, a formal mediation yielded an agreement; the gas company would deed both the church and nearby land to the Augusta Canal Authority (ACNHA's management organization) and contribute $300,000 toward the cost of relocation--provided the move is completed by mid-June 2018. 

The Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site is one of two remaining courthouses in the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area where Lincoln practiced law on the 8th Judicial Circuit. This important historic site is owned and managed by the state of Illinois. Unfortunately, the state does not have the resources to maintain the structure.

The Mount Pulaski Courthouse Foundation is making a big impact in their community and preserving the courthouse for future generations. In 2011, the Mount Pulaski Courthouse Foundation was established by a community of volunteers to help support, sustain and preserve the courthouse. Their goal is to restore and preserve the site, but they also strive to make it a central part of their community.

Since the Foundation's inception, they raised over $400,000, an impressive number considering the community's population totals 1,560. The funds were used to stabilize and restore the courthouse. Their first major projects were to fix a broken support beam in the attic, fix the fascia and put a new roof on the courthouse. They also made minor repairs to window sills and fix and repaint the stairs and doors.

Sometimes a small investment can make a big difference in historic preservation project. That's the goal of the Baltimore National Heritage Area's grant programs, which provide modest yet strategic funding for projects enhancing the city's museums and historic attractions.

One of Baltimore's smallest museums tells a big story: how immigrants transformed the city over the centuries. The Baltimore Immigration Museum, which opened its doors in Locust Point in 2016, commemorates the hundreds of thousands of people who chose Baltimore to begin a new life in the United States.

The museum location is tied to the immigration story: from 1904-1914, immigrants in need of temporary housing before moving to their final destinations used the building for shelter. A German church located in Locust Point built the structure, which is one of the last immigrant houses in Baltimore still standing.

The museum's front steps and porch railing needed repair. The historic granite entry steps unevenly settled, and the railing began to rust after years in the elements. In 2017, the museum was awarded a BNHA Small Capital Grant for $1,500 to make the repairs and minimize hazards for museum visitors.

"Although the repair project appears small, it has a big impact on our museum," said Brigitte Fessenden, the museum's president. "BNHA's Small Capital Grant program is a tremendous benefit to the city's small museums and historic sites."

Click here for more information about BNHA and its grant programs, http://explorebaltimore.org

MotorCities National Heritage Area, as part of its mission to preserve automotive heritage sites in Michigan, has supported the Partnership for the Arts & Humanities since 2012 for their work to restore Henry Ford's Cherry Hill Veteran's Dormitory. Ford moved this former creamery to its current site in Canton in the 1940s to house workers for his final village industry. Unlike Ford's other 18 village industries, he did not employ local off-season farmers; instead, he provided housing for disabled World War II veterans working at his adjoining manufacturing plant.

	Former Cherry Hill Veteran's Dormitory

The building is being revitalized to serve as a center for local female disabled veterans. The eight acres south of the building will be transformed into pedestrian paths and bike trails connecting to a historic district with more links to Henry Ford.

"It's exciting to have an organization that keeps automotive heritage alive in our area and is helping to tell this story," said Jill Engel, executive director of Partnership for the Arts & Humanities.

The Partnership feels this project can make a significant impact: first, in the preservation of a lesser known historic site; second, by the creation of a new tourism attraction that offers educational field trips and exhibits; third, by providing a community venue for special events and heritage activities.

The Oil Region Alliance hosted the Oil Heritage Region Historic Preservation Workshop and Awards in Pleasantville, PA on Saturday, May 19. The Workshop included sessions on historic preservation topics, such as historic metal truss bridges in Pennsylvania, historic district guidelines, a grave marker preservation demonstration at nearby Neilltown Church Cemetery, preservation efforts at the Historic Pithole City State Historic Site, architectural walking tours, and much more.

	Pleasantville Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, site events

The Preservation Award ceremony honored six organizations and individuals for historic preservation efforts in the Oil Region NHA. 

The winners are: 

Jim and Rachel Ashbaugh for 20 years of historic preservation volunteerism 

Christ Episcopal Church in Oil City for the congregation's stewardship of its 1886 church 

Ross Ruot and Matt Huber for reconstruction of an Italianate style commercial building in Titusville 

Love In the Name of Christ for storefront enhancement on its 1882 building in Titusville

Heritage Society of Oil City for installation of a new sign at Hasson Park in Oil City 

T itusville Renaissance, Inc. in recognition for its 25th anniversary and its dedication to heritage related activities. 

For more information www.oilregion.com. 

The Poudre Heritage Alliance is working in partnership with the City of Fort Collins, Poudre Landmarks Foundation, and the Colorado State Historical Fund, to raise $1.3 million for restoration of the 1883 Fort Collins Water Works. The goal of the Cache la Poudre River NHA (Alliance) is to transform the historic 23-acre site into a Water Interpretive Center to connect people to their history and water heritage, and empower them to become more informed guar dians of their water resources.

The Water Works is located along the foothills west of Fort Collins on the historic Overland Trail. T he site includes 4 buildings,

2 irrigation ditches, apple trees, and more. The original Gothic Revival style pump house is an excellent example of late nineteenth-century industrial architecture and will be the focal-point of interpretation. Click here to learn more.

Many groups have called the Quindaro neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas home. But these neighbors could not agree on how to tell their unique and intertwined stories including those of the Delaware and Wyandot Indians, suffrage, the Kansas-Nebraska and Fugitive Slave Acts, and the Underground Railroad. 

Freedom's Frontier NHA staff worked to bring them together to represent all stories.  The resulting Quindaro Symposium brought together people from across the country with the theme Strength Through Numbers: the Intersection of Abolitionist Politics, Freed Blacks, and a Flourishing Community in Quindaro  in April. 

Dr. Quintard Taylor's keynote address,  The National Context: The Kansas-Missouri Border and the Coming of Freedom in the Decade of Civil War  1855-1865,  was attended by more than 500 at the Kansas City Central Library in Missouri. Some 150 people attended workshops on Quindaro that followed. Partners captured neighborhood oral histories and are creating a website to both archive and share those histories and other Symposium presentations.

The Quindaro town-site ruins are listed in the National Register of Historic Places but faced an uncertain future. At one point, it nearly became a landfill. Archaeological excavations recovered hundreds of artifacts that provide hope for the future. Freedom's Frontier NHA is working toward National Landmark designation for Quindaro.

	Test Pilot Paul Thornbury with the 1940 WACO RPT.

The WACO Air Museum in Troy, Ohio is adding a new learning center thanks to a 1 million dollar gift from the Thom and Patricia Robinson Foundation. The centerpiece of the center will be the 1940 WACO RPT airplane, the only low-wing aircraft WACO ever built, a gift of the family of Dean W. Mitchell of Wisconsin. Historic WACO Field is an important site in the National Aviation Heritage Area and a partner of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance. 

WACO volunteers are restoring this one-of-a-kind airplane.  The WACO RPT was a prototype aerobatic trainer for the Army Air Forces. It was designed to compete for the military Civilian Pilot Training training program. The project was halted when WACO received an order for the UPF-7. The WACO Aircraft Company was America's largest manufacturer of civil aircraft in the late 1920s and early '30s. The WACO Historical Society operates the WACO Museum and Aviation Learning Center on WACO Field.

Ute tribe storyteller and Vietnam veteran Larry Cesspooch at the warrior statue at the Bottle Hollow Veteran's Memorial. He draws on his experience to comment on the story of Chief Sanpitch in the "The Lost Tomahawk."

In the latest episode of the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area's award-winning TV series,   Discovery Road, "The Lost Tomahawk" host James Nelson tells the story of Ute Chief Sanpitch, a great leader of the Ute Indians during Utah's Black Hawk War, whom Sanpitch County is named. In the episode Nelson traces the story of the Chief Sanpitch's tomahawk which was handed down for in a local family.

This is the third Discovery Road episode focused on the Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of the area.  "Native Americans and Sacred Water"   highlights the importance of water in Native American life, culture, and art .

"Utah's Black Hawk War-Cultures in Conflict" tells the story of the conflict that broke out as the American Civil War came to an end and the Territory of Utah erupted with violence as Ute Indians and Mormon settlers clashed over the land. 

Mormon Pioneer NHA has a strong commitment to emphasizing the Native American history of the area. Through its management plan, which recognizes and seeks to educate the public about the contributions of the tribes who inhabited the area, and its Native American ombudsman and other programs that highlight this important aspect of the area's history. The show airs on the Utah Education Network and  Mormon Pioneer YouTube channel .

	Holmes-Hendrickson House's Wool Days festival where audiences see Colonial era spinning and other trades.

Crossroads of the American Revolution NHA hosted "The Art of Period Trades and Crafts" on May 3 at East Jersey Old Town Village in Piscataway, NJ as part of a series of professional development seminars for partners to help historic sites offer more authentic presentations for visitors. This event offered instruction in 18th century knitting, handwriting, shoemaking and other skills. Participants also learned how to navigate 21st century legal requirements for reenactments and other events. 

Crossroards NHA continues  to engage new audiences through Revolutionary Spirit Night with the Somerset Patriots game on June 14. Baseball fans attending the game against the York Revolution can meet George Washington and Ben Franklin, and talk with representatives of local historic sites.

Ensuring engagement and heritage tourism was the focus as at Crossroads NHA annual meeting in April. New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way spoke to the partners attending the meeting;  "We need to do all we can to increase overall awareness of New Jersey's central role in the American Revolution, and do more to highlight the many historic sites and collections around the state that document this pivotal period in American history."  Crossroads' new board chair, Ira Jersey and new board members Rocky Peterson and Joshua Henne were also announced at the meeting. Click here to learn more.