Image © Spokane Night Scenes
Details for our Annual Meeting and Conference in Spokane are starting to come together! So far, our scheduled events include our paper session, which will be held at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (a.k.a. the MAC) on Saturday, November 3, from 2:00-5:30pm. This is following the National Preservation Conference’s (NPC) Closing Plenary Luncheon (12:00-1:00pm). Those of you who have been studying the NPC Schedule should note that our event is listed under “Affiliate Sessions,” but at an incorrect date and time. We’re working on fixing that (it’s been corrected in the on-line version of the catalog, but not in the downloadable PDF).
The theme for this year’s meeting is “Building the Inland Empire: A Closer Look at Architects and Artisans.” Our paper session will feature the following seven speakers and presentations:
- Phil Gruen – Preservation, Authenticity, and the Recent Past in Virginia City, Montana
- Diana Painter – Surveying Mid-Century Modern Resources: The Montana Experience
- Anne Marshall – Envisioning, Designing, and Constructing the Museum at Warm Springs
- Michael Houser – Modern Architecture: Spokane at the Leading Edge
- Timothy Askin – Stokes & Zeller: The Men Who Built East Portland (work in progress)
- Holly Taylor – Grange Halls in Washington State: Crafting a Research Design
- Dana Vaux – The Dumas Seed Company Warehouse: Building the Everyday Past of the Inland Empire
After the paper presentations, on Saturday night (after a suitable break, details TBD), our keynote speaker Dr. Leland Roth, Professor Emeritus, will discuss the life of our Chapter’s namesake, Marion Dean Ross.
Our schedule for Sunday is still a work in progress, but details are coming together rapidly. Events will include behind-the-scenes tours and our Annual General Meeting. Stay tuned for details and check back here, or on our website http://www.sahmdr.org.
We decided to hold our Annual Meeting in Spokane because a) we haven’t met there since 1985 and haven’t been in Eastern Washington since Walla Walla in 1994, and b) we felt that holding our Meeting in conjunction with the National Preservation Conference would offer some distinct advantages. The MDR/SAH Annual Meeting often occurs around the same time as the NPC and since several members were interested in attending both, it made sense to double-up in order to minimize scheduling conflicts and multi-conference travel burn-out. We also hope that we’ll be able to lure some of the 2,000 people that are expected to attend the NPC into our fold by offering our paper session as an Affiliate Event. And, with the double conference we’re essentially adding tons of potential content to our meeting through the NPC’s dozens of educational and field sessions (although separate registration is required).
“Beyond Boundaries” is the theme of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Preservation Conference, the largest gathering of its kind in the nation attended by approximately 2000 preservation professionals from around the country. The conference theme is reflected in all aspects of the conference, from sessions on sustainability and job creation, to opening remarks by Keynote Speaker Annie Leonard, creator of “The Story of Stuff Project,” an eye-opening chronicle of consumerism and the throw-away mentality. Ms. Leonard’s talk will draw parallels between preservation and environmentally friendly consumerism.
The conference attracts nationally known experts and utilizes the host city as a classroom to showcase and learn from local preservation successes and issues. The historical significance of Native American culture in Spokane and the surrounding region will serve as an additional conference focus area. Preservation challenges unique to Native American culture will be explored at the conference, with sessions on Native American language preservation, preserving and empowering ongoing tribal cultures, and the first ever National Preservation Conference Pow Wow presented by Native American tribal members.
All major conference events take place in downtown Spokane, while field sessions will venture into surrounding areas. Washington’s second largest city may be less well known than Seattle, but it shines when it comes to preservation-driven revitalization. Facing a fading downtown in the late 1980s, historic preservation helped reverse the trend. Today, over half of the downtown core consists of rehabilitated historic buildings including three exceptional projects that helped create a new arts and entertainment district: the Davenport Hotel (the conference hotel), Steam Plant Square (National Trust Honor Award, 2001), and Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox (National Trust Honor Award, 2010). With more historic districts (17!) than any other Washington city, Spokane is made for exploring. Downtown you will see rehabilitated historic warehouses, SRO hotels and other mixed use commercial buildings that tell the transportation and commercial history of the city. Nearby are the Age of Elegance homes and mansions of Browne’s Addition, Riverside Avenue’s Olmsted-designed boulevard, Marycliff-Cliff Park’s curving, tree-lined streets, parks, high-style homes, and Nettleton’s Addition – a classic streetcar suburb that is the largest district in the state.
Visit www.historicspokane.org/nthp for a video glimpse of Historic Spokane: Beyond Boundaries.
The National Preservation Conference registration opens June 1. Early online registration www.PreservationNation.org/conference is encouraged for the best selection of events. For registration questions call 202.588.6100 or toll-free 866.805.5725, or email conference@nthp.org.
