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Historical enthusiasts met to discuss and share techniques used to preserve and restore historical buildings.
The 39th annual Louisiana Preservation Conference was held in Nicholls State University’s Cotillion Ballroom in conjunction with The Louisiana Division of Historical Preservation. Thursday, May 17.
“This is also a good place for networking, it’s one of the biggest things in conferences like this, not just the educational bits but also seeing who has a similar project.” said Brian Davis, Executive Director of Louisiana Trust. “What problems have they faced, and how did they solve those problems?”
Louisiana Trust is a statewide nonprofit that works for identifying, protecting and preserving historic buildings. The organization covers all 64 parishes.
Davis explained a revolving fund Louisiana Trust uses to rescue threatened buildings:
“We acquire endangered historic buildings. So, ones that have a hole in the roof that are too scary for anybody to take on. So, we have a fund that can acquire it, stabilize it, and sell it to somebody that will finish out the renovation.” he said. “The money gets revolved back into the fund for doing more works. We’re using that same amount of money over and over again.”
The conference had speakers and demonstrations on skills relevant to maintenance of buildings such as heavy timber construction, repairs, and painting of chairs.
“We really help provide the tools that other folks, building owners, and main street managers need to continue their education about, what’s the latest thing in preservations and what’s the useful tools they can pick up in order to do that?” said Davis “The thing about this conference is investing: Investing in preservation,”
According to Davis, the event lasted a day and a half and had between 150 and 160 attendees.
One of the speakers was Patricia Gay who, after 38 years, is stepping down as Executive Director of the Preservation Resource Center. She announced her retirement in July.
Gay’s presentation was about safeguarding the historic districts and neighborhoods and referred directly to New Orleans:
“I’m sure you are all aware of this, but we talked tourism. We need tourists who love culture and history and architecture in all our towns. We need them/said Gay. “We don’t need a Bourbon Street theme park. We don’t need the wrong kinds of tourists. No that sounds bad. You know what I mean.. We need people who care about what we care about.”
She argued that residential areas were vital to development and that developers should not only focus on commercial districts.
Another speaker Joe Borg-strom is a real estate redeveloper out of Michigan. His company. Place and Main Advisors LLC. focuses an downtowns and main streets.
He was asked Id speak because, as he Bays, be helps communities and developers to redevelop problem properties. His speech focused on how communities could proactively market their available real estate opportunities to developers: things developers are looking for and what they can do to prepare far development.
Borgstrom Bald that historic districts are quite common.
“You know what a downtown looks like right?” he asked. “All the buildings are right next to each other. It was a common development pattern especially between the 1400 a to the early 1900’s before what we call post World War 2 which was whenever we came back we became auto-centric.”
Borgstrom explained that American made automotive manufacturers, like Ford and Chevy, changed the American mindset and as people gained more freedom to travel, buildings moved further apart because people simply weren’t walking everywhere anymore.
As one walked into the ballroom, tables were immediately located near the door with booksellers greeting attendees. In a far corner stood a photographer displaying portraits of plantations.
William Guion was his name. A photographer and writer by trade, Guion focuses his photography on Oak trees or u hi describes, “While I’m photographing live oak trees, sometime a houses occasionally get in the way.”
On a project titled. “The Live Oak Tour.” Guion said that meat of the old homes were accompanied by old oak tree.
“Either they planted the trees there when the homes were built or the trees were already there,” he said. “So, they share in the history of the homes “
The inspiration for the tour was to show the history of the area by the history of the trees. Guion tied his photography into the event by preserving the images of the historic buildings through his photography and was commissioned last year to produce a book titled * Laura Plantation: Images and Impressions” (Zoe Company inc. Vacherie LA, 2017).
The owner of this plantation was also in attendance. Norman Marmillion Along with owning and preserving the Laura Plantation. Mar million tends Columbia a 7650ft plantation.
A dedicated historian, Marmillion has made Columbia his family’s home.
“By family I mean my brothers, my sisters, my cousins, second-cousins, third cousins,” he said. “In 1983 we had a family reunion we had 1400 people.”
According to Marmillion. his family was the first to live in what is now known as New Orleans.
Marmillion was honored the prior day for his work in saving the Laura Plantation, and said he saved it because it was where the Br’er Rabbit stories were collected.
The Br’er Rabbit stories are the most widely known English folktale in the world, Marmillion said.
The event didn’t only host preservers of buildings and items. At one table sat Sandra Boudreaux, Treasurer of the Terrebonne Genealogical Society.
“We’re preserving genealogical history. We re not preserving buildings. We are preserving this history.” Boudreaux said “Think about it. How marry people have lost their houses in Katrina? They lost all their pictures, all their records. We also show you how to preserve it How to put it on flash drive. How to give it to a friend. My daughter lives in Jennings. My daughter has a copy of everything.”
The organization has existed since 1932, has published over 130 books, and holds monthly meetings at the Terrebonne Main Library in Houma on the last Saturday of each month.
The books which are censuses: cemeteries, churches, marriages, and cessations.
The organization focuses on assisting people in preserving their family history.
“We dent do your history. That’s for someone else to do. We will show you how to do your history.” said Boudreaux, “Vie will tell you where your ancestors are buried. We have every cemetery in Terrebonne Parish.”
‘We’re preserving genealogical history. We’re not preserving buildings. We are preserving this history. Think about it. How many people lost their houses in Katrina?’
