At a Historic Preservation Workshop I attended in Chicago, Robert Myers, Planning Manager for the City of Urbana Illinois, gave one of the more entertaining and informative presentations I've seen in a while. He wasn't just talking about what we could do to save endangered homes...he was sharing with us what he's already done. House by house, year by year, he has methodically saved numerous historic houses from the wrecking ball. Here are five strategies he outlined that might work in your town:
1. Hammer home the point to your local governing bodies that historic preservation is economic development. Show them examples of how it's worked elsewhere.
2. Realize that a change in ownership is usually the only way to save an endangered (usually vacant) historic structure. If the present owners really had any interest in saving the home from demolition, they probably would have already done so.
3. Cast a wide net to find potential buyers of historic homes that are in need of restoration. Find out why people relocate to your town and where they are coming from. Robert pointed us toward a really unique interactive tool that shows human migration patterns as assembled by the IRS using tax records from the year 2008. He cited numerous examples of how someone's relocation decision actually started with them falling in love with a picture of a house. Here's the link: (you might have to press "continue to site" in the upper right hand corner of the page that loads)
4. Convince owners of historic homes that their property is more valuable as a potentially contributing structure than just another piece of vacant land.
5. And finally, reintroduce the recently forgotten value of good old sweat equity. Restorations are more manageable and affordable when broken down into smaller pieces...even over the course of many years, through different owners.
