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CNN Live At Daybreak

National Trust for Historic Preservation Official Discusses List of Endangered Sites

Aired June 25, 2001 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: The National Trust for Historic Preservation releases a list this morning of 11 sites it says are endangered and really should be preserved now.

CNN's Eileen O'Connor visited one of the sites on the list, the Carter G. Woodson Home, in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This run-down row house in Washington, D.C.,'s Shaw neighborhood is just one site both honored -- and shamed -- to be included on the 2001 list of the 11 most endangered historic sites, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

PETER BRINK, HISTORIAN: It has to be a historic place that's really special -- special in terms of history, architecture, the way people feel about it -- and it has to be threatened.

IRENA WEBSTER, PRESERVATIONIST: This is the Carter G. Woodson Home, that has been...

O'CONNOR: Known as the father of black history, Carter Woodson founded the first publishing company to accept African-American authors, the first to chronicle African-American culture and history.

WILLIAM SIMONS, PRESERVATIONIST: The capital was built by slave labor. Carter G. Woodson knew that, and he wrote about that in many of his works. But to the rest of the people, they were totally ignorant of that fact.

O'CONNOR: Irena Webster wants to renovate these crumbling walls and use Woodson's home as an office for the association he founded to study black history. She also wants to buy two adjoining buildings for an education center.

WEBSTER: He started the Associated Publishing Company right here. And this is history, and the students, the youth, need to know that. The community needs to know the value of what this man has done.

O'CONNOR (on camera): So it's not just a building?

WEBSTER: No, it's just not a building, it's an institution.

O'CONNOR (voice-over): Along with Woodson house, the list for 2001 includes a Chinese temple in California, buildings in Texas from early Spanish settlements, the Telluride Valley in Colorado, and a barn in Indiana. Over the last 14 years, 120 historic sites like the Woodson House have been listed, only one has been lost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Renovations here are estimated, at the Woodson House, to cost about $700,000, and to build that education center, buying those two buildings next door, about $5 million. The hope is by being listed as one of the most endangered sites, this project will get the spotlight and thus the funds that it needs -- Linda.

STOUFFER: Eileen, any guarantee of that, though? Once these places make the list, is there any guarantee of a certain amount of money, anything like that?

O'CONNOR: No, there's no guarantee. As the National Trust says, this is not a check at all. But it does present an opportunity through positive publicity, and sometimes negative publicity because local communities don't like to be seen as losing one of their own treasures.

Interestingly, Linda, as well, 80 percent -- more than three- quarters of these sites that have been saved -- end up being used once again. They're not just museum pieces -- Linda.

STOUFFER: Eileen O'Connor, with the latest on that, thank you very much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUFFER: Just before the break, our Eileen O'Connor told us about one of the sites the National Trust for Historic Preservation wants to save.

We want to get more now on the list, so Peter Brink is the senior vice president of the National Trust, and he joins us right now from Washington.

Mr. Brink, thanks for being with us.

BRINK: Good morning, Linda.

STOUFFER: Good morning to you.

Someone from the Trust was telling us that this is really the most ethnically diverse list that you all have ever come out with. Did you set out to do that this year?

BRINK: No, we really set out to identify marvelous prices that are endangered. We always have diversity in the list because part of our purpose is to show the breadth of what's at risk in America -- geographically, culturally, and this year it was just amazing. STOUFFER: Let's talk about some of the cultural sites you really do want to save, so we can show some of the video that we have. The first place that jumped out at me is talking about our Spanish heritage. This is the Rio Grande Valley in Texas -- what needs saving here?

BRINK: This is Los Caminos del Rio, and it's a 200-mile stretch that goes from Laredo to Brownsville. You have remnants of Spanish settlement from the late 1800s. You have Anglo settlement there, a beautiful little Spanish colonial town, Roma. And all of this is deteriorated, unappreciated, and needs a much greater effort to protect it. It really is a cultural corridor.

STOUFFER: But is plain old neglect, I mean, folks there not really realizing what they have in their midst?

BRINK: I think because of the poverty, people are working at their lives, and in the meantime, a lot of the history is deteriorating and being lost. This is on both sides of the Rio Grande River, Mexico and the United States, and there is a binational group that is working to reinvigorate and preserve this.

STOUFFER: Let's move up in history now to a place that was really booming the 1800's through the 1950's. We're talking about the Harlem of the South, as it's been called: historic Jackson Ward, in Richmond, Virginia. What's going on in this area?

BRINK: This is an area that once used to be a vibrant entertainment and residential area. The first African-owned bank was started here, in the late 1800's. Maggie Walker was the first black president of a bank, and it had entertainment and clubs and was full of life. Then, in the '60's, I95, a major highway, was run right through the neighborhood, and then urban renewal came in and tore things down. So you have an area that is poor now. It's struggling to get back on its feet, and the National Trust will be working closely with the neighborhood groups to do this.

STOUFFER: And what is it really need? Does it need just an overall master plan, some goals for this area?

BRINK: The master plan is the beginning, but it needs investment, it needs things like incentives for people to rehab the houses and live in them, to start businesses, efforts like a Main Street program, to get everybody working together and bring in new businesses and help the existing businesses. So it's really a grass roots neighborhood effort with incentives and support from outside.

STOUFFER: And Mr. Brink, the one I want to look at next is about a cultural heritage we all share, if you love the movies. We're so used to these movieplexes, where you get your cappuccino and your large popcorn. Now, Peter, why should we be looking at the older theaters?

BRINK: The older theaters were really elegant palaces. We're talking about the 1920s and '30s. Beautiful architectural pieces, the atmospheric theaters where sometimes they would produce a whole night sky above you, during the show. So these are magnificent places to be, and with new sound systems and the huge screens, you could have an experience there that is simply missing from the smaller multiplexes.

(CROSSTALK)

BRINK: An example is the -- I'm sorry.

STOUFFER: No, no, no, go ahead, give us that example that you were just about to say.

BRINK: An example is the Senator Theater in Baltimore, which is like going back 50 years and then seeing a first-run film there.

But many of these theaters are having trouble competing. There's a huge distribution system that favors the large owners of theaters, as opposed to these independently owned gems. We're hoping that that can be righted so we can all go to the movies in grand style again.

STOUFFER: That would be wonderful.

And you have so much enthusiasm for this, but overall, as people are watching this, as people see the special coming up on the History Channel, what do you want people to be motivated to do? What can they do?

BRINK: If they'll go to our Web site, nationaltrust.org, we have action steps that can be taken on every one of these sites, and sometimes it's writing to a particular public officials, sometimes it's helping raise money, and sometimes it's just learning more about the history and advocating for it.

STOUFFER: Awareness -- Peter Brink with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, thanks so much for your time today. We appreciate it.

BRINK: Thank you, Linda.

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