Spring 2002

Spring 2002

History 483/583

Introduction to Historic Preservation

Lecturer: Professor Marsha Weisiger
	Office: Breland Hall, Room 252 Telephone: 646-4037. Please leave a message if I'm not in, or you can contact me by email Email: mweisige@nmsu.edu (Note: Use lowercase; there is no "r" in my address) Office Hours: Mondays, 2:30-4:30, or by appt.
Class Schedule:
	Wednesday, 2:30-5:00 Two brunch meetings and a field trip, scheduled as shown below. Attendance required.
If you require an special accommodations due to disability or religion, please let me know within the first three weeks of class.

Introduction
This seminar-style course in historic preservation provides an overview of an exciting, interdisciplinary field for public historians. historic preservation brings together a broad spectrum of disciplines--historical research, interpretation, and writing; architecture and architectural history; archeology; landscape architecture and landscape history; urban and rural planning; real estate and business development; and public policy--to document, protect, and interpret historic buildings, landscapes, and archeological sites. Over the course of this semester, we will focus on documenting and interpreting historic buildings from two professional points of view: (1) serving as a historic preservation consultant, and (2) administering the National Historic Preservation Act through state and local governments. Additionally, we will discuss some of the ethical and philosophical considerations involved with preservation, public history, and collective memory. Finally, we will gain anovervie2 of how disciplines outside history fit into to the fields and how you might expand your interdisciplinary horizons to prepare for a career in historic preservation.

Readings
Our sessions will include mini-lectures, but we will focus on discussions of readings, so the reading is fairly intensive. Be prepared to read approximately one book or a set of preservation bulletins each week. (Don't freak at the reading list! You will be asked simply to dip into some of the bulletins and a couple of the books.) In addition to the books listed below (available at the University Bookstore), you should purchase the Historic Preservation Reader from the Corbett Center Copy Shop. A set of National Register Bulletins and other publications will be distributed in class, free of charge. Finally, you will read several magazine-type articles in CRM (a National Park Service publication) on the Web. (Note: Currently, the National Park Service Web Site has been shut down, so we may be reading CRM in an alternative format.)

	*Required books available at the University Bookstore:*
	Virginia and Lee McAllester, A Field Guide to American Houses Thomas Carter, ed., Images of an American Land: Vernacular Architecture in the Western United States Barbara Howell, et al., Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History Richard Francaviglia, Hard Places: Reading the Landscape of America's Historic Mining Districts T. H. Breen, Imagining the Past


	*Required book to be ordered through me:*
	Michael A. Tomlan, ed., Preservation of What, for Whom? A Critical Look at Historical Significance

	*Historic Preservation Reader* (available at the Corbett Center Copy Shop

	*National Register Bulletins* (distributed in class at no charge)
	Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation Bulletin 16: How to Complete the National Register Registration Form Bulletin 18: How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes Bulletin 22: Guidelines for Evaluating and Nominating Properties that Have Achieved Significance Within the Past Fifty Years Bulletin 24: Guidelines for Local Surveys: A Basis for Preservation Planning Bulletin 30: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes Bulletin 31: Surveying and Evaluating Vernacular Architecture Bulletin 38: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties Bulletin 39: Researching a Historic Property Bulletin 42: Guidelines for Identifying, Evaluating, and Registering Historic Mining Properties

	*Preservation Publications* (distributed in class at no charge)
	Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as Amended NPS, Federal Historic Preservation Laws NPS, The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties

Grading
Grades for undergraduates will be based on five components: written descriptions of historical resources (10 Percent), response papers (10 percent), mid-term quiz (15 percent), National Register nomination (25 percent), and attendance and participation in class discussions (40 percent).

Grading for graduate students will be based on six components: written descriptions of historical resources (10 percent), response papers (10 percent), mid-term quiz (15 percent), attendance and participation in class discussions (20 percent), architectural/historical survey (20 percent), and National Register nomination (25 percent). A description of each component follows:

Attendance and Participation in Discussions (undergraduates: 40 percent; graduates: 20 percent of grade) Attendance is mandatory, including scheduled Saturday brunches and field trips. I especially urge you to adjust your schedule to accommodate the brunches and field trips, because they are crucial to your ability to comprehend and succeed in other parts of the course. Moreover, because this is largely a discussion course, this segment of the course grade will receive great emphasis. You will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss that today's topic and participate in the discussion.

National Register Project (25 percent of grade) Each of you will be asked to prepare a National Register nomination for an individual historic property, selected in consultation with me. This project will involve site visits, black-and-white and slide photography, and documentary research to determine the history of the property, describe its architecture, develop its historical context, and evaluate its significance. You will submit a draft 9required) of the nomination for review and comment, and will revise it to meet national park Service Standards. In the last session, you will present a brief summary of your nomination, illustrated with slides. As a group we will discuss how the national Park Service processes and evaluates nominations, focusing on technical and substantive issues. Graduate students are expected to revise their nominations sufficiently to meet standards for submittal to the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office before receiving a final grade and are encouraged to shepherd the project through the entire nomination process.

Architectural/Historical Survey (graduate students only) (20 percent of grade) Each of you will be asked to conduct an intensive-level survey of small prospective district, in teams of two or more. the survey area will be selected in consultation with me and will include a combination of buildings and non-architectural historic resources. This project will involve site visits, black-and-white photography, map-making, and archival research to determine the date of construction of each resource, complete survey forms for each resource, determine whether or not each resource contributes to the historical significance of the prospective district, develop a historical context for the district, evaluate its significance, and make a recommendation regarding its eligibility for the National Register. The survey will be conducted according to the standards established by the New Mexico SHPO and the National Park Service.

Mid-Term Quiz (15 percent of grade) This quiz will cover the Federal National Register and Section 106 programs, through a combination of objective questions and short-answer essays.

Historical Resource Description (10 percent of grade) As preparation for writing a National Register nomination, each of you will prepare two descriptions of historical resources: (1) an architectural description of an historic building in the Las Cruces area, accompanied by at least two black-and-white photographs, and (2) a description of a non-architectural resource (such as a designed landscape, a cemetery, an irrigation canal, or a bridge), accompanied by a one-page analysis of the different issues that the resource raised, compared to a building, and at least one black-and-white photograph.

Response Paper (10 percent of grade) You will prepare a 2-page response paper on two of three books or collections of papers (a CRM issue on diversity; Breen, Imagining the Past; Toman, ed., Preservation of What, for Whom?). Here's what I expect; Using your best English, write a two-page essay on anything you think is important interesting, provocative, or surprising in the particular book. The point is to think deeply about one or two of the issues that the author raises and respond to it analytically.


Weekly Topics and Assignments
Week 1--(Jan. 9) What Is Historic Preservation? Week 2--(Jan 16) History Of Historic Preservation Week 3--(Jan. 23) What Style Is It?: A Short Course in Architectural History
	McAllester and McAllester, A Field Guide to American Houses, pp. 5-61; browse remainder Harris, American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (on reserve; browse)
*Saturday brunch and walking tour (attendance required)--Jan. 26, 9:30-12*
Week 4--(Jan. 30) Exploring Vernacular Architecture
	Carter, Images of an American Land, pp. 3-18; read one essay of your choice from each of the book's 6 remaining sections
Week 5--(Feb. 6) Exploring Documents
	Howell, Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History
	Elanor O'Donnell, Bulletin 39: Researching a Historic Property
Week 6--(Feb. 13) Reading the Landscape
	Francaviglia, Hard Places: Reading the Landscape of America's Historic Mining Districts
	*Public History Reader:*
	Grady Clay, excerpt from Close-up: How to Read the American City
	May Watts, excerpt from Reading the Landscape: An Adventure in Ecology
Week 7--(Feb. 20) Architectural/ Historical Survey
	Bulletin 24: Guidelines for Local Surveys: A Basis for Preservation Planning (skim)
	*Public History Reader:*
	New Mexico SHPO, Historic Cultural Properties Inventory Manual
	Marsha Weisiger, "Conducting Architectural/Historical Sruveys"
*Saturday field trip (attendance required)--Feb. 23, 9:30 a.m.*
Week 8--(Feb. 27) National Register of Historic Places
	Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (peruse)
	Bulletin 16A: How to Complete the National Register Registration Form (peruse)
	Bulletin 18: How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes (skim)
	Bulletin 30: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes (skim)
	Bulletin 42: Guidelines for Identifying, Evaluating, and Registering Historic Mining Properties (skim)
Week 9--(March 6) Section 106
	Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as Amended
	NPS, Federal Historic Preservation Laws (skim)
	*NPS Web Site*
	CRM, 22 (1999) No. 3: In the Public Interest: Creative Approaches to Section 106 Compliance *Description/discussion of non-architectural resource due*
Week 10--(March 13) Digging Deeper
	*NPS Web Site*
	CRM 22 (1999) No. 1: Jamestown Island Revisited, 1607- *Mid-Term Quiz*
Week 11--(March 20) Preserve Locally
	*Preservation Notebook*
	National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Getting to Know Your 20th Century Neighborhood" National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Maintaining Community Character: How to Establish a Local Historic District"
	National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Design Review in Historic Districts"
SPRING BREAK--MARCH 25-29
Week 12--(April 3) Financial Programs
	NPS, The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties (skim) *Draft National Register nominations and photographs due*
Week 13--(April 10) New Directions
	Taylor and Gilbert, Cultural Landscape Report: Cant Ranch Historic District, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (on reserve; skim)
	Charles A. Birnbaum, Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes (skim)
	Bulletin 38: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties (skim) *NPS Web Site*
	CRM 22 (1999) No. 8: Diversity and Cultural Resources *Surveys due (graduate students only)* *2-page response papers on CRM articles due*
Week 14--(April 17) Public History and Memory
	Breen, Imaging the Past *2-page response papers due*
Week 15--(April 24) Whose History?
	Tomlan, Preservation of What, for Whom? *2-page response papers due*
Week 16--(May 1) Project Presentations
	*Final nominations and photographs due* *Saturday brunch (attendance required)--May 4, 9:30-12:00--Wrapping Up*

*Dates to Remember*
Jan. 26 (Sat.)	Brunch and walking tour
Feb. 6	Architectural description due
Feb. 23 (Sat.)	Field trip
March 6	Description/discussion of non-architectural resource due
March 13	Mid-Term Quiz
March 25-29	Spring Break
April 3	Draft National Register nominations and photographs due
April 10	Response paper on CRM diversity issue due
April 10	Response paper on Imaging the Past due
April 24	Response paper on Preservation of What, for Whom? due
May 1	Final nominations and photographs due; class presentations
May 4 (Sat.)	Brunch

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