PRC’s top accomplishments of 2022

Dear PRC supporters and friends,

Happy Holidays! I hope that 2022 was a year filled with good health and success for each of you, and that 2023 promises the same. Here at the Preservation Resource Center, our board and staff end this year with tremendous gratitude to each of you – for your constant and most generous support. It is your continued support that makes it possible for the PRC to work every day to protect our city’s irreplaceable architecture, neighborhoods and cultural identity.

It helps to end the year on some high notes, and there are two in particular that we at the PRC are thrilled about right now. First: In mid-December, after a year of negotiations with the City of New Orleans, we were finally able to stabilize an 1830s building that was about to collapse in Armstrong Park, in the Tremé neighborhood. We also boarded up windows on three other buildings on site – and as lagniappe, relocated a very large beehive in the process! The City had no plans to fix any of these structures, even after a whole side of the kitchen building was blown off in Hurricane Ida. The PRC’s board authorized funding from its Board Designated Fund for the repairs. Though we wish to see these very historic and important buildings revitalized as soon as possible, we know our work will help ensure that they will survive to see a new day, whenever the City allows for their rehabilitation.

Secondly, we are riding high off a tremendously successful Holiday Home Tour. We had a bustling headquarters at The Rink, a successful boutique at the Louise S. McGehee School, six gorgeous homes on tour, and were once again generously supported by McEnery Residential and dozens of other sponsors. It felt amazing to be back inside the beautiful homes of the Garden District after two years away. The weekend before, we were welcomed into a stunning, historic, and much beloved home in the Lower Garden District- 1717 Coliseum Street – for an unforgettable Patron Party generously sponsored by Gallo Mechanical. Thanks to all of you who joined us, and to all of you who sponsored!

This year we emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever, with successful events, classes, and community engagement, and 2023 promises even more in-person excitement. We kick off the year with a new breakfast series called Preserving New Orleans’ Future which will highlight reasons to keep believing and investing in New Orleans. This monthly series will feature experts who have insight into why New Orleans still has a bright future, and why we should all continue to feel confident about living and investing in this city. It’s a message many need to hear, and one that impacts the PRC’s mission directly: if we continue to lose talented residents to other cities, we won’t have the populace needed to safeguard our historic city’s treasures. We launch this new series on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. at the PRC. The inaugural breakfast will feature Justin Ehrenwerth, President and CEO of the Water Collaborative, who will illuminate, in laymen’s terms, how our city is protected from storms, and what else our community needs to keep our homes safe. Please join us!

Another note about the exciting year ahead: The PRC has two international trips planned for 2023. We have partnered with the Tulane School of Architecture for a tour of Bermuda’s history in early April, and we will be heading back in Cuba in October to explore Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad – all UNESCO World Heritage sites. We hope you will consider joining us for one of these trips – they promise to be unforgettable and will provide travelers a specialized experience that only the PRC can offer!

In the coming months, we will unveil big plans for the PRC’s immediate and future growth in the new year to ramp up excitement for 2024 – our 50th anniversary! Stay tuned.

We hope you will consider supporting our continued work with a year-end donation. Your tax-deductible gift will help propel our success into the new year.

Click here to make a tax-deductible gift to the PRC

Here are a few more endeavors that our active board and talented staff accomplished this year:

PRC led the charge to change Louisiana state law to increase in the penalty for unpermitted demolitions within local historic districts. In coordination with the City of New Orleans, Rep. Aimee Freeman, and other local legislators, we secured passage of a law increasing the maximum penalty for these violations for the first time since the 1970s. The previous maximum was $10,000, which was clearly not a deterrent to those seeking to demolish as they pleased. Under the new law, fines can be as much as $25,000 or 15% of assessed value of the property, whichever is greater, which equates to serious money.

We published The Cottage on Tchoupitoulas: A Historical Geography of Uptown New Orleans by author Richard Campanella. This creative partnership with Children’s Hospital generated considerable revenue for the PRC and furthered PRC’s portfolio of publishing historic preservation-related titles with prestigious authors.

We completed significant home repairs through our Revival Grants and Hurricane Relief programs for nine low-income families in historic districts.

We engaged, educated, and inspired thousands of participants through classes, Beams & Brews events across the city, parties, lectures and home tours. Our signature events were in particularly notable locations this year, with the Julia Jump at the Four Seasons Hotel and the Shotgun House Tour in the Audubon Riverside neighborhood Uptown.

Our community engagement was meaningful: We helped one church qualify for State Historic Tax Credits, wrote a grant for another, and helped a third to imagine new uses for empty classrooms. We helped Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association ensure the sensitive treatment of a significant building, coached DeSaix Neighborhood Association on how to highlight their history with a tour and promoted the new St. Claude Main Street in the Lower 9th Ward.

We accepted a new easement this year, 826-828 Union Street, donated by Jonathan Weber. With this easement, the PRC is now protecting the entire 800 block of Union Street! And our total easement count is now at 140 properties.

We once again published nine issues of Preservation in Print magazine, and received continued recognition by the Press Club of New Orleans for PRC’s Communications team, including a second-place award for Best Environmental/Science Story for the article, “Living With Water.”

We continue to work with the top preservationists in town to stem inappropriate alterations to Madame John’s Legacy, one of the city’s most significant structures currently under renovation.

Click here to make a tax-deductible gift to the PRC