Book Prize

2023 BOOK PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

2024 BOOK PRIZE CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

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 2024 Historic Preservation Book Prize, it must be available in the United States between January 1, and December 31, 2023. Letters of nomination and seven (7) copies of the nominated book must be postmarked by January 10, 2024, and sent to:

Christine Henry, Ph.D.
Center for Historic Preservation
University of Mary Washington
1301 College Avenue, Combs 135
Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5300

Announcement of the book selected for the 2024 Historic Preservation Book Prize will be made during Preservation Month, May 2024. The author will receive a check in the amount of $500.00 and will be invited to deliver a lecture at The University of Mary Washington. Both the author and the publisher will receive certificates in recognition of the award. N.B: Second and later editions of previously published texts will not be considered for the Book Prize unless substantial revisions to the book’s contents have occurred. Publishers are urged to contact the Center (chenry5@umw.edu) if they have any questions regarding this stipulation.

PREVIOUS BOOK PRIZE WINNERS

YEAR AUTHOR TITLE
2023 Paul Hardin Kapp
Heritage and Hoop Skirts: How Natchez Created the Old South
2022 Krysta Ryzewski Detroit Remains: Archaeology and Community Histories of Six Legendary Places in Detroit
2021 (tie) Emily Williams Stories in Stone: Memorialization, the Creation of History and the Role of Preservation

2021 (tie)

Thomas Hubka How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940

2020

Katherine Crawford-Lackey and Megan E. Springate (editors)
Preservation and Place: Historic Preservation by and of LGBTQ Communities in the United States

2019

Michèle Valerie Cloonan The Monumental Challenge of Preservation: The Past in a Volatile World

2018

Caitlin Desilvey Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving

2017

Catherine Fleming Bruce The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good Through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements

2016

Barbara Miller Lane Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs, 1945-1965

2015

Marta Gutman A City for Children; Women, Architecture, and the Charitable Landscapes of Oakland, 1850-1950

2014

Françoise Bollack Old Buildings New Forms

2013

Paul Hardin Kapp and Paul J. Armstrong SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City

2012

Jeffrey Chusid Saving Wright: The Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity

2011

Lois Olcott Price Line, Shade and Shadow

2010

Edna E. Kimbro and Julia G. Costello with Tevvy Ball California Missions: History, Art, and Preservation

2006

Stephanie Yuhl A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston

2005

Alison Isenberg Downtown America: A History of the Place and the People Who Made It

2004

Nancy S. Seasholes Gaining Ground, A History of Landmaking in Boston

2003

Susan L. Klaus A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and the Plan for Forest Hills Gardens<

2002

Joseph C. Biggott From Cottage to Bungalow: Houses and the Working Class in Metropolitan Chicago, 1869-1929

2001

Daniel Reiff Houses from Books: Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738-1950

2000

Richard Longstreth The Drive-In, The Supermarket, and The Transformation of Commercial Space in Los Angeles, 1914-1941

1999

Roy R. Rosenzweig The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life

1998

Kenneth E. Foote Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy

1997

Mike Wallace Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory

1996

Elizabeth Collins Cromley and Carter Hudgins Gender, Class, and Shelter: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture

1995

Carl R. Lounsbury An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape

1994

Martha K. Norkunas The Politics of Public Memory: Tourism, History, and Ethnicity in Monterey, California

1993

Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar The Park and the People: A History of Central Park

1992

Daniel Bluestone Constructing Chicago

1991

Catherine W. Bishir, Charlotte V. Brown, Carl R. Lounsbury and Ernest H. Wood Architects and Builders in North Carolina: A History of the Practice of Building

1990 (tie)

Samuel N. Stokes and A. Elizabeth Watson and others Saving America’s Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation

1990 (tie)

T. H. Breen Imagining the Past: East Hampton Histories

1989

David Lowenthal The Past is a Foreign Country