The challenges of saving historic properties was front and center last week at the Preservation in a Changing Climate conference held at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Here's coverage of the event in Monday's Salem News by a member of the Preservation Trust's board and former editor of The Daily News. Pangallo: Sustainability, preservation are aligned By Richard K. Lodge Special to the Salem News SALEM – Communities facing high costs and engineering challenges to tackle the impacts of climate change on historic properties might find some answers coming out of Newport, R.I., Charleston, S.C., and Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod. More than 75 people attended the fifth annual Preservation in a Changing Climate conference Wednesday to explore and share ideas. The city of Salem and its Preservation in a Changing Climate Committee sponsored the conference at the Peabody Essex Museum. Citing the reality of climate change and sea level rise, Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo opened the conference with a call to action. “Now is an incredible moment to be forward-thinking for sustainability,” he said. Resources and tools “are being actively withdrawn” by the federal government. The administration isn’t just stepping back from this important work, “they are running away from it,” Pangallo said. “We’re quite clearly living with the consequences of the climate crisis at this very moment.” He urged those in the room to form partnerships to find solutions for coastal communities, especially when working to preserve historic properties. “Sustainability and preservation are aligned,” he said. “We must ensure that our past is protected for our future.” The keynote speaker was Christina Rae Butler, provost and professor of Historic Preservation and Architectural History at the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, where homes and buildings are threatened by rising seas and frequent flooding—as often as 20 to 25 times a year in some areas. As one of the most historic cities in the south, Charleston, with a population of about 150,000, draws more than 7 million visitors each year who come to appreciate the elegant homes lining the waterfront. But those homes and many more in less affluent parts of the city are in jeopardy. She explained that much of the Charleston peninsula was created over the centuries by filling rivers and wetlands with rice chaff, animal dung, dredge spoils and even the bodies of British and Hessian soldiers killed during the Revolutionary War. With as much as half of the city built on porous, sinking landfill, “we learned really early on this (problem of flooding) is not going to go away. Our entire city has flooding problems,” Butler said. Some homeowners have moved utilities out of the basement to the first floor, or, in some cases, raised their houses several feet to allow flood waters to flow without causing serious damage to living areas. “It’s better to elevate a house than to lose it,” she said. On a larger scale, she outlined an ambitious plan to encircle the city with a new seawall at a cost of $1.3 billion to $2 billion. Short of that, city officials and preservationists are trying to mitigate the impact of frequent rainstorms and rising seas by using more permeable surfaces and by repairing and raising some of the more prominent existing seawalls along the harbor. “Take cues from the past and build appropriately,” she advised. In a panel on responding to sea level rise, Butler joined Margaret Back, the head of preservation projects for the nonprofit Newport Restoration Foundation, and Provincetown officials Timothy Famulare, community development director, and Melyssa Nickerson, director of sustainability and resilience. Back said almost half of Newport Restoration’s 32 properties are in a flood zone, which has forced some creative thinking. In some cases, the Foundation has moved utilities out of basements into first floor closets to get them above likely flood levels. The nonprofit also works with its tenants in the historic buildings to regrade front and back yards so water drains away from the structures, install permeable patios and driveways, and add gutters and drain systems. Famulare and Nickerson focused on efforts to map the coming impacts of sea level rise on Provincetown. Of the 889 National Register of Historic Places properties on Cape Cod that are in a flood plain, 511 of those are in Provincetown, Famulare said. The town is considering an ambitious plan to raise all business and residences along Commercial Street, the downtown business area. This plan could include raising the level of the roadway, sidewalks and underground utilities several inches so the streetscape doesn’t look out of scale. “Much of our development is along the harbor’s edge,” Famulare said. Since the National Seashore occupies a large swath of coastline west and north of town, there’s no place to relocate houses away from the water. With rising seas, “our only option for retreat is vertical” – to elevate buildings. “Our continued adaptation will be the key to keeping our history alive,” he said. Nickerson said that in various community forums held in Provincetown there was a tension among residents between nostalgia for the past and the need for adaptation. The bottom line is the same: “If we do not preserve what we have there’s a chance of losing it entirely.” Photo information: Panelists, from left, Margaret Back, Newport Restoration Foundation; Melyssa Nickerson, director of sustainability and resilience in Provincetown; Timothy Famulare, community development director in Provincetown; and Christina R. Butler, provost and professor of historic preservation and architectural history at the American College of Building Arts in Charleston, S.C. (Photo by Richard K. Lodge) (fb)

The recent Yankee Homecoming events included another interesting and creative round of "If This House Could Talk" posters outside buildings all over Newburyport (and Newbury!). More than 50 residents signed up at https://walknewburyport.wordpress.com/ to put their homes on the map for folks who enjoyed walking around town to admire historic buildings and learn about their history. This one at 30 Milk St. was once home to a ship caulker. The poster sported a half-hull ship model, which was a real eye-catcher. Museum of Old Newbury Historic New England (fb)