Be a Preservationist

Researching the History of a Home

The following web pages provide helpful information and resources for researching the history of a home:

• artisanelevators.com/articles/glossary-of-architectural-terms - provides glossary of architectural terms and explains different architectural styles

• Architecture Styles - one of our web pages showing homes and characteristics as samples of architectural styles

• https://ask.loc.gov/genealogy-local-history/faq/304931 - The Library of Congress lists resources to aid your research.

• The Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the Library of Virginia both provide good resources and research opportunities.

From: Forum Journal, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Winter 2002

The National Trust for Historic Preservation provided the following suggestions in their winter, 2002 edition of Forum Journal. We hope the ideas below provide inspiration on how you, too, can be a preservationist of historic structures!

10 Easy Ways to Support Historic Preservation:

1. Show your kids the place where you went to school or where you got married.

2. Shop in a historic commercial district. Be sure to look up so you can admire the detail of the buildings' upper floors.

3. Visit a place where history was made or a museum dedicated to history.

4. Eat at a restaurant in a historic building. If you like the atmosphere, tell the owner or host.

5. Attend a live performance or movie at a historic theater.

6. Walk around a historic residential neighborhood.

9. Attend services in a historic church.

10. Take a tour of historic houses in your community.

Feeling Ambitious? Try One of These 10 Additional Steps:

1. Buy a historic house and rehabilitate it.

2. Reuse an old building in downtown for your business or organization.

5. Let your town or county board know that old buildings are important to your community. Encourage them to keep municipal ofices in your downtown or village centers.

6. Tell your representative and senators to support the Historic Homeownership Assistance Act, which would give tax credits to people who buy and rehabilitate older homes. (Find out more from Preservation Action at www.preservationaction.org).

7. Encourage your friends and neighbors to learn about historic preservation.

8. Convince your school board to keep using your historic schools. Love the old country school houses? Learn more at the site of Country School Association of America.

9. Encourage an ethic of stewardship and high quality rehabilitation work in your community. No vinyl siding!

10. Volunteer with organizations where preservation makes a difference: the planning commission, development review board, library board, downtown organization, regional planning commission, or historical society, such as HCHS.

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