Center for Historic Preservation Examines Moisture Problems at the Second Bank of the United States

The Center for Historic Preservation received $73,995 in funding over the summer to study ongoing moisture problems at the Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, PA. Designed by William Strickland in 1819 and completed in 1824, the bank illustrates well the Greek Revival style. Today the bank is home to a large Charles Wilson Peale collection.   … [Read more...]

Documenting Our Past: Stafford County’s Slavery Site Project

Recent UMW preservation alumna and current Dovetail Cultural Resource Group employee Emily Anderson recently published a story on work being done to document slave related sites in Stafford County, Virginia.  This initiative is sponsored in part by the UMW Center for Historic Preservation. Documenting Our Past: Stafford County's Slavery Site Project … [Read more...]

2015 UMW Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize Winner

Fredericksburg, Va. – The 2015 Historic Preservation Book Prize, sponsored by the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Historic Preservation, has been awarded to A City for Children; Women, Architecture, and the Charitable Landscapes of Oakland, 1850-1950 by Marta Gutman, professor of architectural and urban history at the City College of New York and The Graduate Center/CUNY.  The University of Chicago Press published A City for Children in 2014. In its assessment of this book, the Book Prize Jury especially appreciated Gutman’s interdisciplinary scholarship.  In a wide ranging study that draws upon a multitude of sources, Gutman effectively combines nuanced social history, vernacular architecture, and urban planning with issues of landscape and gender studies that resonate with modern historic preservation.  Gutman’s sharply written study addresses the use and reuse of everyday buildings in Oakland, California by enterprising women who sought to improve urban living … [Read more...]

Students dig for history at Belle Grove

Checkout a recent article in The King George Journal about Professor Sanford's archaeology class. The King George Journal_April 22, 2015 … [Read more...]

Caroline Street in 1796

HISP 345 students have been hard at work modeling Caroline Street pre-1807 fire.  The first step was collecting Mutual Assurance Policies from 1796 and overlaying them in Google Earth to get a reasonable idea of where the buildings were located (below image).  Subsequent years, until 1807, will also be modeled with the objective of conveying the dramatic difference in the visual appearance of Fredericksburg during the late 18th and early 19th centuries compared to today.  Google Earth was chosen in large part because it is free and provides adequate accuracy tolerances to reach the objective of the exercise.  The brief video showing some of the building massings, created in SketchUP, on the Caroline Street topography check out the Department for Historic Preservation's Facebook page.  The video moves from the southern end of Caroline Street to the northern end.  At present "photoreal" renderings are being applied to student models like Heather Kennedy's model of the building at the … [Read more...]

Stewardship of a University’s Built Heritage

Jack Pyburn, FAIA will present a lecture entitled Stewardship of a University's Built Heritage.  This lecture sponsored by the UMW Center for Historic Preservation will delve into how University campuses can best address preservation issues with limited fiscal resources.  The lecture will be held on November 11th from 5-6:30 in Combs Hall, room #237. … [Read more...]

Preservation Students Present at Archeological Society of Virginia Conference

Congratulations to Historic Preservation students Jessica Bittner and Robin Ramey who presented at the Archeological Society of Virginia Conference on October 12th.  Despite a Sunday morning session attendance was high.  The abstract for their presentation is posted below.  Funding was in part made possible by the UMW Center for Historic Preservation. A Progress Report on the Oval Site (44WM80), Stratford Hall Plantation Jessica Bittner and Robin Ramey, University of Mary Washington For several summer seasons the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington has sponsored an archaeological field school in cooperation with the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association at a mid-18th-century site at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County. Known as the Oval Site because of its location within a modern, reconstructed landscape feature, the site contains four earthfast buildings and corresponds either to a plantation farm quarter or an overseer’s … [Read more...]

Amphitheatre History

The history of the UMW Amphitheatre has been posted under Research Resources-University of Mary Washington (link below).  This history was created as part of the UMW Preservation Plan. http://cas.umw.edu/chp/research-resources/university-of-mary-washington/   … [Read more...]

Chandler Hall History and Drawings Posted

The history of Chander Hall has been posted under Resources-University of Mary Washington (http://cas.umw.edu/chp/research-resources/university-of-mary-washington/ )as well as drawings created by Charles Robinson in 1928 for construction of Chandler Hall (the Training School) and the drawings created by J. Binford Walford in 1938 for the portico addition to Chandler Hall (cabinet 2).   … [Read more...]

2015 Historic Preservation Book Prize

The Center for Historic Preservation at The University of Mary Washington seeks nominations for its 2015 Historic Preservation Book Prize. Established by the Center in 1988, the Historic Preservation Book Prize is awarded annually by a jury of preservation academics and professionals to the book with the most potential for positively impacting the discipline of historic preservation in the United States. In making its selection, the jury focuses on books that break new ground or contribute to the intellectual vitality of the preservation movement. Entries may come from any discipline that relates to the theory or practice of historic preservation. Nominations may be made by any source. In order for a book to be eligible for the 2014 Historic Preservation Book Prize, it must be available in the United States between January 1, and December 31, 2014. Letters of nomination and six (6) copies of the nominated book must be postmarked by January 3, 2015, and sent to: Dr. Doug Sanford, … [Read more...]