Preservationist speaks to Clarke Historical Society

The Historical Society met Sunday, January 31, at Grove Hill Town Hall to listen to David Schneider, Executive Director for the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation. Schneider discussed with the Society the mission and goals of the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation and sited projects currently underway.

The Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation is the statewide advocate for the future of Alabama's historic places. According to Schneider, the state's rich architectural heritage is an essential asset for the revitalization and sustainability of our communities. Communities which are livable, that have a high quality of life, and are successful in economic revitalization, always have historic preservation as a major element of their success, Schneider said.

According to the Trust's Newsletter, The Alabama Trustee, historic places provide one of the "greenest" approaches to providing places in which to live and work. Historic buildings represent a tremendous store of what environmentalists call "embodied energy". Saving historic buildings conserves this energy and avoids sending valuable materials, which have already been produced, to landfills. Historic communities are inherently livable and sustainable.

Schneider says historic places give us a tangible link to the past, to the way people lived, and how those events shaped our own collective experiences.

Schneider currently tours the state promoting public interest in funding for the Endangered Properties Trust Fund, which provides short-term loans for the relocation and restoration of endangered buildings. According to The Alabama Trustee, the Trust has provided $7,500 to the Cawaco Resource Conservation and Development Council to relocate an endangered former miner's cottage to Brookside, where it is being rehabilitated as a local history museum.

Recently, the Alabama Trust acquired an option to purchase an endangered property, Cedarwood, a frontier-era plantation dwelling built circa 1818, which needs to be moved and restored. It is among a rare group of structures left from the earliest years of Alabama statehood. The Alabama Trust is looking for a new owner who will purchase the home and restore it.

Schneider sited another project in the works. Alabama Trust has teamed up with the National Trust, the Alabama Historical Commission, and the Selma- Dallas County Preservation Society to help save the YMCA building in Selma. They have commissioned an independent structural analysis of the building from two different engineering firms. The building is the oldest standing YMCA in the South and is of great historical interest to the locals.

Other business:

Historical Society President Walter Davis informed Society members that the deed to the Airinount Grave Shelter in Hope Cemetery is almost completed. The Society will soon erect a historical marker recognizing the grave shelter. Secondly, lumber from the Confederate Presbyterian church will be used to build a blacksmith shop on the museum complex. Also, 2010 is the election year of officers for the Historical Society and new officers will be instated in May.

Museum Director Kerry Reid gave a summary of the local events scheduled for 2010, the Year of Small Towns and Downtowns as proclaimed by the Alabama Tourism Department. Mrs. Reid invited everyone to a book signing at the museum April 24, by author Ted Dunegan, who has written a sequel to his fictional book about Clarke County.

Davis invited everyone to attend the next meeting February 28 when Linda Chastain will speak to the Historical Society on the Daughters of the American Revolution.