Inside the National Trust

By Arnold Berke

(Art by Richard Thompson)

Can a barn be beautiful? You bet. Take the one that Joe Rude and Wende Elliott restored near Colo, Iowa, earning them the 2003 Barn Again! Farm Heritage Award. Faced with the circa 1890 structure's slumping, leaking, and crumbling, the couple righted it, replaced the roof, and fixed the siding?all for $10,000 less than new construction. (They rehabbed their old farmhouse, too.) Sponsored by the Trust, Successful Farming magazine, Chevy Truck, and Toy Farmer Publications, Barn Again! also gave five Recognition Awards to folks who showed how handsome barns can be. Read about all six at www.barnagain.org.

? Once again, Waterford, Va., is facing real-world pressure. A subdivision of 14 hillside homes is planned for a farm just outside the village in booming Loudoun County. Set within the Waterford National Historic Landmark, the project would erase original field patterns and be painfully visible from town. The Waterford Foundation was angling to buy the tract when an investor snapped it up in March. Now the group, which over the years has helped preserve much land and many landmarks, is raising money to purchase the property from the new owner. Meanwhile, the county wants to create a rural historic district to fill the gap between the village district and the national landmark's boundaries. The Trust has long aided Waterford, acquiring easements on open space and buildings, including the 1820s brick mill, and placing the hamlet on its first (1988) list of 11 most-endangered sites.

? More good news from Home & Garden Television, which has signed up for a second year of Restore America: A Salute to Preservation, its joint operation with the Trust. The first phase of the effort, launched in July, is aiding the restoration of 12 landmarks as it promotes the importance of preservation nationwide. HGTV is donating $1 million and much program time, mostly on its Restore America show, to these ends. Look for more of the same in year two?including a second $1 million grant to aid additional historic sites.

? Preservation pioneer Robertson Collins, 81, died in May in Singapore. A Trust trustee from 1971 to 1982, "Robby" Collins is best known for reviving Jacksonville, Ore., a faded 1850s gold-rush town. First, he successfully opposed a four-lane highway that would have ripped through there in the 1960s, destroying historic houses and commercial structures. Then he went on to restore many of these gems himself, protecting them with architectural easements, a tool he pioneered. In one measure of success, the entire town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The Medford, Ore., Mail Tribune recalled how Collins "coaxed and badgered townspeople into embracing the idea of preserving the past." He later moved to Southeast Asia, where he worked for years as a heritage tourism specialist, crafting plans for such famous sites as Cambodia's Angkor Wat shrine.

? May I plug a new book? The tome is Road Trips Through History: A Collection of Essays From Preservation Magazine, and the works gathered therein are the Back Page columns of Dwight Young. Dwight, as many of you know, is a long-term Trust staffer whose observations on the world of preservation?and preservation in the world?are witty, warm, and always insightful. His writing makes the reader feel like a conversation partner. To order Road Trips, which costs $15.95 plus $5 shipping (Trust members get 10 percent off), call (202) 588-6296 or visit www.preservationbooks.org.

? Congrats to Jack. After 34 years of fighting for the cause in Connecticut, Jack Shannahan retired in June as state preservation officer. Since 1969, he has documented, promoted, rescued, and restored countless Nutmeg State landmarks and landscapes. My favorite among that lucky multitude is the Merritt Parkway, a lovely late-1930s road that Shannahan helped save from "improvements." Knowledge, tenacity, and more than a little political savvy stood him well on that and other battles, many of which he joined with National Trust staff and friends.

? Happy tidings from Tulsa, where the Fire Alarm Building is getting a new life. The dispatching center for fire alarm boxes was built in 1931 by the city, which vacated it in 1984. But who could let the art deco F.A.B., with its heroic terra-cotta reliefs?firefighters, dragons, hoses, lightning bolts?wither away? Not Trust Advisor Marty Newman, who bought it in 1990, holding on until, he says, "its time came along." It has come. New owners, the American Lung Association of Oklahoma, are restoring the structure for use as an indoor-air-pollution research and education center. The group has already raised the $5.2 million tab for the center, whose revival is a Save America's Treasures project. What's more, says Newman, the effort has been "the catalyst for enormous change in the neighborhood"?some $20 million invested in a restored apartment house (now a hotel) and new townhouses and offices.

Read more from our current issue online, look for the September/October 2003 issue on newsstands, e-mail us to purchase a copy, or subscribe to the magazine by joining the National Trust.