Antoinette J. Lee

National Park Service

When the Cultural Resources

Diversity Program was initiated in

the fall of 1998, it was envisioned 

as primarily a workforce effort.

National Park Service managers

wanted the cultural resources staff

to better reflect the diversity of the

nation and the park units that were

being added to the National Park

System. In its early phase, the

Diversity Program’s major efforts

included the development of the

Cultural Resources Diversity

Internship Program (see page 2); 

the preparation of a biannual

newsletter, Heritage Matters; and

cooperation on a range of training

programs directed at developing

diverse professionals. Today, the

Diversity Program encompasses a

series of programs directed at

diversifying not only the profession,

but also the communities served by

National Park Service programs

and parks and the resources that

are identified, protected, and interpreted. A special issue of CRM

(Volume 22, No. 8, 1999), which was

devoted to “Diversity and Cultural

Resources” describes the program’s

work with minority universities and

organizations to develop training

programs for their constituencies.

This focus was based on one of the

1992 amendments to the National

Historic Preservation Act—Section

101(j)(I)—which directs the

Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with other entities, to develop “technical or financial assistance, or both, to historically black

colleges and universities (HBCU),

to tribal colleges, and to colleges

with a high enrollment of Native

Americans or Native Hawaiians, to

establish preservation training and

degree programs.”

These training efforts included

cooperation on a lecture series on

the Underground Railroad in the

Mid-Atlantic region at Delaware

State University, the first HBCU to

offer a M.A. degree program in 

historic preservation; cooperation

NEWS OF THE NATION’S DIVERSE CULTURAL HERITAGE

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

AAEF parks list, p. 18

Conferences 

upcoming, p. 23

Exhibit planned, p. 16

National Register 

listings, p. 8

Native American 

museum profile, p. 12

Publications 

of note, p. 23

Tribal preservation 

offices list, p. 13

HERITAGE MATTERS

HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Cultural Resources Diversity Program Marks Its Fifth Year

The Cultural Resources Diversity Program seeks to expand participation of diverse communities and increase the 

number of diverse professionals in the cultural resources field. Illustration courtesy of Kerry Skarda.

St. James Church

window detail,

Lafayette Square,

Baltimore, Maryland. 

See page 4. 

(SEE DIVERSITY, PAGE 7)
page 2

The Cultural Resources

Diversity Internship

Program 

Michéle Gates Moresi

National Conference of State Historic

Preservation Officers

The 2003 summer session marked

the fifth year of the Cultural

Resources Diversity Internship

Program (CRDIP). Starting with only

three interns in the summer of 1999,

the program now co-sponsors 15 to

20 internships a year. The continuing

support and commitment of partner

agencies to diversify the cultural

resources field has made it possible

for the program to offer challenging

internship projects each year.

Beginning in 2002, the program

was able to co-sponsor internships during the fall and

spring 

semesters, in addition to the 

summer.

After five years, the program is

beginning to show promising results.

Two Summer 2000 interns now

work for the National Park Service:

one as an education specialist at

Harpers Ferry Center in West

Virginia and the other works for the

National Center for Recreation and

Conservation as an oudoor recreation specialist. Another intern from

Summer 1998, one of the program’s

first, is pursuing a Ph.D. in history

and is working with a National Park

Service office in the Northwest on a

civil rights theme study. Still other

students have reported that they are

working in fields such as education,

marketing, and

law while

continuing

to be

devoted to non-profit and cultural

resources related work.

The class of summer 2003

included 14 interns who worked on

projects designed to introduce them

to the cultural resources and historic preservation field. National

Park Service projects ranged from

collections management tasks at

Lassen Volcanic National Park and

Historic American Building Survey/

Historic American Engineering

Record/ Historic American Landscape Survey to teacher education

development at the National Center

for Preservation Technology and

Training. Interns worked at the U.S.

Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the Charles H. Wright Museum

for African American History in

Detroit, Michigan, and offices of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC, and in

Charleston, South Carolina.

During the last week of the

internship, all 14 interns were invited

to Washington, DC, where they participated in a three-day Career

Workshop. Interns were

HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

NPS ACTIVITIES

Summer 2003 interns visited the National Center for Cultural Resources, National Park Service during the Career

Workshop in Washington, DC. Photo courtesy of Sue Waldron.
page 3

introduced to various programs and

institutions beyond their summer

experience. Interns visited National

Park Service cultural resources

offices, met with professionals at the

National Trust for Historic Preservation and at the Smithsonian

Institution’s National Museum of

American History, and toured the

new City Museum of Washington,

DC. The workshop closed with a

career discussion panel in which

interns engaged in a dialogue with

accomplished professionals.

The Diversity Internship Program

will continue into the 2003-2004

academic year with four 15-week

semester internships. Fall 2003

intern sponsors are Cabrillo National

Monument in San Diego, CA, the

Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites in Hyde Park, NY, and the

U.S. Army cultural resources office in

Fort Drum, NY. The Statue of

Liberty in New York City will host an

intern in the spring of 2004. We

expect to have another roster of

exciting projects for students in the

2004-2005 season.

The Diversity Internship Program

works with partners in National Park

Service offices and units, other federal agencies, and private non-profit

organizations to provide students of

diverse backgrounds with a career

exploration experiences. Internships

lasting 10 weeks in the summer and

15 weeks during a semester offer

enriching work experiences that are

developed by intern sponsors who

are dedicated to providing students

with unique learning opportunities.

The continued growth and success of

the program would not be possible

without the cooperation and generous support of partners with whom

we share a common vision.

For more information, contact Michèle Gates

Moresi at 202/354-2266 or e-mail:

michele_gates_moresi@contractor.nps.gov. 

Intern sponsors and student applicants can find

up-to-date information on the website:

http://www.cr.nps.gov/crdi, click “Internships.”

Disappearing 

Filipino History 

and Little Manila

Daphne Dador

National Park Service CRDIP Intern

Only three buildings remain of Little

Manila, a community that once contained the largest Filipino population in the country. Located in

Stockton, California, Little Manila

was home to thousands of Filipino

immigrants until the 1970s when

redevelopment forced most of its

inhabitants to move. Today, three

run-down buildings comprise what

is left of a significant Filipino American enclave, but they face threats of

being demolished to create a new

Asian-themed mini-mall.

While conducting research on

Asian heritage at National Park

Service historic sites, I became

aware of Little Manila and the

efforts to preserve it. In May 2003,

the National Trust for Historic

Preservation cited Little Manila in

its list of 11 most endangered places.

The National Trust stated that Little

Manila is a testimony to the important role played by Filipino Americans in shaping the United States.

Settlement in Little Manila began

in the early 1920s when Filipino

immigrants began to arrive in the

San Joaquin Valley. Early Filipino

immigrants were primarily agricultural workers who provided the

arduous labor of harvesting crops

such as asparagus, peas, lettuce, and

tomatoes.

Life in the San Joaquin Valley was

not easy for immigrants. Similar to

other non-white minorities at the

time, the Filipino population was

segregated into separate neighborhoods. In Stockton, Filipinos settled

in the city's Oriental district next to

Chinatown and Japantown and 

created their own neighborhood,

designated by its inhabitants as

Little Manila, after the national capital of the Philippines.

Little Manila was both a residential and commercial center for its

inhabitants. The six blocks were

home to shops, meeting halls, and

restaurants that were owned and

patronized by Filipino Americans.

The three remaining buildings in

Little Manila, a boarded-up hotel, a

dance hall, and a former Union

lodge are examples of the spirit of

the community that once existed.

Residential hotels were homes to

Filipino migrant workers because

they were not allowed to own property. The dance halls represent an

escape for Filipino workers after a

long day of work and the Union

lodge reminds us that Filipino farm

laborers were among the first union

organizers in the country.

In the 17th century, Filipinos

were the first people of Asian

descent to arrive in the United States

but the predominance of Filipino

migration occurred during the 20th

century. Today, there are about 

1.5 million Filipinos in the United

States, yet only one officially recognized historic place for this community. Unfortunately, Little Manila is

being threatened with demolition.

For more information regarding

Little Manila, visit the National Trust’s

website at http://www.nthp.org.

Daphne Dador, a senior at Catholic University of

America in Washington, DC, was an intern with

the National Park Service’s Cultural Resources

Diversity Internship Program (CRDIP) and the

Everett Foundation Public Service Internship

Program.
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

HABS Records

Baltimore’s Historic

Lafayette Square

Martin J. Perschler

Historic American Buildings Survey

In spring 2003, the Historic

American Buildings Survey

(HABS) partnered with

David H. Gleason

Associates,

Inc.,

Architects, Baltimore Heritage, Inc.,

the City of Baltimore’s Commission

for Historical and Architectural

Preservation (CHAP), and Goucher

College to document a number of

historic buildings and sites on Baltimore’s Lafayette Square. One of

several urban squares established in

West Baltimore in the 19th century

to encourage residential development west of the city center, Lafayette Square defined fashionable city

living for over 100 years. The square

and surrounding buildings, dating

from the late 1860s to the turn of

the century in styles from

the Gothic to the

Queen Anne

and

Romanesque revivals, chronicle the

growth of the neighborhood in the

years following the Civil War and its

metamorphosis in the early 20th

century into the spiritual and cultural

center of West Baltimore’s AfricanAmerican community. Significant in

its own right, Lafayette Square rivals

Baltimore’s better known squares

and institutions in the magnitude of

its contribution to the multicultural

heritage of Maryland’s largest city.

The square’s main architectural

attractions are its four Gothic revival

stone churches built between 1867

and 1879. All four churches changed

ownership between 1925 and 1935—

the period during which this West

Baltimore neighborhood gained a

reputation as a prestigious address

for African-American professionals.

The congregation of Metropolitan

Methodist led the move to Lafayette Square with a ceremonial

march to its new site in 1928, followed by St. John’s A.M.E. in 1929,

St. James African Protestant Episcopal in 1932, and Emmanuel

Christian Community Church in

1934. The significance of the congregations themselves cannot be

overlooked: St. James, founded in

1824, is the nation’s second oldest

African Episcopal congregation

and the first Episcopal congregation organized by AfricanAmericans in the South. Metropolitan dates back to 1825, the year

formerly enslaved Truman Pratt

began organizing prayer meetings

in southern Baltimore. St. John’s

A.M.E. Church was founded in

1855, and Emmanuel Christian

Community Church’s congregation organized in 1934.

Complementing the square’s

four Gothic revival churches are

several 19th-century townhouses.

Although most are three-story,

flat-roofed, red-brick buildings (a

requirement for new houses on

the square during the 1860s and

1870s), a few of them are in stone
page 5

and show the extent to which architectural trends influenced popular

conceptions of how an urban townhouse was supposed to look. The

red brick townhouse at 828 North

Carrollton Avenue (northwest corner of the square) is best known

today as the home of Parren

Mitchell—a noted professor, scholar,

Maryland’s first African-American

Congressman, and a founding 

member of the Congressional Black

Caucus in Washington, DC.

The HABS project also included

some of Lafayette Square’s lost landmarks, such as a set of Queen Anne

revival townhouses designed by

Baltimore architect Frank E. Davis,

and the old Maryland State Normal

School, a 19th-century experimental

“laboratory” for training public

schoolteachers. The site of the old

State Normal School is better

remembered as the George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical

High School, the first school in

Maryland to provide vocational

training to African Americans since

1930.

An analysis of U.S. Census data

conducted this past summer by

Krishnia Rainey, a University of

Maryland graduate and participant

in the National Park Service’s

Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program, revealed the demographic changes in Lafayette Square

between 1910 and 1930. Over that

period, a new generation of AfricanAmerican residents emerged, bringing a renewed vitality to the neighborhood. The square’s new residents

worked as chauffeurs, cooks, maids,

and laborers, but also as dentists,

physicians, attorneys, and schoolteachers.

Lafayette Square demonstrates the

tremendous capacity of historic buildings to commemorate the myriad

events, individuals, institutions, and

communities that have helped shape

our shared cultural heritage. The

photographs and historical reports

resulting from the Lafayette Square

project went on display in Baltimore

beginning in October 2003. The

materials will be permanently

deposited in the HABS Collection at

the Library of Congress.

For more information about Lafayette Square,

visit the Baltimore Heritage, Inc. website at

http://www.baltimoreheritage.org under “BHI

Preservation Watch List.” 

(Opposite page) St. John's A.M.E.

and (below) Emmanuel Christian

Community Churches make up part

of the architectural legacy of the

Lafayette Square neighborhood of

West Baltimore (bottom), documented by HABS in 2003. Photo courtesy of

Historic American Building Survey.
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 6

Lewis and Clark:

Documenting Unique

American Indian

Cultures 

Theresa Campbell-Page

National Conference of State Historic Preservation

Officers

In commemoration of the Lewis and

Clark bicentennial celebration,

Teaching with Historic Places

(TwHP) launched its online lesson,

The Lewis and Clark Expedition:

Documenting the Uncharted

Northwest. TwHP, a program of the

National Register of Historic Places,

offers products and activities that

help teachers bring historic places

into the classroom, including a

series of over 100 lesson plans.

Beginning their journey in midMay 1804, what became known as

the Corps of Discovery set out

under the command of Meriwether

Lewis and William Clark. Its goals

were to become familiar with the

newly acquired Louisiana Territory,

locate a water route to the Pacific

Ocean, and strengthen American

claims to the Northwest. Although

the expedition failed to find a navigable waterway to the Pacific, it did

succeed in other aspects of its mission, including documenting unique

cultures and establishing friendly

relations with the native inhabitants

along the way.

The lesson highlights three of the

places associated with Lewis and

Clark—Lemhi Pass and Lolo Trail on

the Montana/Idaho border and Fort

Clatsop in Oregon. At each of these

places, expedition members depended on hospitable relations with the

numerous tribes inhabiting the

West, such as the Shoshone, the Nez

Perce, and the coastal tribes. By

examining the challenges faced by

this particular band of explorers,

and by looking at how participants

met hardships and reacted to various experiences, the lesson focuses

on both the difficulties and opportunities encountered when venturing

into the unknown. The lesson shows

how one of the most difficult challenges was communicating with,

understanding, and establishing

positive relationships with societies

whose language and culture differed

so much from their own.

Through the maps, readings,

visuals, and activities presented in

the lesson, students learn from the

perspective of expedition members

how they interacted with, and often

relied heavily upon, the native peoples they encountered. In the readings, students learn how the

Shoshone provided horses, a guide,

and information about the arduous

Lolo Trail through the Bitterroot

Mountains; and how the Nez Perce

fed and housed the Corps, nursing

them back to health after their harrowing experience through the

mountains. The Nez Perce also

helped the Corps build canoes and

tended their horses for them until

they could return. While wintering

on the West Coast, the explorers

documented in depth the coastal

tribes with whom they developed

trading associations. In the lesson’s

Visual Evidence section, students

evaluate the effectiveness of the

Jefferson Peace Medal as a means of

Indian diplomacy and consider how

the documentation of native social

customs might have helped people

traveling West after the Lewis and

Clark expedition.

Students also analyze excerpts

(Top) A view from a rock cairn at

Lolo Trail in Lolo Springs, ID. Photo

courtesy of National Historic Landmark files.

(Opposite) This Lewis and Clark journal entry, dated August 13, 1805,

contains a drawing of a Shoshone

smoking pipe. Courtesy of the American

Philosophical Society.
page 7

with the National Conference of

Black Mayors on a training program

on historic preservation for black

mayors and their staffs in communities in the South; and cooperation

with the African American Heritage

Preservation Foundation, Inc., on

the program, “City of Neighborhoods: Bridging School and

Community.”

The fourth major training effort

was the development of the course

outline “Teaching Cultural Heritage

Preservation” in cooperation with

Coppin State University, Morgan

State University, and Goucher

College, all of Baltimore, Maryland.

This course outline grew out of the

meeting of the Curriculum Forum—

including scholars at minority colleges and universities and minority

preservation professionals—in April

2001, which developed the contents

of the course. Published in September 2002, the course outline has

been distributed to thousands of

educators at colleges and universities and preservation organizations.

We are now following up with educators on additional assistance they

need in order to implement cultural

heritage preservation courses.

In the fall of 1999, the Cultural

Resources Diversity Program

expanded its mandate when it

assumed responsibility for developing the conference, “Places of

Cultural Memory: African

Reflections on the American

Landscape.” Held May 2001 in

Atlanta, Georgia, this conference

brought together scholars, preservationists, and community leaders to

discuss influences on the built environment that can be traced to

Africa. Scholars made presentations

on African influences on the agricultural production of rice, the development of iron technologies, and

place names in the New World,

among other topics. The conference proceedings were available at

the time of the conference and are

placed on the website for the

Cultural Resources Diversity

Program: www.cr.nps.gov/crdi. The

publication, African Reflections on

the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Africanisms,

summarizes much of the conference

scholarship and provides examples

of African-influenced historic properties throughout the United States.

Today, the Cultural Resources

Diversity Program is engaged in a

number of research projects. One of

these—the Cultural Heritage Needs

Assessment—is based on consultation with African Americans,

Filipino Americans, and Mexican

Americans on heritage that is 

important to their cultural identity.

This study uses the 1990 NPS report,

Keepers of the Treasures: Protecting

Historic Properties and Cultural

Traditions on Indian Lands, as its

model. Another project developed in

cooperation with George

Washington University’s Center for

the Study of Public Culture and

Public History—“Presenting Race

and Slavery at Historic Sites”—will

provide survey information on staff

and visitor responses to issues of

race and slavery at three units of the

National Park System in the

Washington, DC, area. In addition,

we are undertaking a parallel and

companion study to the African

Reflections publication on Asian 

cultural heritage in this country.

The true measure of success of

the Cultural Resources Diversity

Program is reflected not in what one

project accomplishes. A truer test of

accomplishment is when all cultural

resources programs in the National

Park Service and its partners in government and the private sector

reflect the cultural heritage priorities

of all of the nation’s people.

Antoinette J. Lee is Special Projects Manager for

the National Center for Cultural Resources and

program leader for the Cultural Resources

Diversity Program. For more information, contact

Ms. Lee at toni_lee@nps.gov or visit the website at

http://www.cr.nps.gov/crdi.

(DIVERSITY, FROM PAGE 1)

from the Lewis and Clark journals

concerning the Shoshone and the

coastal tribes to compare and contrast the expedition members’ views

of each tribe’s appearance, societal

structure, and customs. Because the

lesson plan employs the expedition

journals as the main primary source,

the viewpoints expressed are biased.

However, a portion of a facsimile

journal page included in the lesson

reads, “All the women and children

of the camp were shortly collected

about the lodge to indulge themselves with looking at us, we being

the first white persons they had ever

seen,” suggesting an equal fascination on both sides. The lesson asks

students to consider whose perspective is missing in the journal

accounts and also how expedition

members may have misunderstood

certain overtures and tribal customs.

Detailed documentation in the

expedition members’ journals helps

us understand that without the help

of these tribes, the expedition would

not have completed its trip successfully. An interesting and complementary lesson would explore the American Indians’ perspective on their

encounters with the Corps of Discovery, and we invite the creation of

such a companion lesson.

The lesson, The Lewis and Clark

Expedition: Documenting the

Uncharted Northwest, is posted on

the TwHP website at

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp.
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

National Register 

of Historic Places

Listings

Rustin Quaide

National Conference of State 

Historic Preservation Officers

Public School Buildings of

Washington, DC, 1862-1960 

Multiple Property Submission

The major historical theme that runs

throughout the history of the

District of Columbia’s public

schools is the maintenance of a dual

school system. This practice ended

in 1954 when the Supreme Court of

the United States outlawed segregated educational facilities. Many

District residents recall their attendance at a racially segregated

school. Former African-American

schools are regarded today both as a

source of pride and as a reminder of

past injustices. Below are some public school buildings in Washington

DC, recently listed in the National

Register of Historic Places.

The Alexander Crummell School,

built in 1910-1911, is dedicated to

and memorializes the life and work

of clergyman, teacher, missionary,

and orator Alexander Crummell

(1818-1898) who planned the strategy

for the abolition of slavery with

Frederick Douglass, and after that

goal was achieved, devoted his life

to the moral and intellectual betterment and solidarity of African

Americans. The Crummell School,

located at Kendall and Gallaudet

Streets, N.E., was one of the first

buildings designed by Snowden

Ashford when he was appointed in

1909 as the first Municipal Architect of the District of Columbia.

Previously there was a girls’ boarding school at the site and still visible

is the word “Boys”

chiseled in 

the northeast portico frieze near

the entrance, a reminder of the

administration’s attempt to separate the sexes.

Although the influential Ivy City

Citizens Association, incorporated

in 1911, attempted with some success

to bring improvements to the

school, the Crummell Elementary

School was eventually closed and

transferred to the D.C. Department

of General Services in 1977. The

school was listed in the National

Register of Historic Places on July

25, 2003.

The William Syphax School memorializes the life and work of William

Syphax, a prominent African

American who worked tirelessly

until his death in 1894 to create a

public school system in the District

with equal educational opportunities for African Americans. The

Syphax School, located at 1360 Half

Street, S.W., was constructed in

1909-10. It was designed in 1900 by

noted Washington architectural

firm Marsh & Peter in a Colonial

revival style. Plans are underway to

restore the Syphax School as a

community center. The William

Syphax School was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places

on July 25, 2003.

Constructed in 1912 on the site of

one of the city’s first public schools

built for freedmen, the Military Road

School retains its historical connection with the struggle by African

Americans to secure the benefits of

public education. The outline of the

original schoolhouse, built during

the Civil War when AfricanAmerican refugees sought protection under the watch of the Union

STATE INITIATIVES

The Crummell School is an example

of the high architectural standards

associated with education in

Washington, DC in the early 20th

century. Photo courtesy of Tanya Edwards

Beauchamp.

page 8
military, is shown on the construction plans for the present building.

For years the Military Road School

served as the only school available

to African-American students in a

large area of Upper Northwest

Washington, DC.

With public school desegregation, it was closed in 1954, and has

been used for various public and

education activities ever since. The

Military Road School, located at

1375 Missouri Avenue, N.W., was 

listed in the National Register of

Historic Places on July 25, 2003.

Independent Order of 

Odd Fellows Temple

Erie County, Ohio

The Odd Fellows organization was

founded in England during the 18th

century as a social and benevolent

fraternal organization for workingmen. By the middle of the 19th century, the order had chapters in other

countries, including Germany and

the United States. German-speaking

Odd Fellows lodges began

appearing in 

communities with a high concentration of German immigrants, such as

Sandusky, Ohio. German immigrants, attracted by the limestone

quarries and other resources,

arrived in 1840, and soon became

the area’s largest ethnic group. The

Odd Fellows was an important

“club” for men of German heritage.

The Ogontz Lodge No.66, International Order of Odd Fellows

(IOOF), the oldest order in Sandusky, was founded in 1846 with a

strong German membership. Two

years later, the Erie Encampment

No.27 IOOF was organized. During

the 1850s-1860s these lodges met in

several locations. In 1889, for

$35,000, the Odd Fellows Building

was built on Washington Row. These

buildings served as the IOOF permanent meeting place 

for nearly a century. The building is

also an important example of the

work of the Feick family of builders,

who were members. In his book

Sandusky Then & Now, Ernst Von

Schulenberg indicated that at the

time the Odd Fellows Building was

built, the IOOF was one of three

German secret societies flourishing

in Sandusky. The Independent Order

of Odd Fellows Temple was listed in

the National Register of Historic

Places on May 1, 2003.

William Syphax School represents the

efforts of the city of Washington to

provide quality educational facilities

for African-American students. Photo

courtesy of Tanya Edwards Beauchamp.

page 9
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 10

The Barrio Azteca Historic District

Webb County, Texas

The Barrio Azteca Historic District

embraces all or part of a 53-block

predominantly residential and smallscale commercial section of Laredo,

Texas, consisting of 120 acres. When

the land north of the Rio Grande

was annexed by the United States in

1848, ranching communities consisted

of a landed Mexican elite, independent rancheros, and a working class.

Immigrants from the Mexican interior contributed to the growth of the

community and provided much of

the labor for the newly arrived international railroad (1881) and related

industries.

By the turn of the century, El

Ranchero was a thriving community

of homes and small businesses populated almost exclusively by Mexican

and Mexican American residents.

The Mexican Revolution brought a

tremendous influx of new immigrants and its numbers increased the

population of El Ranchero/Barrio

Azteca such that by 1920, it was a

fully developed, densely populated

neighborhood with well-educated

professionals and merchants who

built businesses and established small

private schools in the community.

The oldest extant properties in

Barrio Azteca date from the mid19th century and are typically onestory, flat-roofed two-room houses

built in a linear plan and constructed

of locally quarried stone plastered

with stucco. Later, many fine examples of brick domestic, commercial,

combined domestic/commercial and

institutional buildings were built in

Laredo. The 20th century reflects

the rising popularity of more conventional Anglo-American architectural forms. Barrio Azteca was listed

in the National Register on May 21,

2003.

The Carver Theatre

Richland County, South Carolina

The Carver Theatre, at 1519 Harden

Street in Columbia, South Carolina,

is important to the history of

Columbia’s African-American community in the early-to-mid 20th century. It was built circa 1941, and was

one of only two exclusively AfricanAmerican movie theaters in

Columbia. The Carver Theatre is

the only extant motion picture theater where African-Americans could

freely attend. The Carver Theatre

was adjacent to the Waverly community, the preeminent AfricanAmerican neighborhood of professionals, physicians, nurses, educators, ministers, and skilled tradesmen in Columbia.

Members of the community have

vivid recollections of the Carver

Theatre. Not only were movies

shown there, but also the theatre

sponsored weekly talent shows for

young people, patterned after the

famous “Amateur Hour” in Harlem.

Along Harden Street, between

College Street and Blanding Street,

was a previously undocumented

cluster of African-American owned

or operated businesses, like the

Carver Theatre, that catered to the

residents of Waverly and the students at the historically African

American Benedict College and

Allen University.

The owners of the Carver

The 600 block of Hidalgo exemplifies the local architectural flavor of the Barrio Azteca in Laredo, TX. Photo courtesy of Terri Myers.
page 11

Theatre plan to preserve this property as an important landmark of

African-American history in

Columbia and return it to its original use as a movie theater. It was

listed in the National Register of

Historic Places on July 17, 2003.

The Field Matron’s Cottage at the

Reno-Sparks Indian Colony

Mella Rothwell Harmon

Nevada State Historic Preservation Office

The Field Matron’s Cottage at the

Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Reno,

Nevada, was listed in the National

Register on May 16, 2003. The cottage was recognized for its association with the early history of the

colony and the Federal Government

programs that were established to

address the needs of the local Native

American population. The cottage,

which is the oldest extant building at

the colony, is also significant for its

architecture.

The Field Matron’s Cottage was

built in 1927 to house the activities

of the field matron. She served

under a program of the Bureau of

Indian Affairs that sought to provide

instruction in sanitation and

hygiene, emergency nursing services,

and the prescription of medicine for

minor illnesses. Following an unflattering report by the Red Cross, the

field matron program was ultimately

eliminated, and health care was

placed under the purview of the

Indian Health Service.

The contemporary population of

the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony was

around 160 people. In 1916 an Act of

Congress established the colony, a

term for tribes unique to Nevada.

The Federal Government was slow

to respond to the needs of the

Washoes and Northern Paiutes, who

were forced to build the best homes

they could with limited resources. It

took nearly ten years of pleading by

the agency superintendent to finally

get the funds to build the Field

Matron’s Cottage. Over the years,

the cottage served the field matron

and later the public health nurse,

who maintained a small morgue in

the basement. Today, the cottage

houses the Tribal Police 

station.

The Field Matron’s Cottage is

modest in size and stylistically

reflects the principles of the Arts

and Crafts movement, which fostered a back-to-nature ethos and

stressed individual craftsmanship

over machine-made products. The

architectural style of the cottage is

classified as Stewart Vernacular,

which is a localized style developed

by Frederick Snyder, the superintendent of the Stewart Indian

School, in Carson City, Nevada from

1919 to 1934. Snyder made a conscious (and successful) effort to

establish an architectural identity

for the school. Snyder’s apprentices

constructed a number of buildings

off-campus, particularly at Lake

Tahoe. The Field Matron’s Cottage

is the only known example in Reno.

For more information, contact Mella Rothwell

Harmon at mrharmon@clan.lib.nv.us.

(Top) The Carver Theatre was part of

the African-American business community in Columbia, SC. Photo courtesy

of Willie J. Moody. 

(Bottom) Today, the Field Matron’s

Cottage at the Reno-Sparks Indian

Colony in Reno, NV serves the Tribal

Police. Photo courtesy by Mella Rothwell

Harmon.
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 12

Profile of a Native-run

Community Museum

Sue Herne

The Akwesasne Museum

For over 30 years, the Akwesasne

Museum has been serving the

Mohawk community of Akwesasne,

New York, and its visitors. The

museum does so by providing a

cultural resource collecting institution, traditional arts programs, and 

educational programs. A Client

Assistance Program grant in 1997

helped to clarify museum preservation needs. Climate controls were

put into place thanks to a National

Park Service Tribal Preservation

Grant. The grant also made major

improvements in the museum’s

storage. An exhibit that includes

prints from glass plate negatives

was also upgraded with grant

funds. A part-time collections care

manager position is presently funded with the aid of the Awkesasne

Economic Development Agency, a

local community economic development program.

Artifact donations can exemplify the restorative efforts of a

museum for individuals and the

wider community. In 2003, Charles

Stickney donated a beaded yoke

and belt circa 1917 and Robin

Lazore donated a newly designed

Mohawk basket. In 2001, Paul

Lussier donated a beaded, fingerThe beaded yoke was donated to the Akwesasne Museum by Charles Stickney. Photo courtesy of Sue Herne.

TRIBAL INITIATIVES
page 13

woven sash, approximately 250

years old, which was entrusted to

the oldest son in the Lussier family

for the last three generations.

Concerned his family had lost connection to its Mohawk roots,

Lussier felt that the best way to 

care for the sash was to return it to

a Mohawk community. Once

Lussier’s heritage was verified and

the sash was examined by the

Mohawk Council, the Lussier family traveled to Akwesasne to present

the belt to the community saying,

“It has returned home where it

belongs.” 

Traditional arts help to reinforce

cultural values and pride. The

museum hosts traditional arts

classes with funding from the New

York State Council on the Arts. The

classes help to pass skills on to the

next generation of Mohawk artisans. Akwesasne is best known for

black ash splint and sweetgrass

basketry. Classes focus on basketry,

including a summer program for

children, but other arts are featured as well. Beadwork and cornhusk doll-making have become regular offerings and a new youth class

uses traditional song and dance in

portraying legends.

Another source of educational

materials available through the

museum is a set of kits that

includes a variety of books, videos,

and objects. Intended for individuals

of all ages, the kits are a valuable

cultural resource for any organization wishing to promote greater

understanding of Native communities. By taking a closer look at one

Native community—Akwesasne—

students of any age will be prompted to relearn old truths and discard

old misconceptions.

For more information and a free sample activity in

both age groups, visit the website at

http://www.akwesasneculture.org.

September 30, 2003.

Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma (Oklahoma)

Catawba Indian Nation (South Carolina)

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (South Dakota)

Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation

(Montana)

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the

Flathead Nation (Montana)

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

(Washington)

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation

(Oregon)

Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation

in Oregon (Oregon) 

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina) 

Hualapai Tribe (Arizona)

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Indians of Wisconsin (Wisconsin)

Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Indians (Wisconsin)

Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians (Minnesota) 

Makah Tribe (Washington)

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (Wisconsin)

Mescalero Apache Tribe (New Mexico)

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians (Minnesota)

Narragansett Indian Tribe (Rhode Island)

Navajo Nation (Arizona)

Northern Cheyenne Tribe (Montana)

Onieda Nation of Wisconsin (Wisconsin)

Passamaquoddy Tribe (Maine)

Poarch Band of Creek Indians (Alabama)

Pueblo of Zuni (New Mexico)

Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas

(Wisconsin)

Seneca Nation of Indians (New York)

Skokomish Indian Tribe (Washington) 

Spokane Tribe of Indians (Washington) 

Squaxin Island Tribe (Washington)

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (North Dakota)

Table Bluff Reservation-Wiyot Tribe (California)

Timbisha Shoshone Tribe (California) 

Tunica-Biloxi Indians of Louisiana (Louisiana) 

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (North Dakota) 

Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah,

Massachusetts) 

White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona)

Yurok Tribe (California)

For more information on THPOs, contact H. Bryan Mitchell at 

202/354-2078, e-mail: bryan_mitchell@nps.gov

Native American Tribes with Officially Recognized 

Tribal Historic Preservation Offices
Arizona’s First

Synagogue: 

A Story of Birth and

Renewal at the Stone

Avenue Temple

R. Brooks Jeffery

University of Arizona 

Arizona’s first synagogue, Temple

Emanu-El, was the cornerstone of

Tucson’s Jewish community during

the first half of the 20th century.

After decades of abandonment and

decay, the newly restored Stone

Avenue Temple will again be a community cornerstone; this time, the

revitalization efforts have transformed the temple into an educational and cultural center serving

the historic districts south of

downtown. Although this modest,

building at 564 South Stone Avenue

has always been a curiosity to

passers-by, few realize its importance as Arizona’s first Jewish

house of worship and, for a time,

the center of Jewish faith for the

entire Southwest.

In the 1850s, before Tucson was

even an American town, settlers of

Jewish ancestry were moving to and

contributing to its business and

community endeavors. By the 1880s,

Tucson, then connected to major

cities by the railroad, boasted a

thriving Jewish community, but one

without a place of worship. During

those days, services were often held

in homes or rented buildings. The

campaign for a new building was

begun in 1904 by the Hebrew

Ladies Aid Society, and in 1910,

Temple Emanu-El was incorporated.

The land for the temple, purchased for a dollar in 1886 by Eva

(Goldschmidt) Mansfeld, was located on South Stone Avenue, which

had become a corridor for houses

of worship representing Tucson’s

increasingly multi-denominational

population. Designed by architect

Ely Blount, Temple Emanu-El is a

reflection of Jewish architecture

nationwide and incorporates an

eclectic blend of stylistic elements,

including the symmetrical facade

and triangular pediments of the

Neoclassical, the squat towers and

arched openings of the Romanesque and the pointed domes 

common in Moorish architecture.

In 1937, the red brick of the

street facade was plastered white,

giving it the distinctive “Moorish”

quality. The first services were held

on the Jewish New Year, October 3,

1910, two years prior to Arizona’s

statehood. Until 1935, Temple

Emanu-El was the center of Jewish

activity in southern Arizona and

during its early years was the only

synagogue between San Francisco

and Las Vegas, New Mexico. By the

1930s, Temple Emanu-El was bursting at the seams. A new building

was commissioned and in 1949 the

congregation moved to its new

location. The Temple Emanu-El

congregation held its last service at

the Stone Avenue Temple on

September 16, 1949 and the building was sold in 1951.

Between 1951 and 1994, the temple was owned by several separate

organizations, and the building fell

into considerable disrepair. In the

1970s, when historic districts were

established in the neighborhoods

surrounding downtown Tucson,

Temple Emanu-El, now known as

the Stone Avenue Temple, was listed

as part of the Barrio Libre National

Historic District. However, the

building continued to be rented to

temporary tenants and was not

refurbished.

In 1994, the non-profit organization, Stone Avenue Temple Project

(SATP) was incorporated and began

a seven-year campaign to restore

the landmark structure, honor its

history, and return it to community

service as a non-denominational

cultural center. Through a collaboration of national, state and local

organizations, grants and donations, and volunteer manpower, the

Stone Avenue Temple was gradually

stabilized and the sanctuary

restored to its original 1910 appearance. In addition, the newly

restored Temple has office and

exhibit spaces, and is developing a

research library dedicated to southwestern Jewish history.

The restored Stone Avenue

Temple has become a model project for revitalization efforts

throughout the downtown business

and historic districts. Stone Avenue

Temple Project received a 2003

National Preservation Honor

Award from the National Trust for

Historic Preservation. In cities all

around the country, synagogues

have been reborn as places in

which the community can come

together for a common purpose.

For more information about the Stone Avenue

Temple Project contact Josh Protas at 

520/670-9073.

The Center For

Advanced Study 

of Museum Science

and Heritage

Management at 

Texas Tech University

Yun Shun Susie Chung

Texas Tech University

The Center for Advanced Study

(CFAS) of Museum Science and

Heritage Management at the

Museum of Texas Tech University

HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 14

PARTNERS INITIATIVES
aims to answer the question,

“Why does heritage matter?”

Heritage conservation and management are of increasing interest to

people and organizations worldwide. They represent the values and

significance that people and communities place on heritage.

Questions have arisen concerning

who makes this determination. Is it

solely confined to “the professionals” to make those decisions, or

should the community also take

part in this action? 

The public's interest in heritage

has led to the rise of ecotourism

and heritage tourism worldwide.

For example, the National Trust for

Historic Preservation's program

called “Main Street USA” aims to

help those towns and cities nationwide going through economic

recession develop ways to thrive

through heritage management. The

conservation and management of

farmland and the distribution of

the resulting products are also a

form of the economic impacts of

heritage. The projects undertaken

by CFAS revolve around these

issues and sustainable development—approaches that cultural

heritage managers are taking to

maintain and preserve cultural heritage for posterity. Heritage management begins with preservation,

but it does not end there. It

endeavors to communicate heritage

to the public through interpretation, exhibition design, and education.

Through the practice of sustainable development, heritage preservation can create positive environmental impacts by preventing

sprawl and the destruction of the

ecosystem. In its socio-political 

role of creating identity, heritage

affects the individual as well as the

community. Thus the multiple

dimensions in the interest of heritage are why heritage matters.

In its third year, the Heritage

Management Program promotes

professionalization in the field of

heritage management with its

unique status under the umbrella of

the CFAS of Museum Science and

Heritage Management at the

Museum of Texas Tech University.

Students from Texas Parks and

Wildlife and from diverse fields

such as history, architecture, and

urban planning have enrolled in

the heritage management courses.

The interdisciplinary nature brings

a wide range of fields together in

the quest for managing the physical

as well as the ephemeral aspects of

heritage preservation.

Special projects such as the

Yellowhouse System Survey and the

page 15

The Stone Avenue Temple in Tucson, AZ is an eclectic mix of Moorish and neoclassical elements, common in 19th-century

synagogue design. Photo courtesy of Josh Protas. 
page 16

Littlefield Heritage Management

Plan have been conducted through

the program on heritage planning

issues. Furthermore, research has

been carried out on the concept of

culture and nature in sustainable

heritage planning at the Seoul

Development Institute, a governmental organization that is responsible for urban planning which

includes heritage planning in Seoul,

Korea. During Summer 2003, research was conducted at Geneva

Tourism, a private non-profit association in Geneva, Switzerland, for

the possible creation of a new

course in Heritage Tourism.

For more information on the CFAS 

program, visit its website at 

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/hmp.html Transnational Adolf

Cluss Exhibit Slated

for City Museum in

Fall of 2005 William Gilcher

Goethe-Institut

From Germany to America:

Shaping a Capital City Worthy of a

Republic, slated to open at the new

City Museum of Washington, DC,

and at the City Archives in Heilbronn, Germany in Fall 2005, is

designed to enhance public understanding of the once prominent,

now little-known architect’s work

in Washington during the Gilded

Age. It will interpret the impact of

Adolf Cluss’s social vision on the

city’s architecture and life.

From the 1860s to 1890s, Cluss

was one of the most influential

architects and engineers in

Washington, DC, responsible for

over 80 major public and private

buildings in Washington, Baltimore,

The Sumner School, built in Washington, DC, by Adolf Cluss, was

among the country’s finest public

schools for African-American students. The building was restored in

1984-86. Photo courtesy of William Gilcher.

HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003
page 17

Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia.

The city was recognized as a place

for innovation and Cluss was at the

forefront of the movement. His

trademark red-brick buildings are

among the capital’s most beloved

19th-century structures. Surviving

examples include the Charles

Sumner School, the Franklin

School, the Smithsonian Institution’s Arts & Industries Building,

the 9th Street Masonic Temple,

Eastern Market, and Calvary

Baptist Church. In 1890, Cluss’s

appointment as Inspector of Public

Buildings for the United States government capped a long career as an

architect for public buildings and

as a public servant.

Cluss promoted the quality of

urban life by designing enduring,

beautiful school buildings for

Washington’s African-American

and European-American students.

The city’s school system was segregated at the time but dedicated to

having quality facilities for all of its

students. The Sumner School, built

in 1871-1872, was the headquarters

for the city’s African-American

schools. Located at 17th and M

Streets, NW, the Sumner School

was considered in the post-Civil

War period to be among the country’s finest public schools for

African-American students.

Planning for the exhibition is a

cooperative effort among many

institutions in the United States 

and Germany: the Charles Sumner

School Museum and Archives,

Goethe-Institut/German Cultural

Center, the Historical Society of

Washington, DC, the National

Building Museum, the Smithsonian

Institution’s Office of Architectural

History and Historic Preservation,

the German Historical Institute,

and the Stadtarchiv Heilbronn.

Planning for this project has been

made possible thanks to grants

from the National Endowment for

the Humanities and the Humanities

Council of Washington, DC.

For more information about the exhibit or the

Goethe-Institut Washington, e-mail: cluss@

washington.goethe.org or visit the website at

http://www.goethe.de/uk/was/vtour/dc1/clussbio.htm

Historically Black

Colleges and

Universities and

Historic Preservation

Antoinette J. Lee

National Park Service

At the annual meeting of the

Organization of American

Historians (OAH) in Memphis,

Tennessee, in April 2003, representatives of Historically Black

Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

met to discuss historic preservation.

This session followed an earlier

conference discussion on how

HBCUs teach American history.

These sessions constitute a major

effort by the OAH to raise the visibility of HBCUs in the organization

and provide programs that will

attract a larger attendance from

HBCU professors and students at

its annual meeting.

Since 1995, grants from the

Historic Preservation Fund have

been made to HBCUs for the

preservation of historically significant campus buildings. The buildings selected for this program were

considered to be the most historically significant and critically

threatened. They were rehabilitated

according to the Secretary of the

Interior’s standards. All grants were

matching grants, which requires the

college or university to raise nonfederal funds to complete the projects. In FY 2003, the program was

reauthorized at the level of $10 million per year for five years.

The rehabilitation of campus

buildings spurred some HBCUs to

establish historic preservation

course work. For example, Delaware State University (DSU) set up

the M.A. in Historic Preservation

Program—the first such program 

at a HBCU. In 2000-2001, the

National Park Service’s Cultural

Resources Diversity Program cooperated with DSU on a lecture series

on the Underground Railroad in

the Mid-Atlantic region.

In April 2001, the National Park

Service cooperated with Coppin

State University, Goucher College,

and Morgan State University—all of

Baltimore, Maryland—in sponsoring the meeting of the Curriculum

Forum. The forum members were

made up of 19 diverse educators

and preservation professionals representing colleges and universities,

the National Park Service, the

Cincinnati Museum Complex, and

the Smithsonian Institution. The

forum was charged with developing

the contents for an undergraduate

course in historic preservation/

cultural resources stewardship that

would be appropriate for minority

colleges and universities. The final

course outline—Teaching Cultural

Heritage Preservation—has been

circulated to thousands of colleges,

universities, and organizations in

the United States and abroad.

The Teaching Cultural

Heritage Preservation course

outline represents a first step in

establishing preservation education

and training at minority colleges

and universities. Many of these

schools are small institutions with

teaching staffs that already carry a

heavy class load. Providing financial assistance to professors will

give them the time to invest in

establishing new courses in cultural 

heritage preservation.

The OAH session participants

envisioned themselves as forming a

consortium to investigate the curriculum needs of minority colleges

and universities in cultural heritage

preservation. They want to have

discussions amongst themselves

and with others in order to develop
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 18

an agenda and action plan. Felix

Armfield of Buffalo State College

and a member of the OAH’s Public

History Committee will take the

lead in this discussion. He scheduled a follow-up discussion at the

annual meeting of the Association

for the Study of African American

Life and History in September

2003.

For additional information, contact Toni Lee 

of the National Park Service at Toni_Lee@

nps.gov. Teaching Cultural Heritage Preservation is available online at 

http://www.cr.nps.gov/crdi/colleges/coll.htm

Connecting Parks 

and People: The

African American

Experience Fund 

Cynthia Lowery Morris

African American Experience Fund

At a time when every city in this

country is desperately seeking ways

to connect our children and families to their history, our national

parks stand ready to introduce

them to their heritage through

numerous education and other

programs that share rich traditions

dating back to the arrival of the

first black people to America’s

shores. The national parks are an

especially appropriate place to do

this because they are the repository

for vast amounts of AfricanAmerican history.

The National Park Foundation,

the congressionally chartered

501(c)(3) non-profit partner to the

National Park Service, established

the African American Experience

Fund (AAEF) in 2000 to highlight

the accomplishments and experiences of African Americans throughout our country’s history as reflected in the national parks. AAEF is led

by a volunteer Trustee Board that is

chaired by Robert Stanton, retired

Director of the National Park

Service—the first African American

to hold that position.

While AAEF is focused on providing support for education, volunteer, and community engagement

programs at 17 designated national

parks and historic sites and the

National Underground Railroad

Network to Freedom, the AfricanAmerican story is certainly not

confined to these places. AAEFendorsed sites do, however, provide

a great entry into the National Park

System for African-American visitors who historically have not been

engaged with our national parks.

The opportunity to walk the trail of

African-American patriots in

Boston, or see the plantation built

by African Americans at Cane River,

Louisiana, or walk through Fredrick

Douglass’s home in Washington, DC

are just a few of the experiences

possible for everyone.

The greatest challenge to AAEF

is the widespread lack of awareness

about its mission and the parks

AAEF represents. While some

inroads have been made on this

front—a Public Service Announcement produced pro bono by Black

Entertainment Television Digital

Networks, a black history promotion with Kmart Stores, and a

recent advertorial in Time Magazine—there is still a great deal of

work to be done to position the

fund to raise much needed support

for the many unmet program needs.

AAEF has already provided support for the restoration of Ebenezer

Baptist Church at the Martin

Luther King, Jr. National Historic

Site, and for a program on black

journalism at the Maggie Walker

National Historic Site in Richmond,

AAEF Parks Dedicated to African-American Heritage

Booker T. Washington National Monument, Virginia

Boston African American National Historic Sites, Massachusetts

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, Kansas

Cane River Creole National Historic Park and National Heritage Area,

Louisiana

Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park,

Ohio

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Washington, DC

George Washington Carver National Monument, Missouri

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Arkansas

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Virginia

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, Georgia

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, DC

Natchez National Historic Park, Mississippi

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, Louisiana

Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas

Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, Alabama

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, Alabama

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, Alabama

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program
page 19

Virginia. This fall, AAEF will provide funds to establish an AAEF

volunteer program with a grant

from the AT&T Foundation.

Those interested in AAEF are encouraged to visit

our website http://www.aaexperience.org, or to

contact Cynthia Lowery Morris, executive director

at cmorris@nationalparks.org

Conserving the Stone

Flooring of the

Mission San Juan

Capistrano’s Great

Stone Church 

Debora Rodrigues

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Listed in 2002 on the World

Monuments Watch List of 100 Most

Endangered Sites, the Mission San

Juan Capistrano is perhaps the best

known of the twenty-one 18th- and

19th-century Franciscan missions of

California, and has often been

referred to as the “Jewel of the

Missions.” Like the other California

missions, the Mission San Juan

Capistrano consists of buildings built

mostly of adobe bricks; but, unlike

the other missions, it is the only one

with a church built of stone.

The missions are part of the

Hispanic/Latino-American history

of the West, linked to the time when

California was part of Imperial

Spain in Mexico. Twenty-one missions stretching from San Diego to

Sonoma, along the Camino Real,

which correlates to modern-day

Pacific Coast Highway 1, represented

the first settlements of non-Native

American peoples in California.

Construction of the cruciform

church—known as the Great Stone

Church—began in 1797; it was completed and dedicated in 1806. In

1812, an earthquake caused considerable damage to the church, which

has remained in a ruinous state to

this day, as there have never been

any major attempts to rebuild it.

There were, however, stabilization

efforts during the late 19th century

by the Landmarks Club, an organization established to preserve the

missions of California, and perhaps

it is due to their work that the

church has suffered no further

large-scale damage.

For the past several years, a

major conservation program has

been underway to stabilize and preserve the ruins of the Great Stone

Church, as well as the surrounding

adobe buildings. One of several

ongoing projects is the conservation of the stone flooring located in

the sanctuary of the church.

Although in fragile condition, the

flooring, which has been built of

several types of local sandstone as

well as tuff, remains relatively

intact. But the fact that it has been

exposed to a variety of conditions

over the past 200 years—ranging

from direct rain exposure to leaks

to abrasion due to pedestrian traffic—has left the stonework in various states of deterioration.

The objective of this particular

project is to follow the guidelines

set forth by the Venice Charter: to

conserve as much of the original

fabric as possible with minimal

intervention. In order to achieve

this aim, the methodology includes

thorough documentation and an

assessment and mapping of existing

conditions, testing and analysis of

materials and treatments, followed

by conservation of the flooring,

and, finally, presentation of the

area to the public—an important

issue, given that the mission

receives over one-half million visitors each year.

The conservation program for

the stone flooring is certainly not

clear-cut and poses significant

problems: first, the issue of how to

deal with previous repairs, which,

though well intended, have in several cases accelerated the deterioration of the masonry; second, the

question of how best to interpret

San Juan Capistrano’s Great Stone

Church, with crypts shown below, is

the best known of the historic

Franciscan missions in California.

Photo courtesy of Jim Graves.
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 20

and present the recently-excavated

crypts located within the flooring

area. The fragile state of the flooring, which would necessarily

prohibit heavy pedestrian traffic,

and the fact that the crypts are

located below ground level present

a challenge in the preparation of

this area for public access and view.

Efforts to preserve this exemplary piece of National Registerlisted Spanish colonial architecture

are underway. The work for the

stone flooring began during the

summer of 2002 with light cleaning

and documentation, and the final

phase of conservation treatments

scheduled for completion by the

fall of 2003.

For more information, visit the Mission’s 

website at http://www.missionsjc.com/.

Cultural Documentation

and Community

Mapping: The Summer

Hill Project

LeeAnn Lands

Kennesaw State University

In spring 2003, undergraduate students and professors in Georgia’s

Kennesaw State University public

history program partnered with

former and current residents of the

historically African American community of Summer Hill and the

Etowah Area Consolidated Housing

Authority to investigate that community’s history, culture, and evolution. Founded in the late 1800s just

outside of downtown Cartersville,

Georgia, the neighborhood 

developed a strong sense of

community during the Jim Crow

era through its school and its myriad churches and cultural organizations. Students began the two-year

project by documenting artifacts

kept by residents, collecting historical images, and recording oral histories. Upon completion of the

project, materials developed and

collected will be archived at the

Summer Hill Community Center

and at Kennesaw State University's

Center for Regional History and

Culture.

Community mapping was and is

a central component of the project.

Drawing on scholarly work by

Kevin Lynch as well as more recent

work in community development,

students developed a methodology

to assess what spaces, monuments,

institutions, and other elements

A resident of Summer Hill draws a map of the area for student researchers. Photo courtesy of LeeAnn Lands.
page 21

were culturally significant to community members. Before starting

their oral histories, residents were

asked to map the Summer Hill

community as they remembered it

in their childhoods. (Given the

average age of participants, this

would place the mapped time

between about 1940 and 1955.)

They were asked to include and

label buildings, places, streets, or

other elements that they recalled.

After the mapping was complete,

residents were encouraged to discuss and explain their maps during

the recorded interviews.

In using community mapping,

the project team sought a greater

understanding of how Summer Hill

was lived and experienced by the

residents. Traditional historical

methods and resources could

reveal businesses, residences, and

churches. The maps allowed team

members to see spaces that did not

make it into traditional historical

documents. The project team

sought information regarding the

contemporary boundaries of

Summer Hill, where certain groups

resided, what the relationship of

the neighborhood to the larger

town of Cartersville, and what were

the areas, if any, Summer Hill residents were reluctant to enter or

warned children against entering.

The KSU students discovered a

vibrant community with vivid memories of local landmarks, events,

and even smells during life in the

Jim Crow era.

Many of the places discussed

and mapped by residents no longer

exist, but community mapping

allowed the team to recreate the

historical landscape of a 20th century, historically black community.

It allowed for systematic assessment of what residents valued and

remembered, and even analyze

what they forgot and why. And it

gave students and scholars new

resources with which to analyze the

intersection of class, race, gender,

and space. Ultimately, community

mapping provides a framework to

begin reassessing and reinterpreting our public historical landscape.

For more information about the Summer Hill project, contact LeeAnn Lands at 770/499-3437, e-mail:

llands@kennesaw.edu.

Historic Preservation

and the Brooklyn 

High School of

Performing Arts

Brian D. Joyner

National Park Service

The Brooklyn High School of the

Arts (BHSA) is the first high school

in the nation with historic preservation as an academic focus. The

brainchild of Kate Burns Ottavino,

Director of Preservation Technology for the New Jersey Institute of

Technology, and Kenneth Fisher, a

member of New York’s City Council, the Brooklyn School prepares

students for careers in preservation

and conservation by teaching skills

immediately applicable upon graduation, or as a step toward further

study at college.

The idea for the school came

from the World Monuments Fund’s

(WMF) 1993 symposium, “Employment Strategies for the Restoration

Arts: Craft Training in the Service

of Historic Preservation.” The symposium noted there was a need for

a skilled workforce to maintain the

country’s rich architectural legacy.

The symposium’s findings suggested that preservationists join

forces with existing training programs. WMF approached Ottavino

and encouraged her to produce

“Sustainable Model for Restoration

Arts Training.” After presenting it

at the symposium, she proposed

the idea of a preservation high

school to Fisher. Fisher saw that

the idea could become a program

to benefit inner city youth, and 

provide needed artisans for a rapidly growing sector with few practitioners, while maintaining the cultural heritage of the city. This partnership led to the initial Preservation Internship Program in summer

1997. It was established through a

grant from the Times Square

Business Improvement Fund, and

support from A. Ottavino Corporation and Youth Employment Services, through WMF.

The former Hale School became

the home of a new arts school with

preservation as its focus. Last fall,

the Brooklyn School received a

$25,000 grant to develop a fouryear curriculum in Preservation

Arts Technology. Given by the

Independence Community Foundation, the grant will also provide 

a program of internships with 

LOCAL INITIATIVES
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 22

practical, real-world experience.

Exposure to historic preservation

during the formative periods of

adolescence and early adulthood

will expand the number of practitioners seeking employment in a

demanding job market.

For more information about the Brooklyn School,

visit the BHSA website,

http://brooklynhsarts.org/tn9_about_bhsa.asp.

A Reverse 

Underground Railroad 

in the Land of Lincoln

Kevin Michael Foster

Southern Illinois University

“Crenshaw Mansion,” “Hickory

Hill,” “The House that Salt Built”—

these are among the names by

which southern Illinoisans have

known the 19th-century home that

overlooks the Saline River in

Gallatin County, Illinois. Listed in

the National Register of Historic

Places in 1985, the three-story

building, built in the 1830s, was the

residence of John Hart Crenshaw.

Crenshaw was known as the “Salt

King of Southern Illinois” when he

was the largest manufacturer in

what was once southern Illinois’s

main industry—salt production.

The first two floors served as a

stately family residence. However, it

is the attic that has attracted public

attention: it is widely reputed to

have served as a site to hold and

hide kidnapped free blacks before

smuggling them across the Ohio

River and selling them into slavery.

Since 1996, local researchers

have uncovered important information about Crenshaw's use of slave

labor and of his ties to the kidnapping of free blacks. Their assertion

that Hickory Hill was used for

activities harmful to blacks is consistent with available evidence and

with the opportunistic lawlessness

that plagued 19th-century southern

Illinois. That lawlessness included

kidnapping as one of several forms

of racial terrorism. And as the 1818

State Constitution and a series of

repressive statutes make clear,

blacks were unwelcome in the state

except to work as hired-out slaves

in the southern Illinois salt industry. Given such factors, the use of

Crenshaw’s attic as a place for

holding kidnap victims—while

abhorrent to 21st-century American

sensibilities—is historically plausible.

In the early 1900s, the Crenshaw

House passed from the Crenshaw

family into the ownership of Mr.

and Mrs. A. J. Sisk. For several

decades, the house was open to the

public as a tourist attraction. While

some may have been interested in

the claim that “Abraham Lincoln

slept here,” most flocked to see the

controversial third floor, where, as

a brochure for the attraction put it,

“slavery lived in Illinois.” 

The popularity the site held in

the past is unquestionable. Tourist

guidebooks, along with books on

southern Illinois history, folklore,

and ghost stories, mention the

building as a prominent feature of

the region. A 1937 article in the

Illinois Journal of Commerce

referred to the house as a wellpreserved and important landmark

that helps to “return us to the colorful days of the past.” John

Drury’s Old Illinois Homes (1948),

published by the Illinois State

Historical Society, referred to the

house as “probably one of the bestknown landmarks in the southeastern part of the state.” The site is

mentioned in newspapers and

regional magazines throughout the

years in which the house was open

to the public, and continue to

appear since it was closed by the

most recent owner, George Sisk,

and sold to the State of Illinois.

Since the state's purchase of the

house, Hickory House has

remained closed to the public. A

landmark that was once the centerpiece of a region’s history is being

lost to neglect. The memory of the

site, however, lives on in the popular imagination and is a testament

to its enduring importance to the

region, state, and nation. Currently,

researchers from Southern Illinois

University are preparing a presentation about the site for statewide

audiences. Our initial goal is to

make widely available as much

accurate information about the site

as possible. Researchers would support the reopening of the site by

the State of Illinois after full historical, archeological, and architectural analysis, and with comprehensive

site interpretation and full staffing

provided by the state.

For more information, contact Kevin Foster at

kmfoster@siu.edu.

Routledge Press will release AfricanAmerican Architects: A Biographical

Dictionary, 1865-1945, in February of

2004. The book chronicles the architects from the era of Emancipation

to the end of World War II, filling a

key gap in existing scholarship.

Additional details are on the opposite page.
page 23

Conferences

The Hawaii International Conference

on Arts and Humanities 

On January 8-11, 2004, the Hawaii

International Conference on Arts

and the Humanities will be held at

the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki

Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The goals of the 2004 conference are to provide an opportunity

for academicians and professionals

from interrelated, cross-disciplinary

fields in the arts and humanities

worldwide to gather, learn from

each other, and to meet and interact

with members inside and outside

their own particular disciplines.

For more information, contact humanities@

hichumanities.org.

NAAAS/NAHLS/NANAS/IAAS Joint

Conference

The National Association of African

American Studies (NAAAS), the

National Association of Hispanic

and Latino Studies (NAHLS), the

National Association of Native

American Studies (NANAS), and

the International Association of

Asian Studies (IAAS) are holding a

joint national conference on February 16-21, 2004. The conference

will be held at the Omni Houston

Hotel Westside in Houston, Texas.

For more information, visit the website at

http://www.NAAAS.org or e-mail: 

naaasconference@earthlink.net

ASEH/NCPH Annual Meeting

The American Society of Environmental Historians (ASEH) and the

National Council on Public History

(NCPH) will conduct a joint conference March 31-April 4, 2004 in

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

The theme is “Cultural Places and

Natural Spaces: Memory, History,

and Landscape.” 

For more information on the conference visit the

National Council on Public History’s website at

http://ncph.org/meeting.html.

New England Slavery and the Slave

Trade

The Colonial Society of Massachusetts; the Du Bois Institute, Harvard

University; the Museum of AfroAmerican History, Massachusetts;

the National Park Service; the

Omohundro Institute of Early

American History and Culture; and

Suffolk University will hold a conference, "New England Slavery and the

Slave Trade" in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 21-23, 2004.

For more information, contact John W.Tyler, 

e-mail: jtyler@groton.org. 

Publications

African American Architects: A

Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945

Available February 2004

Since the end of the Civil War,

African-American architects

designed houses, schools, research

institutes, and other significant

buildings throughout the United

States. The Widener Library at

Harvard University, the Sixteenth

Street Baptist Church in

Birmingham, Alabama, and Tuskegee

Institute's Butler Chapel are just a

few examples of prominent buildings designed by African Americans.

Although many of these structures

survive to this day, most of their

architects remain virtually

unknown.

Edited by Dreck Spurlock

Wilson, this unique reference

source brings the lives and work of

these pioneers to light. Written by

over 100 experts, ranging from

archivists to architectural historians, this book chronicles AfricanAmerican architects from the era of

Emancipation to the end of World

War II, filling a key gap in existing

scholarship.

African American Architects will

be available from Routledge Press in

February 2004.

For more information, visit the Routledge Press

website at http://www.routledge.com.

Newly Published Children's Book

Featuring Chinese American Pioneer

Polly Bemis is Available

Polly Bemis: A Chinese American

Pioneer tells the story of an Asian

woman who became successful in

the hardscrabble world of the

Pacific Northwest at the turn of the

20th century. Priscilla Wegars,

founder and volunteer curator of

the Asian American Comparative

Collection, which is housed with the

Alfred W. Bowers Laboratory of

Anthropology at University of Idaho

in Moscow, wrote the children’s

book based on her independent

research specializing in the history

of Asian Americans in the West.

Published by Backeddy Books,

the book honors the 150-year

anniversary of Polly's birth in 1853.

After her parents in China sold her,

she was smuggled into this country,

purchased by a Chinese man, and

brought to Warren, Idaho. Polly

married Charlie Bemis in 1894, and

they settled on the remote Salmon

River. Polly died in 1933.

For more information about the book, contact

Kathy Barnard, University Communications,

208/885-6291, e-mail: kbarnard@uidaho.edu.

CONFERENCES AND 

PUBLICATIONS
HERITAGE

MATTERS

DECEMBER 2003

page 24

FIRST CLASS MAIL

Postage & Fees Paid

U.S. Department 

of the Interior

National Park Service

1849 C Street, NW (2251)

Washington, DC 20240

Fran P. Mainella

Director

de Teel Patterson Tiller

Acting Associate Director

Cultural Resources 

John Robbins 

Assistant Director

Cultural Resources

Antoinette J. Lee

Special Projects Manager

Brian D. Joyner

Heritage Matters Editor

Mission of the 

National Park Service

The National Park Service is dedicated to

conserving unimpaired the natural and

cultural resources and the values of the

National Park System for the enjoyment,

education and inspiration of this and

future generations. The Service also cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.

Heritage Matters, sponsored by the

Cultural Resources Programs of the

National Park Service, is published twice-ayear and is free of charge. Readers are

invited to submit short articles and notices

for inclusion. (Limit submissions to fewer

than 600 words and include author’s name

and affiliation. Photographs or slides are

welcome.) Please submit newsletter items

in writing or electronically to: Brian D.

Joyner, Editor, Heritage Matters,

DOI/National Park Service, 1849 C Street,

NW (2251), Washington, DC 20240. Phone:

202/354-2276, email: brian_joyner@nps.gov.

Visit the Web site for the NPS Cultural

Resources Diversity Program:

www.cr.nps.gov/crdi

CONTENTS

HERITAGE MATTERS

Intricate beading is evident in this

1917 yoke, featured at the Native

American Akwesasne Museum. 

See page 12.

NPS ACTIVITIES, pages 1-6

Cultural Diversity Program Marks Five Years, 

p. 1

Cultural Diversity Internships, p. 2

Stockton, California’s Little Manila, p. 3

HABS Records Baltimore’s Lafayette Square, p. 4

Lewis and Clark Lesson Plan Released, p. 6

STATE INITIATIVES, pages 8-9

Recent National Register Listings, p. 8

• Public Schools in Washington, DC

• Odd Fellows Temple, Erie Co., Ohio

• Barrio Azteca H.D., Webb Co., Texas

• Carver Theatre, Richland Co., South Carolina

• Field Matron’s Cottage, Reno, Nevada

TRIBAL INITIATIVES, pages 12-13

Akwesasne’s Native American Museum, New

York, p. 12

Tribal Historic Preservation Office List, p. 13

PARTNERS INITIATIVES, pages 14-20

Stone Avenue Temple, Tucson, Arizona, p. 14

Museum and Heritage Study Center at Texas

Tech, p. 14

Adolf Cluss Exhibit at City Museum of

Washington and in Germany, p. 16

Preservation Studies at Historically Black Colleges

and Universities, p. 17

African American Experience Fund and List of

AAEF Parks, p. 18

Great Stone Church of Mission San Juan

Capistrano, California, p. 19

Mapping Summer Hill near Cartersville, Georgia,

p. 20

LOCAL INITIATIVES, pages 21-22

Brooklyn Has First High School with

Preservartion Academic Focus, p. 21

Illinois’ Reverse Underground Railroad, p. 22

CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS, page 23

Conferences, p. 23

• Hawaii International Conference on Arts and

Humanities

• National Association of African American

Studies, the National Association of Hispanic

and Latino Studies, the National Association of

Native American Studies, and the International

Association of Asian Studies Joint Conference

• American Society of Environmental Historians

and the National Council on Public History

Annual Meeting

• New England Slavery and Slave Trade

Conference

Publications, p. 23

• Biograpical Dictionary of African American

Architects 

• Chinese American Pioneer Polly Bemis is

Children’s Book Feature

This material is based upon work conducted under a cooperative agreement between the U.S.

Department of the Interior, National Park Service and the National Conference of State Historic

Preservation Officers. Views and conclusions in this material are those of the authors and should not

be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade

names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.