State preservation group plans October meeting in Springfield

The three-day event at University Plaza Hotel & Conference Center will kick off with a pre-conference session, 1:30–6 p.m. Oct. 21, offering professional training for architects and preservation professionals, according to Barbara Fitzgerald, executive director of Missouri Preservation, which sponsors the annual statewide conference.

Architects will be able to obtain continuing education credits through the American Institute of Architects at this workshop, she added.

“(Missouri Preservation is) a grassroots network of individuals, organizations and preservation commissions throughout the state who work to preserve the cultural and historic resources of Missouri,” Fitzgerald said.

The statewide conference is partially funded by grant money from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, State Historic Preservation Office and the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

“Our theme is Rural to Metro: From Wagons to Route 66,” Fitzgerald said. “It will address the challenges of historic preservation and the development in communities where transportation has come and gone and where growth threatens the historic fabric.”

Congressman Roy Blunt, John Sandor, and Michael Bouman arer among the speakers discussing historic guidelines, the impact of Route 66, the Preserve America initiative, heritage tourism and other topics.

“Holding it in Springfield has a number of benefits, including the fact that people will be able to see what Springfield has done,” said Nancy Brown Dornan, local chairwoman for the conference. “It will increase awareness in the community as well, and also offer an economic benefit.”

One topic, Dornan said, is a workshop that educates on how to implement tax credits, popular with many projects in Springfield.

“Everything downtown is a tax credit project,” she said. “That includes the Seville Hotel, the Mulhollan Building, the Gillioz, Busy Bee and Heers.”

The conference gives Springfield a chance to showcase these projects, she added.

The unconfirmed keynote speaker is Skip Curtis, author of “Birthplace of Route 66 – Springfield, MO” and two other books covering Missouri and Route 66 history.

“We plan to have a local tour of historic sites during the conference or Route 66 and places that are still here, and how they are all tied together,” said Curtis, noting that health problems might prevent him from speaking.

Springfield was the birthplace of America’s most famous road, Curtis said. It was November 1926 when the “Mother Road” opened, spanning 2,400 miles from Chicago through eight states into California. Springfield hosted a meeting April 30, 1926, to decide the official number of the new highway.

“It was decided to accept number 66. A telegram from Springfield to Washington later that year confirmed that,” Curtis said. “Tourism grew and Springfield boomed with that because of Route 66 and all the growth that came with it.”

Today, Curtis said, signage reminds drivers when they are on Route 66, and state grants to businesses for restoration keep the nostalgia alive. “There’s still little ma-and-pa stores out there that are thriving as people get off the interstates and travelers get their kicks in a more laid back way of travel,” he said.

Other speakers will include representatives from the National Parks Service, the Department of the Interior, MoDOT and other preservationists.

“Roy Blunt will appear on Saturday to speak on Saving America’s Treasures,” Fitzgerald said. “Other workshops will offer advice on how to get property on the National Register. It’s a conference for people who love history and historic buildings of all different levels.”

About 200 architects, engineers, historians and others are expected to attend the conference, which is being held in Springfield for the first time.

For more about Missouri Preservation and the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation statewide conference, call (573) 443-5946 or visit www.preservemo.org.