BY ARNOLD BERKE

(Art by Richard Thompson)

At the point where two rivers converged in a green wood, Pittsburgh was born some 250 years ago. In November, nearly 2,500 people converged there for the annual National Preservation Conference, to see what local history, and their colleagues, could offer. A lot, it turned out—from the practical to the philosophical. At the opening session, two natives gave ostensibly different talks that resonated nicely together. Bill Strickland told of reviving individual and community pride with his two North Side art and training centers. "People are a product of expectations and the environment," he said repeatedly, explaining the value of enhancing both. Historian David McCullough described how delightful it was to grow up in Pittsburgh: "History happened here—and then some." But he lamented how badly, how dully, schools teach history these days; it should be taught alongside music, art, and theater, he argued.

... In postindustrial Pittsburgh, smoke did not get in our eyes, but an abundance of stunning architecture did. The density of fine buildings—many by celebrated designers, many not—could be tops in the nation. (H.H. Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail struck me as the most sublime of the lot.) Plus, the city's hills let one view them from all sorts of angles and distances. To gaze at downtown's skyline from atop the Duquesne Incline, a stop on conference tours, was to feel very lucky indeed.

... Pegging, milling, and rafter repair. Not the usual conference content, perhaps, but quite to the point at a session on incorporating crafts and trades of old into academic training. University of Florida professor Roy Graham recounted a 2006 field school in traditional building at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New York, where participants "used a building as a textbook." Rudy Christian, president of the Timber Framers Guild, described stabilizing, and thereby plumbing the history of, a Katrina-shattered house in Bay St. Louis, Miss. "The opportunity for education there was phenomenal," he said. Other educational panels—covering real estate to rural revival, transportation to tourism, commercial strips to cultural diversity—added up to a course in preservation today (and yesterday).

... Buses, bicycles, and feet took the curious out into city and region. An overview tour managed in a few hours to present a Pittsburgh packed with preservation wins. Another trip, "Rivers of Steel," visited plants still in operation, those awaiting restoration, and the neighborhoods that fed them workers. An outing to Frank Lloyd Wright's world-famous Fallingwater included his lesser-known house nearby, Kentuck Knob. And a full day was spent on the North Side, whose neighborhoods pioneered inner-city revitalization decades ago.

… Addressing the closing assembly, Ruth Abram called preservationists "keepers of the public memory and molders of the public cause" who should use the stories that historic sites tell to address social issues. Conscience, she said, is formed by memory. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which she heads, uses the tales of past immigrants to illuminate the problems of today's. And begin at the beginning: "To build a future audience, we must ask what children need; all of our historic places must help children find themselves."

… That session was held at historic First Presbyterian Church, which had emblazoned its sign with "Welcome to the National Trust." Just below came the weekly sermon assertion that "Spiritual Renewal Begins Here," unintentionally completing a thought to which all who entered chuckled amen.

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