Common Themes in Endangered Historic Buildings

I was reading the July/August 2010 Preservation magazine which features the 2010 list of America’s Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. Some of the places featured on the list include natural landscape preservation.

One theme that stuck out to me was the fact that all of the buildings listed as endangered are being demolished by neglect. The two reasons all the buildings are endangered were neglect and deferred maintenance – something we see in all communities – proving once again that preservation is maintenance.

These buildings are from all across the country and include privately and publicly owned buildings. I was surprised that the majority of the buildings have suffered water damage leading to the reason for them to be slated for demolition. These are common problems in all historic buildings – preservation is inexpensive – what becomes expensive is when a historic element on a building needs to be rebuilt because of damage from the elements. After making sure the structure is sound, the next most important thing, is keeping the weather out of the building.

To read the article and learn more about the 11 endangered historic places visit the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s website at http://http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/.