half-day workshop

Structures reports and national register documents provide a wealth of information, but how can you take the next step to uncover stories that will bring a historic district to life? Learn about preservation issues and recent discoveries about the six-block Cooper Street Historic District as you enjoy a choice of thematic tours. Highlights include the recently restored Alumni House (c. 1810), Writers House (designed by Wilson Eyre, 1885), and public art in Johnson Park. Workshop participants will get an overview of the regulatory framework that protects historic properties, learn how to do research about the inhabitants of historic properties using various historical records, explore how to develop themes for interpretation of historic districts, and be able to recognize how structures in historic districts in cities reflect changing urban environments.

This workshop involves both classroom discussion and an outdoors tour. Please wear comfortable walking shoes and dress for the weather.

Instructors/Guides: Charlene Mires and Dorothy P. Guzzo (fall 2016)
Credits: .3 CEUs; 3 AIA LUs

Charlene Mires is director of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities and professor of history at Rutgers-Camden, where she teaches courses in public, urban, and US history. Her public history work includes projects with Independence and Valley Forge National Historical Parks, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, and the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, and she served on the Oversight Committee for the President’s House Commemoration. 

Dorothy P. Guzzo was appointed executive director of the New Jersey Historic Trust in 2008. From 1995 to 2008, as the deputy state historic preservation officer for New Jersey, she oversaw the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, project certification to qualify for Investment Tax Credits, certifying local governments for implementing programs on the municipal level, historic and archaeological resource inventory and resource protection through state and federal regulations. She has held elected office and served on her municipal planning board and local historic preservation commission. Ms. Guzzo is currently serving on the New Jersey Heritage Tourism Task Force charged with creating a Heritage Tourism Master Plan for the state of New Jersey.