Takeaways from the Historic New England Summit

by KATHERINE POMPLUN Institutional Giving Officer for Preservation

The inaugural Historic New England Summit, held October 13 and 14, 2022, attracted more than 600 participants via livestream and in person at historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. The conference convened a transdisciplinary audience from across the region and beyond to address timely issues and strengthen our collective network dedicated to creating more inclusive, sustainable, and livable communities. Here are takeaways from some of the outstanding leading voices who took to the Summit stage.

Forging a New Lens

What does history mean to our present moment? Dr. Leo Lovemore, librarian for history, society, and culture at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, opened the Summit with their keynote “Forging a New Lens” by emphasizing our shared responsibility to critically assess “the lessons, values, assumptions, and stories that we have inherited.” Dr. Lovemore challenged the audience to act when those inherited stories fall short of the full truth, and described a year spent carefully piecing together lost histories as a Recovering New England’s Voices research scholar at Historic New England. Dr. Lovemore reflected, “By looking backward with a new lens, we are never losing something precious. We are widening our perspectives, our contexts, and our commitments to forging more just and livable futures for all.”

Obliterating the Old Lens on Social History

Catherine Algor, president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, guided the Summit’s first panel through a discussion of what it means to share inclusive history. President of the Roxbury (Mass.) Historical Society Byron Rushing advised, “You don’t pick the people, you pick the geography and within that geography, you decide to tell the history of all people, no matter what.” Bethany Groff Dorau, executive director of the Museum of Old Newbury (Mass.), argued that her institution “is, and should always be, the place that holds space for the memory of everyone in the community…examined, as much as we are able, with the same lens as everyone else.” And Kyera Singleton, executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts, described programming changes that allow audiences to reflect on current issues. “Because what sense does it make,” she asked, “if we only talk about the eighteenth century when the legacies of slavery are still impacting the same communities that we want to reach?” With eyes on inclusivity, justice, and telling the full story, these opening remarks set the tone for two days of imaginative and inspiring conversations.

Culture as Catalyst

In an inspiring presentation that reflected on more than two decades of service to the largest Latinx cultural organization in the United States, Kate Lear, chair of the Ballet Hispanico Board of Directors, affirmed “the vital role preservation plays in achieving healthy, harmonious, and uplifted communities.” Ms. Lear spoke eloquently of performing arts institutions as catalysts for individual and community transformation and described how Ballet Hispanico’s physical presence on Manhattan’s West Side opens literal and figurative doors. After completing ambitious new construction and renovating their historic headquarters, “we were able to provide so much more to our community. Each year, dozens of public symposia, panels, and performances of all kinds are held there…to educate and encourage discussion about equity, inclusion, and other issues of cultural and social relevance.”

Preservation and the Politics of Urban Growth

Hartford, Connecticut, shares the built heritage of many post-industrial New England cities – historic mills, factories, and entire neighborhoods recall a manufacturing past that has long since departed and left communities to rebuild their economies and identities in its wake. Mayor Luke Bronin described the critical role these historic buildings and districts are playing in Hartford’s revitalization and illustrated their transformations, from a historic transit depot reimagined as Connecticut’s first food hall to a former North End factory that now houses dozens of small businesses and a new branch of the Hartford Public Library.

What’s next on the agenda? “We want to continue that strategy of putting historic preservation at the heart of economic development,” said Mayor Bronin, but he’s also pushing for solutions to save historic buildings that don’t have outsize investment appeal. Citing the city’s Deborah Chapel, a rare and early American example of an intact Jewish funerary structure and important site in Jewish American history, Mayor Bronin advised that some assets are worth preserving regardless of broader economic impact. “It takes a public commitment [to recognize] that the payoff may simply be the preservation of history.”

Intersectional Emergency: Climate Action in New England

Dr. Ed Carr, director of the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark University in Worcester, moderated what was perhaps the Summit’s most optimistic panel – a conversation propelled by the belief that historic preservation can and will meet the threats of climate change head-on.

Joined by Erik Kramer, principal at Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects, and Andrew Kapinski, director of horticulture at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, the panel explored the ways in which an essential question – what, exactly, are we trying to preserve? – is rapidly changing.

Citing the historical development of the Summit’s host city, Dr. Carr explained that the patterns of growth, economy, and culture embodied in a community’s built environment also depict the climate legacy that has led to our current moment of challenge. Transformation is inevitable, he argued, but we have a choice “between the transformations we select, and the transformations that are done to us by an environment that we changed.”

Mr. Kramer and Mr. Kapinski illustrated their efforts to navigate those decisions. Mr. Kramer highlighted his reimagining of the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, with a design that engaged the question, “how do we use design not to fight, but to move forward?” Preservation, the panel argued, must not be rigidly defensive, but must embrace the transformational changes happening to the world and facilitate the continuation of experiences, communities, and shared cultural landscapes.

Net Zero 20##: Decarbonization and Old Buildings

Following the panel, Dr. Luis Aguirre-Torres, former director of sustainability for the City of Ithaca, New York, discussed the ambitious Ithaca Green New Deal: the city’s plan to decarbonize by 2030. While his work has included detailed modeling of the city’s emissions and energy efficiency solutions, he argued that “climate change challenges are not all technical.” There is danger, he noted, “if you come in from the outside and say, ‘Here’s your problem, and here’s your solution.’ You’ve picked winners and losers.” In a final discussion among the panelists and Dr. Aguirre-Torres, the group concluded that climate action is not a zero-sum game. They envisioned a pluralized future in which people with diverse perspectives and expertise develop solutions grounded in a willingness to accept change. “When we look at history, we see that in moments of crisis…people do galvanize around change, and change happens in the landscapes around us,” said Mr. Kramer. “These are moments when we can do great things.”

Resiliency Requires a Traditional Trades Infrastructure

Nick Redding, president and CEO of Preservation Maryland, and Sarah Turner, president of North Bennet Street School in Boston, shared the Summit stage to explore the nationwide status and local impacts of historic trades training in the United States. “Historic preservation trades are not a niche issue,” said Mr. Redding, illustrating his assertion with data from a new, first-of-its-kind study by Preservation Maryland and PlaceEconomics. Publicly unveiled at the Summit, the analysis concludes that historic rehabilitation is a large and growing segment of the construction industry, representing $85 billion in annual investment, and that the demand for trained workers is incredibly high. “Each year over the next decade,” he explained, “we’ll need 10,000 historic trades positions just to keep up…and in order to get there, we’ll need something like 20,000, almost 30,000 people going into training every year.”

Those in-demand workers-in-training can be found at North Bennet Street School, where Ms. Turner emphasizes a curriculum that aligns with the real needs of community partners “so that our students are learning the very things they need for their work, [while] partnering with someone who has a problem to solve.” Partnerships, Mr. Redding agreed, are key for institutions thinking about offering trades training: “Think about how you can partner with existing programs and add that measure of excellence, instead of trying to do it all on your own.”

History Lessons: Transformations in Teaching

History education has suffered ill effects from years of “teaching to the test” and the increasing polarization of our political climate. Dr. Françoise Hamlin, associate professor of history and Africana studies at Brown University, engaged a panel of educators who are confronting these obstacles in their respective environments and identifying ways to improve outcomes for students – and society – in the years ahead. Claudia Wu, co-founder of the Center for Civic Engagement and Service at Newton North High School in Massachusetts, reasoned that “in order to participate and be part of our democracy, you need to understand history. You need to see history from multiple perspectives. You need to think about it, debate it, talk to people about it.”

Kenann McKenzie, director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Center at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, underscored the importance of engaging different perspectives “and suspending judgment in the context of those conversations, so that we can truly demonstrate and model for our young people what civil civic engagement looks like.” Cultural institutions in the audience received a direct call to action: help students make connections between past and present to deepen their understanding of history and encourage active participation in community life.

New England’s Tradition of Summer Festivals

Communities across New England celebrate the arts with annual festivals that bridge cultures, classes, and generations. Festivals are “one of the easiest and most approachable ways into the arts and culture world,” Lisa Simmons of the Massachusetts Cultural Council noted in her opening remarks, adding that “festivals are for everyone.” With panelists Chris Serkin, Anne-Marie Soulliere, and James Naughton, the Summit audience visited three of New England’s most historic summer festivals from the comfort of their seats in Mechanics Hall and via livestream.

Mr. Serkin, president and chair of the Marlboro Music Festival, described a symbiotic relationship between Marlboro, Vermont, and its seventy-one-year-old festival that has taken on new importance following the closure of Marlboro College. Ms. Soulliere, trustee of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, detailed the thoughtful stewardship of the estate that hosts America’s oldest active music festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Norfolk, Connecticut. And Mr. Naughton, a Tony Award-winning actor, spoke of the immersive experience of participating in the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. A careful balance of what Mr. Serkin calls “progress without change” has cemented each gathering’s significance as a cultural, social, and economic anchor to its community, encouraging the participation and engagement of old and new audiences.

Following this final session, the Historic New England Summit closed with an outstanding performance of Dvorak’s "Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90" by acclaimed pianist Dr. Melvin Chen, accompanied by Norfolk Chamber Music Festival fellows Evan Johanson on violin and Cheng “Allen” Liang on cello.

Urban Revisioning and Revitalization

Special presentations at the Summit showcased concepts from four internationally recognized design firms for the vibrant futures of two of Historic New England’s urban properties.

Brandon Haw, president and CEO of Brandon Haw Architecture; Eric Höweler, co-founder + partner of Höweler + Yoon; and Deborah Berke and Arthi Krishnamoorthy of Deborah Berke Partners unveiled their responses to a design provocation to transform Historic New England’s collections care campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts, into the Historic New England Center for Preservation and Collections, a community anchor, hub of creative innovation, center for exhibitions and curatorial expertise, and cultural catalyst for the continued revitalization of this great historic city.

Nader Tehrani, founding principal of NADAAA, and former dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union in New York City, shared his concept for Historic New England’s Otis House property in Boston comprising the 1796 Otis mansion and two connected nineteenth-century row houses. Through collaboration and partnerships, the site will have a responsive future as an inclusive and welcoming community resource, and a gateway to Historic New England and the region’s history.