Preserving Historic Places, Indiana’s annual conference on saving and revitalizing vintage buildings and neighborhoods, takes place in New Albany April 9-11. The conference includes educational sessions, workshops, and tours in addition to lectures by state and national preservation leader.
Tours and workshops will showcase historic homes on New Albany’s mansion row, churches, and the revitalized downtown. A highlight of the conference will be an evening riverboat cruise on the Belle of Louisville, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat in the country.
Educational sessions offer variety in topics—wallpaper repair, maintenance of historic buildings, dealing with lead paint in old buildings, neighborhood revitalization, preserving shotgun homes, saving historic bridges, interpreting African American history, and more. One session examines “Gunnison Magic Homes,” prefab houses produced in New Albany and shipped throughout the nation from 1935 until the plant closed in 1974.
Plenary session speaker Daniel Bluestone, University of Virginia professor and a specialist in nineteenth-century American architecture and urbanism, is a highly regarded advocate of community preservation and public history.
Patricia Van Skaik will discuss a recently discovered 1848 Cincinnati Riverfront Panorama and how the rare image is being used to better understand life on the Ohio River during the mid-nineteenth century. Van Skaik is manager of the genealogy and local history department at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County,
Bloomington author Nancy Hiller will share her views on the beauty and importance of historic places across the state. Hiller is the editor of Historic Preservation in Indiana: Essays from the Field, a new book that has been called the perfect starting place for those interested in saving endangered places
Preserving Historic Places conference partners include Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA), Indiana Landmarks, Indiana University Department of History, U.S. Department of the Interior, and National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund.
Sponsors include the City of New Albany, Cornelius O’Brien Lecture Series Concerning Historic Preservation, Develop New Albany, HMS Global Marine, Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County, Indiana State Representative Ed Clere, Michell Timperman Ritz Architects, and Resch Construction.
For all three days, Preserving Historic Places costs $175 per person and $100 per student, with discounts before March 1. The price per day is $75.
For more information on individual sessions and to register, call DHPA, 317-234-1268, or visit www.in.gov/dnr/historic.
