National Historic Preservation Act Anniversary Symposium
The Architecture + Design Program and the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in partnership with Historic Deerfield, Inc., will sponsor an afternoon preservation symposium to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, which established the basic structure of federal preservation policy, including the National Register of Historic Places and State Historic Preservation Offices.
“Virtually every preservation policy and project today depends in some way on the 1966 Act,” said Max Page, the symposium organizer and Associate Professor of Architecture and History at the UMass Amherst. “To designate a building as historic, to protect it from demolition, to seek funding for its restoration -- all of these usually require the validation of historic importance that comes with a National Register designation, something first established in the 1966 Act. For a generation, those fighting to preserve significant buildings and landscapes have depended on the 1966 Act, while also struggling with some of its limitations. The symposium will look at both sides of the equation.”
Participants in the symposium include several nationally-prominent figures in historic preservation: Jonathan Kemper, Chairman of the Board of the National Trust for
Historic Preservation; Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and past head of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History; David Lowenthal, author of The Past Is a Foreign Country and The Heritage Crusade; Randall Mason, Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania; Edie MacMullen, Chair, Amherst Historical Commission; Christopher Skelly, Director of Local Government Programs, Massachusetts Historical Commission; Bonnie Parsons, Principal Planner, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission; Philip Zea, President, Historic Deerfield, Inc.; and Marla Miller, Associate Professor and Director, Public History Program.