Winslow's Word: November 2024
Last week, a team of HCF staffers had the pleasure of attending the National Trust’s annual preservation conference in New Orleans. As always, it was an excellent opportunity to network with old colleagues, meet new folks doing interesting things around the country, and get the overall temperature of the national preservation movement.
It also serves as an important benchmarking exercise—how does Historic Charleston stack up to the rest of the country and the Trust’s priorities? We are proud that our Director of Preservation, April Wood, was invited to serve on a panel discussing the challenges with easement enforcement, and I also presented with a New Orleans colleague on the Dutch Dialogues Charleston initiative and how it continues to catalyze a major sequence of policy changes and planning efforts throughout the city.
This year, the three themes of the conference were climate resilience, ensuring a representative preservation movement, and preservation-based community development. Interestingly, much of HCF’s work fits squarely into these categories. Obviously, all our work around flood protection aligns with the focus on resiliency. As the Water Plan continues to be applied to various neighborhoods and the alignment of the peninsula Battery extension comes into clearer focus, HCF will be working closely with the community and the city to maximize the benefits.
As far as advancing “representative” and diverse preservation efforts, we are continuing to learn so much at the Nathaniel Russell Kitchen House from our archaeological excavations. This information will be incorporated into an interpretive plan for that space that allows us to tell intimate stories around urban slavery and the lives of the people that inhabited that building. We are continuing our work on the revitalization of Mosquito Beach, capturing oral histories of underrepresented narratives, and advocating for the protection of settlement communities. Lastly, through our new Saving Grace Initiative and Common Cause, we are actively practicing “preservation-based community development.” Thankfully, we have been working in these three priority areas for many years now!
