On June 15th, The National Trust published its list of the 11 most
endangered historic places in the United States.  At the press conference,
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a joint pubic-private
partnership between the White House (Depart. of Interior, National Park
Service) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  This
partnership will seek to match appropriations of funds for historic
places, sites, artifacts, documents, etc., with private and corporate
donations.  The specific details were sketchy, but it seems that the
president and Mrs. Clinton feel rather strongly that the turn of the
millennium is a good time to take stock of our historic, cultural, and
natural resources and to redouble our efforts to save them for future
generations of Americans.
 
As most listers are aware, listing as one of the 11 most endangered does
not assure that a site or monument will be saved, nor does it mean that
any funding will be made available.  It is simply a tool for attracting
national press coverage and raising awareness of the problems and
opportunities in preservation and redevelopment.
 
All eleven of the most endangered sites will be featured in a 1 hour long
documentary on cable TVs The History Channel.  The show will air June 22,
1998 at 10 pm eastern time and 11 pm pacific time.  The local papers here
in Reno report that the show will air both at 7pm and 11pm pacific time.
I cannot confirm that, however.
 
Please lend your support to all of these projects by phoning or writing
the state or congressional representatives from your district to show
support.  You can also place calls to the city or state administrations in
question.
 
The eleven most endangered:
 
The Mapes Hotel, Reno, Nevada
Governors Island, New York
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Nationwide
Great Bowdoin Mill, Topsham, Maine
Monacacy Aqueduct, Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland
Chancellorsville Battlefield, Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Michigan's Historic Lighthouses, exemplified by DeTour Reef Light
Historic Courthouses of Texas
Black Hawk and Central Cities, Colorado
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Cannery Row, Monterey, California
 
 
The reuse of the Mapes Hotel is an ongoing campaign.  Unlike most of the
other sites on this list, the Hotel's future does not seem to require
loads of cash.  The problem here is that the city government is moving
ahead on redeveloping the historic downtown at a blistering pace and they
have entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with a developer with
no skill in adaptive reuse or historic preservation.  This developer
originally\ argued that it would take about $14 million to
rehabilitate the building and they put forward a plan to demolish the
building. Since the threat was realized, citizens have mustered over
10,000 names in support of re-issuing a new request for proposals.
Critical analysis of the proposal from the current developer revealed
gross errors in calculation that reduced the imaginary "gap" from $14 to
$6 Million, and a closer examination reduced the gap to $1.5 Million.  The
developer just formulated a potential partnership with a local company to
explore converting the building to timeshares.  They are currently working
on that plan.  (Interestingly, no one in the city staff mentions any "gap"
at all anymore...)
 
One of the advocates for Historic Preservation in Reno is the Truckee
Meadows Heritage Trust.  While we are excited at the possible
co-development timeshare plan, there are still grave concerns about the
Mapes building.  The Heritage Trust and the National Trust agree that when
the Reno City Council meets as the Redevelopment Board on June 23rd, they
will consider continuing the exclusive agreement with the master
developer.  This meeting will be to consider granting 90 days for the
finalization of the timeshare plan.  HOWEVER, citizens and
preservationists have grave concerns because they are considering adopting
a platform that will provide for IMMEDIATE DEMOLITION should this co-plan
fail to "pencil out."
 
This grave concern stems from the growing national interest in the grand
Art Deco Hotel.  Most recently, Radisson/Carlton Hotel Corporation
expressed intense interest in the building and ITT, Inc. (owners of New
York, New York in Las Vegas and communications giant) also expressed
interest.  As one local ABC reporter eloquently phrased it "developers are
stacking up like airplanes at the airport" and they are just waiting for a
proper request for proposals from the City.
 
There is no doubt that this treasure can be saved.  It comes down to the
simple choice of a city council.  They can choose to issue a new RFP for
rehabilitation and save the building at no expense to the city, or they
can continue on their current track and waste more time putting all of
their eggs in one basket.  Of course, even demolition and new construction
(of the planned two story strip mall) will take longer than rebidding for
rehabilitation.
 
Please lend your support.  Email links are available at WWW.mapes.com and
the Truckee Meadows Heritage Trust can be reached at one of the numbers
below:
702-323-8710 (phone)
702-323-7414 (fax)
 
Thanks to everyone for their support over this issue. If you have not
visited, please check out the website and watch the 11 most endangered
broadcast next week!
 
Thanks!
Tim Scarlett
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