The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) is now accepting nominations for its annual list of the state’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places through Friday, December 31, 2010.
The Todd County Courthouse was on the list in the past.
The nomination form is available at the Alliance’s website, www.mnpreservation.org/programs/ten-most-endangered/
Again this year, PAM will present a seed grant to one of the sites included on the 2011 – 10 Most Endangered list. The recipient of the grant will be chosen by popular vote during the second annual (Anti)Wrecking Ball, to be held May 12, 2011, during which the 10 Most Endangered sites will be announced to the public.
The first (Anti)Wrecking Ball, held May 20 at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, was one of PAM’s most successful programs in 2010. Representatives of all 10 listed sites attended the event to campaign for the preservation of these important places in their communities. The seed grant competition proved to be an effective way to train local preservation supporters, by providing a supportive and engaging forum in which to practice their advocacy “pitch.” The recipients of the 2010 seed grant, the Dodd Ford Bridge Preservation Society in Amboy, have successfully obtained additional grants to fund engineering studies focused on preserving a rare, steel, through-truss bridge built in 1901.
Bonnie McDonald, PAM’s executive director, states, “The 10 Most Endangered program has been in place for 18 years, and we’ve learned that it inspires success. Other than public awareness, one of the greatest ways we can help is to provide access to new financial tools. We’ve witnessed the power that even the smallest seed grant can yield in inspiring community action and private investment in our historic resources, and we want to encourage communities to rally behind these places and take the next step to ensure their preservation.”
The seed grant can provide critical matching funds for grants from the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Grants program through the Minnesota Historical Society, or from the Virginia Sweatt Preservation Fund for Minnesota and other grants available through the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The 10 Most Endangered program shines a spotlight on historic sites and buildings that are threatened with demolition, increasing disinvestment and neglect, or which face organizational challenges and financial obstacles. Through the 10 Most Endangered program, PAM works with local communities to surmount these impediments to preservation and seek rehabilitation or creative reuse of the buildings.
More than 50 historic sites have been recognized over the list’s history, and of those, more than half are known to have been saved through the awareness generated by their listing. Already, several sites on the 2010 list have been saved, including the Garrison Concourse on Lake Mille Lacs, which has received Federal stimulus funds to begin its rehabilitation, and the Todd County Courthouse, which was the subject of a bonding referendum on the November 2 general election ballot in Todd County.
The 10 Most Endangered Historic Places List is selected from nominations submitted by citizens and groups from around the state of Minnesota. Property owners are given the opportunity to comment on the proposed listing to ensure all possible information is considered by a jury of preservation professionals and advocates. The list is announced in May during National Preservation Month. Through the work its Field Representative, Erin Hanafin Berg, and members of its volunteer Advocacy Committee, PAM continues to engage with local citizens, property owners, and elected officials to find a positive outcome for each endangered property after the list is announced. Previously listed properties are considered part of the 10 Most Endangered program until a definitive outcome occurs.
To see prior years’ lists of Minnesota’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places, please visit the Alliance website at www.mnpreservation.org .
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