Featured Place
Dubuque, Iowa
When we relaunched our This Place Matters campaign for 2009, we challenged you to start a conversation about the places that matter – big and small – all across the country. One city in Iowa – Dubuque -- took this challenge and ran with it to highlight their local officials' support of historic preservation and the impact it has had in their community.
Dubuque is no stranger to historic preservation. The city has a successful Main Street program and NTHP President Richard Moe recently visited the city to tour their historic millwork district and announce Dubuque’s partnership with our Sustainability Program's Green Lab.
So it was a natural for Dubuque to leverage our This Place Matters campaign to engage their local decision makers. Assistant Planner David Johnson said “It wasn’t hard to get our City Council members to participate – all of them immediately understood the value of the campaign, just as they understand the value of historic preservation to our community values, our economic development program and -- increasingly -- our sustainability planning.”
Council members suggested their own places, many of which had personal meaning for them, including St. Raphael’s Cathedral where Council Member David Resnick’s daughter was married. Council member Karla Braig cited three generations of connections in her selection of the Grand Opera House -- from her father-in-law's experience as an usher to her memories of 10 cent movies as a child to her children’s performances in the theater today – a testament to the adaptability of historic structures to fit a community’s changing needs.
See all of the Dubuque’s places that matter in this slideshow:
Want to do your own slide show?
Follow Dubuque’s lead for an effective presentation:
1. Download our sign or create your own.
2. Ask you mayor, Council Members or other decision makers to pose in front of places that matter to them. You can also suggest places that you THINK should matter to them.
3. Upload your photos to our This Place Matters website, making sure to include information about the place – and your local politician of course. You can including information in the title and if you want to include more information, just place a "comment" on your photo once it's been posted in our Flickr slideshow.
4. Make sure you "tag" your photo with City, State, and any other words (i.e. church, theatre, city hall) that you think will get your photo picked in searches of our photo pool.
5. Once you’re finished, contact your local press and get them to do a story on your campaign. It’s a great way to get your local decision makers visibility AND get them on the record with their support of preservation.
6. Most of all – have fun!
