A Future for the Past

Thursday, October 24, 2024 VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Architecture and Archaeology working together at Carter Farm/Clark Bayard Farm

Moderator: Rebecca Wilson, PDI Board Director

Guest Speakers:

Todd Breck, AIA, P.E. - Breckstone Architecture, A Martin Architectural Group Studio

Michael J. Emmons, Jr. - Director of Historic Preservation & Architectural Research, Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts

Wade Catts, RPA – President, South River Heritage Consulting, LLC

Bill Liebeknect, MA, RPA – Senior Project Archaeologist, Dovetail Cultural Resource Group

The Carter Farmhouse, which was initially constructed ca. 1780 as a plantation dwelling by William Clark, a miller and farmer in Delaware in the late eighteenth century. During Clark’s ownership and occupancy of the plantation, it was documented that there were seventeen enslaved persons living on the plantation. Following Clark’s ownership, the dwelling and surrounding farmland passed through notable families that were part of Delaware’s rural elite as an agricultural tenancy site throughout the nineteenth century and remained a tenancy into the early twentieth century. The Carter Farmhouse came into the ownership of the Carter Family in 1949 until the farm was purchased by the current owner in 2004.

Having been expanded at several points throughout its history, the house is significant in the fact that it represents substantial architectural investment in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a brick mansion, then as an ample tenant farmhouse in the early nineteenth century. All that remains of the historic complex on the site today is the brick dwelling itself.

Based on the new historic code requirements of New Castle County Department of Land Use (NCCLU), the site and buildings have been the first major land development project to be researched and preserved under the new code.

The presentation will discuss with images and information the following elements of the project:
1. NCCLU guidelines and code requirements for historic sites and buildings
2. Research and history of the site and building
3. Preservation and adaptive reuse of the existing Carter Farmhouse
4. Archaeological survey fieldwork and artifacts

11:45 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Photographing Delaware’s Disappearing Architecture

Moderator: Alex Tarantino, PDI Board Director

Guest Speaker: Barksdale Maynard

Hosted by the University of Delaware as a new online resource, the W. Barksdale Maynard Photographs of Delaware Collection contains more than 1,300 pictures that Professor Maynard has taken since 1993. These record a rapidly changing architectural landscape, many of the buildings having already been altered or destroyed. Professor Maynard hopes this collection of photographs will prove useful to future researchers as a survey of what once existed in the First State. Detailed captions offer information that goes beyond what he published in his book Buildings of Delaware.

W. Barksdale Maynard is the author of seven university press books about American history, art, and architecture. His 2021 book Artists of Wyeth Country is a rare, unauthorized biography of Andrew Wyeth that is banned at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. Currently he is teaching at the University of Delaware, which hosts the W. Barksdale Maynard Photographs of Delaware Collection (online).

1:30 - 2:15p.m.
Be Prepared: Disaster Planning and Recovery with the Historic Preservation Fund

Moderator: Kara Smith, NCIDQ, Associate, John Milner Architects, Inc. & PDI Board Director

Guest Speakers:

Taylor Pearlstein, National Park Service

Lilith Guzman, National Park Service

Join the National Park Service staff to learn more about past and ongoing programs through the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund to support the repair and recovery of historic resources impacted by natural disasters. Participants will learn about tools and resources for planning, mitigation, and resiliency developed through the program following storms such as Hurricanes Sandy, Harvey, and Maria. This session will also discuss ongoing competitive grant programs through the Historic Preservation Fund and creative ways to meet disaster recovery and resiliency needs for historic and cultural resources in your community through these federal grant opportunities.

Taylor Pearlstein is a Grants Management Specialist with the National Park Services’ State, Tribal, Locals, Plans & Grants division. She serves as the primary point of contact for NPS’ Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (ESHPF) grant program, which provides grants to State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices for disaster recovery of cultural and historic resources. She is currently managing grants for historic resources impacted by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria as well as Hurricanes Florence, Michael, and Typhoon Yutu. Taylor received her bachelor’s degree in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware, with a focus on fashion and textile history, and her master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Studies from University College London’s Institute of Archaeology where her research has focused on preservation in the face of increasing natural and man-made threats.

2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
What's New with the Delaware Preservation Grant Fund?

Moderator: Gene Castellano, PDI Board Director

Guest Speaker: Catherine Morrisey, University of Delaware, Center for Historic Architecture & Design & Delaware Preservation Fund Manager

Catherine Morrissey is the Associate Director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Historic Architecture and Design (CHAD). She is an architectural historian who holds an MA in Urban Affairs and Public Policy with a concentration in Historic Preservation, and is currently a PhD candidate in Preservation Studies at the University of Delaware. Her dissertation work, entitled How Buildings Change: Historic Preservation and Material Integrity of Early Historic Districts focuses on quantifying and analyzing material change in small historic districts in the Mid-Atlantic, to understand material replacement to historic structures. Additionally, she teaches courses in Architectural Documentation, Vernacular Architecture, and Methods in Historic Preservation for the Historic Preservation Certificate Program at the University of Delaware.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Annual Meeting with Special Guest Speaker, Barton Ross, Barton Ross & Partners, LLC Architects

Barton Ross is an historic architect and president of Barton Ross & Partners, LLC Architects, where he leads preservation projects across the Mid-Atlantic Region. His professional work has been recognized by the Society of Architectural Historians, the Vernacular Architecture Forum, the American Institute of Architects and the National Park Service. Barton has collaborated on local planning and historic preservation matters with the Delaware River & Bay Authority, the Laurel Redevelopment Corporation, the Sussex County Land Trust, the Town of Smyrna, the Town of Lewes, the Richard Allen Coalition, and indefinite on-call services with the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, including preservation planning at the Old Delaware State House and the Octagonal Schoolhouse near Dover. He is a graduate of the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design and received master’s degrees from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Sponsorships still welcome!  Add your support, and your Logo!

We invite your participation in the 2024 annual conference, to be held in October 2024 with a wide array of topics, by becoming a sponsor.  As a sponsor, your logo will be included in all sessions of the conference, on the PDI web site, in social media posts, and in our e-newsletter.

To become a sponsor please either SUBMIT ONLINE or fill out the form linked below and either email it to info@preservationde.org or mail it to:

Call For Presentations!

Preservation Delaware, Inc. always encourages nominations for presentations and papers for our Annual Conference held each October and for our webinar series.  We are seeking presentations and papers on a range of topics related to historic preservation, primarily focusing on topics in Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic region, but also including more general topics relevant to our region or historic preservation.