Some great new news from the PA Historical and Museum Commission and Thaddeus Stevens Technical College, right here in the city of  Lancaster:

1772 Foundation awards $40,000 grant to program

The 1772 Foundation, based in Connecticut, has awarded a $40,000 grant to the Preservation Trades Technology Program.

The grant provides funding for the development of the final three courses of the curriculum, Painting Historic Buildings, Dealing with Environmental Concerns in Historic Buildings and Thermal Retrofitting Historic Buildings. Funds are also provided for instructor training and development, course materials, library materials, scholarships and marketing.

“We are very excited to now have the resources to complete the build-out of this program,” according to Barry Loveland, chair of the advisory committee for the Preservation Trades Technology Program. “This is also strong validation from a national preservation-oriented foundation that this program is worthwhile investing in.”

“They were extremely impressed with the college, the enthusiasm and the support we receive from our partners,” according to Allen Tate, Director of Development for Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.

The Preservation Trades Technology program is the only program of its kind in Pennsylvania that provides training to incumbent building trades workers, and students and others interested in the preservation and traditional trades.

“Even though this grant is a tremendous boost, the program is still in need of financial support. We are looking into other grant opportunities and also encourage individual and corporate donations,” said Loveland..

If you wish to make a donation, please contact Allen Tate, Director of Development, at 717-391-7285 or tate@stevenscollege.edu

The Preservation Trades Technology program  is featured in an article on the Traditional Building Magazine website at www.traditional-building.com/News/News02-05-10.html

(Actually this was announced in February, but we’re betting not many of our readers out there really heard about it yet.)

This is a GREAT step in the right direction, supporting a training program that will benefit Lancaster and historic buildings for years and generations to come !

For a city with the largest National Register Historic District in America within it’s core — nearly 15,000 buildings  (Did you know that ?!?  Bigger than Charleston, SC, bigger than Boston, Philadelphia, and all the others !), we are far behind in developing well-trained preservation-oriented crafts-people of all sorts.  True — we have some greatly skilled builders, artisans and crafters, but only a few really have the background and skill-training to use the proper techniques and materials our many historic buildings deserve.

Many folks don’t realize that if someone is a “carpenter” he may not necessarily know how to work with and retain historic woodwork, and to retain and repair it in place to survive on the building for another hundred years,  rather than just throwing it away and installing something new that sort of looks like the old material.  The same goes for masons with brick and stone repair and mortar repointing.   Though we love working with many fine builders in our region, we can attest that for three decades now working in and around Lancaster, we’ve been listening to the majority of tradesmen say, “Well, we never do it that way;” when we show them drawings and explain to them the best-practice preservation approach (which should be used on most any building over 75 years old) for repointing bricks and mortar, repairing plaster cracks, or fixing a wood window sash, sill, or frame.

Also, for property owners, even just learning about these skills — if not becoming experts in the actual execution — can mean the difference between genuinely improving your building (our buildings) and permanently damaging it by unknowingly allowing unqualified builders to work on it.

If you care about how our region looks architecturally, and about its livability; if you’re concerned about retaining our older buildings, and if you think keeping our economy and our construction industry “local” is important for our future, we hope you will support the state’s efforts at Stevens College — by taking a course there, by directing a craftsman you know to try the program, or by contributing anything you can to the cause.   Check it out at that web-link and email address above.

Thanks!