A Look Back at 2024
Although time seems to move slowly from day to day, looking back on a whole year makes one feel as though it passed in the blink of an eye! It was another incredibly busy year at Missouri Preservation as we worked a lot behind the scenes on the little things that make our organization function.
The 2024 legislative session was a busy one, and after years of hard work by supporters of both Missouri Preservation and our partners at Historic Revitalization for Missouri, we celebrated the passing of SS HB 2062 (Sections 253.44 to 253.559, starts on page 51). This bill ratified a number of improvements that have long been sought after by users of the Historic Tax Credit program here in Missouri. Missouri Preservation is especially excited to educate new program users that nonprofits now qualify to utilize the credit, as they make up a large portion of property owners that reach out to Missouri Preservation about assistance. Thanks to the assistance from our partners at the Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri Preservation has been able to provide Historic Revitalization for Missouri and our state legislators with data sheets (example here) about the impact historic tax credits have had in their districts since the programs inception, and the potential for new projects based on existing National Register of Historic Places listings. This type of data, combined with the dedication of program users and advocates, has gone a long way in creating bi-partisan support for historic preservation in our Missouri legislature.
Public policy efforts expanded beyond our state, as Missouri Preservation continued to participate in the larger dialogue regarding historic preservation policies at the federal level. Missouri Preservation is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Action (a federal advocacy group), as well as the National Preservation Partners Network. Through these organizations we have been involved with the ongoing discussion around the shift taking place in the preservation field. If you are unfamiliar with what I am talking about, I highly recommend checking out the publication put out by Sarah Bronin, Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Report and Recommendations on the Application and Interpretation of Federal Historic Preservation Standards. This report really kicked off an interesting year of discourse.
In April, we continued the tradition of guest speaking for historic preservation students at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. Each year we are invited to speak about the basics of Historic Tax Credits. While the topic is never the most exciting to the students, guest speaking is always a great time to engage with future preservationists, introduce them to the organization, and potentially get a few volunteers to help out at the annual Missouri Preservation Conference. A number of preservation professionals you might meet here in Missouri (including our current and previous Executive Director as well as a number of SHPO employees) received a degree from this historic preservation program. Cheers to the future of preservation!
In June we attended a Historic Preservation Symposium in Springfield hosted by the State Historic Preservation Office and Greene County. Executive Director, Riley Price, spoke about the why’s of historic preservation and ways to get people involved. The slides from that presentation can be viewed here on our website and the entire symposium was also recorded and posted on Youtube by the Greene County Commission. At the end of the month, Riley was a guest on House of Lou, a podcast by St. Louis Magazine, to speak about historic districts, designations, and historic preservation in St. Louis.
Did you get a new laptop for the holidays? Consider donating your old one to Missouri Preservation! Our spare laptops have worked their last conference and we are in need of some good workhorses to carry us through the next few years. We use these laptops primarily for conference presentations and occasionally for in-office volunteer work. They do not need to be equipped with Microsoft or other programs. We require USB and HDMI ports and the ability to connect to the internet wirelessly. Contact Riley at director@preservemo.org if you’re interested in donating!
Missouri Preservation welcomed three new board members in the second half of the year! Kurt Jordan joins us from Loch Lloyd, Missouri. We snagged his interest when earlier this year he received a McReynolds Award from Missouri Preservation for his work restoring the historic Greenwick Cemetery in Andrew County. He has volunteered to take on requests to our organization related to cemetery preservation and best-practices, and will be helping Riley create new resources for the website yay! Nicholas Bruner of St. Louis also joined the board. He is an architect with Farnsworth Group and through his work, has had the opportunity to work on a number of Missouri State Park Historic Sites here in Missouri (including Thunderbird Lodge, a 2021 Honor Award winner). The board most recently voted Amanda Burke of St. Louis into their ranks. Amanda currently works for the National Park Service at Gateway Arch National Park (another connection we’re excited to have!) and previously worked for the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office where she handled Section 106 review. We are so excited to see what these new board members bring to the organization in the coming year!
Our annual conference, celebrating it’s 25th year, was held at Echo Bluff State Park in Eminence, Missouri. Hosting in a rural location was a new challenge but proved to be a rewarding experience. We were so excited to showcase the natural beauty alongside the architectural history of the Upper Current River region of Missouri.
In October, Riley joined other local volunteers with a background in architecture (including Landmarks Association of Saint Louis), in helping 3rd graders at the Rockwood Center for Creative Learning with their architecture class. Students were divided into groups and tasked with the development and design of different types of buildings (from restaurants and libraries to single and multi-family residential buildings). The project lasts the length of the school year and will culminate with the students building a model of their design. All of the volunteers will be invited back to view and judge the final products. We are excited to get involved with strengthening the children’s understanding of the built environment!
At the annual Certified Local Government Forum in October, hosted by the State Historic Preservation Office, Riley gave a brief presentation on Missouri Preservation and its programs. We love attending the CLG Forum every year and getting to meet with the many historic preservation commissioners from across the state. It is a great time to share ideas and get updated on what is happening around the state at a local level.
In December, Missouri Preservation was invited to have a table at the St. Louis Science Center First Friday event. The theme for December was Lord of the Rings (specifically the movies) and we were tasked with linking the theme to historic preservation and architecture. We created a small display about the architectural influences on the set designs for Middle Earth and then compared them to similar features seen on historic buildings around St. Louis. For example, the stark yet imposing buildings of Minas Tirith in Gondor were inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome, just as that influence can be seen here in St. Louis on some Romanesque Revival style churches. The homely Hobbit holes of The Shire were a great way to introduce the idea of Vernacular architecture, and a good comparison to their quaint yet well-crafted appearance is the Gingerbread (or Neo-Tudor) style homes in neighborhoods like Holly Hills.
Throughout the year, we also kept up with the regular task of responding to your inquiries. From requests for funding to seeking contractors, we did our best to point everyone in the right direction. It is through these inquiries that we also learn how we can improve the Missouri Preservation website; we are frequently working to improve the interface and add new resources. If you ever have a resource you think might be useful to share, please let us know!
Running a nonprofit organization has never been easy, but since the pandemic, has become increasingly difficult. Prices have risen for everything from rent for our office space to the software subscripitons that allow us to carry out our work (like Mailchimp, Adobe, and Zoom). Missouri Preservation relies almost solely on the financial support of our members, donors and Corporate Partners to exist. If you are not a member of Missouri Preservation, we hope you’ll consider joining at this time and spreading the word about our organization. We have big dreams to increase the services that the organization can offer, and we need your help to get there.
Looking toward 2025…
The Honor Awards Ceremony & Luncheon will be held April 29th in Jefferson City. This event is open to members of Missouri Preservation along with our award winners and their guests. The nomination period is now open and the forms can be found here; nominations are due back no later than February 9th.
The State Historic Preservation Office is hosting a Historic Preservation Symposium in May in Jefferson City. Missouri Preservation is one of the co-hosts and will be offering AIA Continuing Education Credits for any architects that attend. More information on this event will be shared by us and the SHPO in the coming months.
Our annual conference will be held in St. Louis, September 24th through 26th— we hope this will be our biggest and best one yet! The call for speakers and session proposals will go out in March. We have already booked our keynote speaker, and while we can’t share that information yet, we are so excited! If you aren’t already subscribed, be sure to sign up for our emails to be alerted when more information about the conference is released.
We wish you all a Healthy and Happy New Year!
Riley Price, Executive Director