Georgia Statewide Historic Preservation Conference 2023

September 13 - 15, 2023

Augusta, GA

Click here to download the conference program

The Historic Preservation Division and Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation invite you to join us for the 2023 Georgia Statewide Historic Preservation Conference in Augusta on September 13-15! 

CONFERENCE INFORMATION UPDATES

official Conference program

Download here

Parking

Welcome Reception - Wednesday, Sep 13 5:00 - 6:30pm, Springfield Village Park, 1211 Jones St, Augusta, GA 30901

There is a public parking deck across the street – Nathan Deal Campus Parking for a small fee. We are not able to provide validated parking. Please note the deck is cashless, but accepts all major credit cards.

Main Conference Sessions - Thursday, Sep 14 9am-5pm & Friday, Sep 15, 9:45am-1:15pm; Marion Hatcher Center and 2KM Architects Chapel, 519 Greene St, Augusta, GA 30901

Please park in the Marion Hatcher center parking lots. DO NOT PARK IN THE 2KM ARCHITECTS LOT. See map below. The two venues are next door to each other and can easily be walked between (less than 1 minute walk). 

Opening Reception - Thursday, Sep 14 5:30-7:00pm; Old Government House 432 Telfair St, Augusta, GA 30901

Street parking is available along Telfair Street.

GAPC Breakfast and Annual Meeting - Friday, Sep 15 8:30-9:15am; Joseph Rucker Lamar Boyhood Home 415 7th St, Augusta, GA 30901

It’s a short walk from the Marion Hatcher Center (7 minutes), so if you’d like to park and walk over, we encourage that. There is a small parking lot available at the site, as well as parking along Telfair St

Registration and Check-in

Online registrants can stop by the registration tables to check-in and pick up their badge and program. For people looking to register onsite, please visit the registration tables at the beginning of the day of your arrival. Please note that onsite registration has an increased fee.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION TRAINING CREDIT 

Sign-in sheets will be available in each session. Please be sure to sign in if you are looking to receive training credit.

tours

All tour options are FULL. If you are on a tour list, you received an email on September 11 with instructions - please check your spam if you cannot find it in your inbox. The waitlists have been closed and cleared at this time.

OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER

We are excited to announce our keynote speaker, Sehila Mota Casper.

Sehila Mota Casper is the inaugural Executive Director for Latinos in Heritage Conservation, where she works to ensure that the preservation field is inclusive, equitable, and rooted in communities. She previously worked as a senior field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the City of Austin, where she has championed systemic transformations and a just preservation movement. 

Over the past decade, she has organized national Latinx preservation conferences, led efforts to save National Treasure campaigns, such as the LULAC Council 60 Clubhouse and Rio Vista Farm, the first U.S. Bracero Reception and Processing Center. She serves on the board of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, Preservation Texas, Texas Dance Hall Preservation, the State Board of Review, and the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission. Sehila is the recipient of the 2014 National Trust for Historic Preservation Mildred Colodny Diversity scholarship and a 2013 Texas Historical Commission Preservation Scholar. Sehila is a graduate of Texas Woman’s University Department of Visual Arts and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design. 

By: Olivia Kendrick, Environmental Review Historian

If I were to ask you to name a cemetery in Georgia, you could probably name a few. From Oakland in Atlanta to Rose Hill in Macon, to Bonaventure in Savannah, it is no secret that Georgia has numerous noteworthy cemeteries that feature many incredible architectural structures and landscapes. What if I were to ask you to name the type and style of a cemetery? Could you, do it?  Or would you need to flip through National Register Bulletin No. 41, Guidelines for Evaluating and Registering Cemeteries and Burial Places to jog your memory on terminology?  If you answered, “I might need a refresher on describing a cemetery,” there is a new and notable Georgia-specific cemetery resource you can check out! Through the work of New South Associates in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Transportation and the guidance of Historic Preservation Division staff, the new cemetery context allows historians and archaeologists to effectively evaluate these cultural resources. Since its publication in October 2023, the Georgia Statewide Cemetery Context entitled, Identification and Evaluation of Georgia’s Historical Burial Grounds has been aiding historians and archaeologists alike in evaluating these resources for the purpose of Section 106 reviews under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The document serves as a guide for determining if a cemetery carries enough significance to be considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

Cemeteries present unique challenges when evaluating NRHP-eligibility for Section 106 purposes because of the dual nature of the above- and below-ground resource. The age of some cemeteries means that they have been utilized across multiple generations, resulting in an eclectic collection of different styles and time periods of architecture. The same cemetery may have been used by different cultural and religious groups, each with their own beliefs and funerary traditions. The Georgia Statewide Cemetery Context details burial traditions, beliefs, cultural influences, and the funerary industry in Georgia, while providing an approach for evaluating cemeteries’ NHRP-eligibility and guidance on identifying the types and styles that these cemeteries conform to. The context asks the evaluator to consider topics such as the socioeconomic status of those buried, artistic expressions in the markers, and associations with institutions or organizations. If a cemetery contains enough historical significance and adequate integrity to convey its significance, it can be considered eligible for listing in the NRHP. The new cemetery context provides both Section 106 practitioners and those interested in the history of Georgia a useful and insightful tool!

The National Park Service issues periodic updates to the National Register nomination process - including this new photo policy! When these updates are issued, our National Register Team ensures nominations conform to these revisions before they are submitted to the NPS.

• Updated Photograph Policy, Jan 2024
• Best Practices Review on Preparing a Concise Statement of Significance, Sept 2023
• Best Practices Review on Evaluating Garages and Outbuildings, Jan 2023
• Best Practices Review on Evaluating Common Resources, July 2023

You can access these guidance documents any time on the National Park Service website, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/publications.htm, to read about each of them in more depth. The Historic Preservation Division (HPD) National Register team also updates instructions in our Packets to reflect these changes.

A big change that we are particularly pleased to announce is the acceptance of National Register photos in JPEG format! Until earlier this year, the National Park Service required National Register photos be submitted in TIF format, which was often challenging for applicants to produce and resulted in incredibly large file sizes that were cumbersome to manage. The ability to submit photos in JPEG format should greatly simplify the photography portion of National Register nominations!

We consistently update the guidance in the Packets to provide our constituency with the most current information needed to process nominations as quickly as possible. The updated HPD Packets reflecting the most up to date National Park Service guidelines can be found on our website, Part 2: Formal Nomination | Georgia Department of Community Affairs (Gago)

By Caitlyn McSwigan, Tax Incentives Architectural Reviewer

Last October, the National Park Service published an updated version of one of their existing briefs, Preservation Brief 16: The Use of Substitute Materials on Historic Building Exteriors. While the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation act as the primary set of regulatory guidelines for state and federal rehabilitation projects, Preservation Briefs are used to interpret the Standards and focus on specific steps and issues during the rehabilitation process.

Technical Preservation Services' staff, John Sandor, Amy Elizabeth Uebel, and David Trayte, revised the brief and hosted webinars to explain the updated guidance. With this brief being first published in 1988, Trayte noted that its update was “a project long time in the making.” The revised brief demonstrates greater flexibility concerning replacement materials for rehabilitation projects. The National Park Service defines rehabilitation as “the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values.” The brief expands previous guidance to adhere to this definition while recognizing the public’s desire for more options when selecting compatible materials.

A recent report from Advisory Council on Historic Preservation points out there is a noticeable “shift in the treatment of substitute materials, which prior guidance suggested avoiding.” The brief poses several explanations for  why a substitute material may be acceptable in specific instances. These include the unavailability of historic materials/skilled artisans, lack of durability of the material used historically, additions, reconstruction, secondary-features, code-required performance, and sustainability. The brief is broken down into historic building features and recommended substitute materials. These features include masonry, architectural metals, siding, roofing, decking, and molding/trim and the spotlighted substitute materials include aluminum, cast stone & precast concrete, fiber reinforced concretes, glass fiber reinforced polymers, fiber cement, mineral/polymer composite, cellulose fiber/polymer composite, non-composite polymers, and cellular PVC. While the list of allowable materials has expanded, there is a disclaimer within the brief that cautions “any substitute materials should be selected based on its specific physical and visual characteristics, conditions, and intended application consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.”

Georgia’s rehabilitated properties make an appearance in the updated brief. Shown on Page 20 of the brief is the Thomson Fire Hall, a state and federal tax credit project reviewed by Georgia Historic Preservation Division Tax Incentives Team. Non-historic infill was removed and replaced with cement board, a compatible substitute material that was chosen to replicate the vehicular door that existed during the Period of Significance. The successful tax credit project executed by Historic Augusta now houses four apartments and shows that the retention of historic character can be achieved even when replacement does not involve using the same material as that of the historic feature.

Further Reading:

• Preservation Brief 16: The Use of Substitute Materials on Historic Building Exteriors By: John Sandor, David Trayte, and Amy Elizabeth Uebel
• Report and Recommendations on  the Application and Interpretation of  Federal Historic Preservation Standards By: Chair Sara C. Bronin

The following properties will be considered for listing in the Georgia Register of Historic Places at the May 3, 2024 National Register Review Board Meeting.

View Agenda

Register to attend the Review Board Meeting

Kiah Museum; Savannah, Chatham County

Power-Hyde Farm; Marietta, Cobb County

Community House; Richmond Hill, Bryan County