The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation is proud to award this year’s Book Prize to Detroit Remains, by Krysta Ryzewski. Detroit Remains is a collection of six case studies in Detroit, Michigan, ranging from bootlegging, a log cabin, jazz site, and Detroit counterculture. This well-researched book masterfully blends an archaeological approach to historic preservation. Dr. Ryzewski highlights the crucial importance of community engagement - and student involvement - in effective documentation and action. The book engages economically, socially, and racially diverse groups, and emphasizes the relevance of recent history, which is still underrepresented in the literature. Detroit Remains highlights how history can be reassembled even when the physical site is already lost. Dr. Ryzewski also emphasizes that some mystery always remains, even after thorough analysis, which both points to the limits of our research and its next steps. The bookprovides practical … [Read more...]
Historic Preservation Book Prize 2021
The 2021 University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize Committee is proud to announce that this year, they could not choose just one winner. There were two books that approached the discipline of historic preservation in new and groundbreaking ways: Thomas C. Hubka’s How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940 and Emily Williams’ Stories in Stone: Memorialization, the Creation of History and the Role of Preservation. From two very different perspectives and utilizing different methodologies, each volume successfully brought light to previously untold narratives in the past and teach us better, more rich ways of exploring the historic record. Both volumes challenge and expand the way we determine significance of a place or object. In How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, Hubka works to correct our focus on high-style and upper-class housing by demonstrating the importance of change over time in small and often over-looked buildings. His … [Read more...]