September 18-20, 2024 | Columbus, GA

We are excited to announce the 2024 Statewide Historic Preservation Conference, hosted by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Historic Preservation Division and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, will be held in Columbus, Georgia on September 18-20, 2024. 

Stay up to date by signing up for HPD emails and following us on Instagram and facebook. And keep an eye on this space for more information as it is announced!

Keynote Speaker Announced

We are excited to welcome Brent Leggs as the 2024 Statewide Historic Preservation Conference Keynote Speaker. 

Brent Leggs is the executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust. Envisioned as a social movement for justice, equity, and reconciliation, the Action Fund is promoting the role of cultural preservation in telling the nation’s full history, while also empowering activists, entrepreneurs, artists, and civic leaders to advocate on behalf of African American historic places.

A Harvard University Loeb Fellow and author of Preserving African American Historic Places, which is considered the “seminal publication on preserving African American historic sites” by the Smithsonian Institution, Brent is a national leader in the U.S. preservation movement and the 2018 recipient of the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award. His passion for elevating the significance of black culture in American history is visible through his work, which elevates the remarkable stories and places that evoke centuries of black activism, achievement, and community.

Over the past decade, he has developed the Northeast African American Historic Places Outreach Program, and its theme, the Business of Preservation, to build a regional movement of preservation leaders saving important landmarks in African American history. As the project manager for several National Treasure campaigns across the country, he led efforts to create the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Alabama, which President Barack Obama designated in January 2017. Other campaign successes include the perpetual protection of cultural monuments like Villa Lewaro, the estate of Madam C. J. Walker in Irvington, New York; Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey; A. G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham; Nina Simone’s birthplace in Tryon, North Carolina; John and Alice Coltrane’s home in Huntington, New York; and more.

Brent has taught at Harvard University, Boston Architectural College and the University of Maryland. He is a Senior Advisor and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s graduate program in Historic Preservation.

New this year: Conference Sponsorships

We are opening sponsorship opportunities! Various levels of sponsorship are available to organizations, companies, and individuals looking to support the 2024 Statewide Historic Preservation Conference. 

To inquire about sponsorships, contact Brynn Chanudet, Senior Director of Development with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, bchanudet@georgiatrust.org

Sponsorship Flyer

Registration

Registration will open in May! Keep a look out on social media and sign up for our emails to be notified when it opens.

Session proposals NOW BEING ACCEPTED!

Proposals for speaker sessions and speaker nominations are being accepted through April 1, 2024. This year we're introducing an online application process. Submit your proposal on the new form.

The statewide preservation conference brings together preservationists, preservation professionals, preservation non-profit members, board members, planners, architects, architectural historians, archaeologists, city and county administrators, city and county council members, city and county attorneys, landscape architects, historic preservation commission members, genealogists, historians, and planning and preservation students from across Georgia. All sessions will be open to all attendees.

Sessions should highlight current Georgia preservation, history, architectural history, archeology, cultural landscapes, Georgia regional history, landscape architecture, preservation law, and other closely related topics. The conference session committee desires sessions that will be interactive, engage the audience, present fresh approaches, and be easily applicable to a variety of participants from all over Georgia.

Please submit your proposal via this form by Monday, April 1, 2024. Multiple proposals may be submitted, but please limit one session proposal per submission form. Applicants will be notified by email in early June.  Questions may be submitted to outreach@dca.ga.gov.

Sponsors and Partners

We are happy to announce that the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network and Georgia Alliance of Planning Commissions are returning as sponsors for the conference. And we are delighted to welcome Historic Columbus Foundation as a Local Planning Partner.

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

By Noah Bryant, Environmental Review Archaeologist, Historic Preservation Division

Archaeology is the study of human history and prehistory through the materials that people left behind. The identification and analysis of this material hinges on the proper identification of archaeological sites. Understanding what makes a place an archaeological site is the foundation for archaeology as a discipline, as it establishes the framework for interpreting the materials left behind by people who previously lived on and used the land that we occupy today.

A general definition of an archaeological site is as follows:

a site formed from a concentration of cultural materials, typically referred to as artifacts, ecofacts (naturally organic or inorganic remains found in a site – think charcoal, seeds, minerals, or unmodified shell or bone), or areas of modified landscape that are associated with past human activity.

Burying a bunch of objects in a backyard does not automatically form an archaeological site. To clarify historic classification, the age of the deposits is taken into account when identifying sites. The magic number for archaeology and above-ground resources is 50 years, that’s when a simple trash dump site can become a “historic” trash dump.

Now that we have established the basics of defining an archaeological site in the most general terms, let us turn our attention to more specific criteria. In Georgia there is no legal definition of an archaeological site; however, the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists developed standards and guidelines that help define more precisely what is considered an archaeological site. In addition to the age requirement of 50 years or older, The Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists defines a site as:

• Surface scatter that yields three or more artifacts from the same broad cultural period (i.e., historic (after written documentation introduced) or precontact (prior to 1492)) within a 30-meter radius;
• Two or more shovel tests yielding at least one artifact each within 30m of each other;
  • Shovel tests are used by archaeologists to systematically test an area for archaeological materials below the ground’s surface.
• A single shovel test that yields three or more artifacts from the same broad cultural period, as long as the artifacts cannot be fitted together (i.e., they are not fragments of the same artifact);
• An area with visible or cultural features (e.g., shell midden, graves, rock shelters, petroglyphs, chimney fall, brick walls, stone piled features, piers, stills, prospect pits, military earthworks, etc.);
• An abandoned cemetery or grave; or
• A singular artifact if its significance can be justified as culturally meaningful (e.g., Paleo projectile point) and/or it is associated with specific surface or landscape features.

That seems like a lot, but standards like those listed above help archaeologists properly identify and record archaeological sites throughout Georgia. You may be wondering, what do archaeologists do once they identify an archaeological site in the field – well they record and report! Properly recording and reporting the location and type of site that has been identified is an important part of archaeology. In Georgia that information is recorded using an Official State Site Form, which is submitted to Georgia Archaeological Site File,  housed at the University of Georgia then the site can receive an Official State Site Number. For example, the Etowah Mounds State Historic Site has the site number 9BR1. Nine indicates the state of Georgia, BR indicates Bartow County, and one since it was the first site recorded in the county.

While anyone can submit an archaeological site form to get an official site number, it is typically the best practice to employ a professional archaeologist to identify and complete the form, as they are familiar with the ins and outs of archaeology. HPD maintains a self-nominated directory of consultants that may be able to assist in investigating potential archaeological sites on your property.

Archaeological sites and the artifacts documented from them are crucial for understanding the history of Georgia. During the Environmental Review process, our team works closely with projects when Section 106 review is triggered. If you would like to know more about our Environmental Review Archaeology program, please email archaeology@dca.ga.gov.

Additionally, our colleagues at the Office of the State Archaeologist handle archaeology in the state more broadly. Learn more about their work at https://gastateparks.org/archaeology

Now that you are familiar with what makes a site a site, you’re on your way to becoming a regular Archaeologist; however, it is always best to consult a professional archaeologist if you ever have questions about what you can and cannot do to archaeological sites. Please use your resources and follow all related laws and regulations before disturbing any archaeological site.