Community
Preservation is about community
The National Trust for Historic Preservation believes that the strength of America's historic and older neighborhoods is critical to the future of our communities. Preservation is about having a sense of place. It's not about being stuck in the past, but about caring for the future.
This Place Matters
Is there a special place in your community? Let everyone know. Go to the This Place Matters section of PreservationNation.org, and share your story and photo. You can also see the special places submitted by people from around the country.
Teardowns
When large, out-of-scale homes replace existing smaller homes, the neighborhood's character and sense of place are disrupted.
Credit: Adrian Scott Fine
Since the National Trust first took up the issue of teardowns in 2002 through an America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places listing, the problem has has changed the face of communities throughout the Northeast and across the country. Historic buildings perceived as "inadequate" are demolished in older and historic neighborhoods every day. Frequently what replaces them are buildings that are not in scale with the existing neighborhood. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is working with local residents and elected officials across the country to consider options to manage teardowns before they get out of control.
With the Northeast Office taking the lead, the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched Teardown Tools on the Web. This resource is intended as a user-friendly, easy-to-share, one-stop-shop highlighting approximately 30 tools and more than 300 examples of best practices being used around the country to stem the teardown craze. Examples include: Advocacy for Alternatives to Teardowns; What's wrong with teardowns: A visual analysis of teardowns; and a teardown glossary. We also invite you to share your own teardown experiences.
Centers of Community
The National Trust's Northeast Office helped the community save and adapt the former St. Ann's Catholic church in Woonsocket, RI. Built between 1913 and 1917 by French-Canadian mill workers who donated their earnings each week, St. Ann’s is graced with windows imported from Chartres and true frescoes covering nearly every plastered surface.
From post offices to historic houses of worship to Main Streets, rail stations, and historic schools, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Northeast Office have worked to help communities save the places that fundamentally define their community identity.
Find great resources in other sections of www.PreservationNation.org, on
Responding to Threats
1816 Stagecoach Inn, in Chili, NY, was saved from demolition for a new chain drugstore.
Credit: Darcy Beeman
Communities contend with a host of threats - deferred maintenance due to neglect or lack of resources, poorly designed transportation projects, big box stores, chain drugstores, sprawl schools, and the general misconception that new is always better or cheaper.
Saving Our Communities' Natural and Cultural Heritage: Case Studies
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Land Trust Alliance are working together to build bridges between the preservation and conservation movements, with the goal of saving all the elements that make places special. Together, significant natural areas and historic resources make up America's irreplaceable legacy. The loss of one depletes our experience and understanding of the other. But across the country, organizations and individuals are working on projects combining protection of historic, scenic, cultural, and natural values. If you have a story to share - a missed opportunity, a great save, a joint effort - please share your story with the Northeast Office!
- Bowers Harbor Inn - Historic Preservation and Land Trust in Partnership
- Little Tennessee - Regional Land Trust Saving Historic and Cultural Resources
- Octagonal Barn - Land Trust Rehabilitating a Local Agricultural Landmark
Community Vitality
Rebuilding Communities Toolkit
Historic Preservation tools can offer powerful strategies for bringing new life to underutilized buildings and places. Some of these best practices have been collected and compiled in a publication by the Northeast Office of the National Trust, Rebuilding Communities. The toolkit highlights real-world examples where public policy, advocacy and marketing, design, partnerships, adaptive reuse, and financing have been used to help put vacant and abandoned properties back into productive use. A copy of the toolkit is available to download from our website at this Rebuilding Communities Toolkit.
Rural Character and Sustainable Farming
Historic Barns: Working Assets for Sustainable Farms. This publication on Sustainable Agriculture and Historic Barns describes how older and historic barns can provide practical benefits to one of the most exciting and fastest growing segments of the rural 
economy—sustainable agriculture. Download a FREE copy!
Additional tools for protecting rural character--and using rural heritage tourism an an economic development tool are available on the Rural Heritage section of our website.
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
New Rules Project: Designing Rules as if Community Matters, a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics. They produce an electronic newletter and have sectors related to agriculture, energy, environment, equity, finance, governance, information, retail and taxation.
Want to learn more?
The Preservation Books catalogue has a wide variety of books with advice for people who want to protect important places in their community. Below are just a few of the available titles. Visit www.PreservationBooks.org to see the entire catalogue.
- Design Review in Historic Districts
- Maintaining Community Character: How to Establish a Local Historic District
- Protecting Older Neighborhoods through Conservation District Programs
- Housekeeping for Historic Homes and House Museums
- Getting to Know Your 20th-Century Neighborhood
- Walls and Molding: How to care for Old and Historic Wood and Plaster
- Maintaining a Lead Safe Home
- The New Old House Starter Kit
- Historic Homes Tours: Showcasing Your Community's Heritage
- Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck, and Company
- The Community Design Assessment: A Citizens' Planning Tool
- How Superstore Sprawl Can Harm Communities (And What Citizens Can Do About It)
- Rural Conservation
- Getting Started in Heritage Areas
