History, Natural History & the Arts
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) have announced that nine projects and one individual are being recognized with a 2021 New York State Preservation Award for their efforts to preserve the state’s history.
The honors include the restoration of a Mohawk Valley Carnegie Library, the adaptive reuse of a Buffalo grain silo, and the recognition of a historic neighborhood on Fire Island. [Read more…] about NYS Historic Preservation Awards Announced
The 1932 and 1980 Olympic bobsled track, located on Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y., is on The National Register of Historic Places.
Clearing for the original one and a half, 26-curve course began in August 1930 and the track, specifically built for the 1932 winter games, was open to the public just 148 days later on Christmas Day 1930. [Read more…] about New York’s Olympic Bobsled Track: Some History
In 2021, the state of New York will celebrate 125 years of being caretaker to the John Brown Farm in North Elba, just outside of Lake Placid in the Adirondack Park.
Brown came to the area to help recently freed slaves become farmers. At that time in New York State, black men (and only black men) needed to own $250 dollars worth of land to be eligible to vote. Brown immersed himself in this new community of black farmers and participated in a wide variety of organizing. [Read more…] about John Brown Farm Celebrates 125 Years of State Ownership
Parks & Trails New York (PTNY) and the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), with support from Governor Cuomo and the NYS Legislature, have announced the sixth round of competitive grants through the NYS Park and Trail Partnership Grants program, funded through the NYS Environmental Protection Fund. [Read more…] about Public Lands, Trails, Historic Site Grants Available
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) Division of Environmental Stewardship and Planning have announced the release of the Draft Scoping Document for the Draft Statewide Greenways Plan and Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) for public comment. [Read more…] about Comments Sought On Statewide Greenway Trails Plan
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) Division for Historic Preservation have announced the release of the Draft Scoping Document for the Draft New York State Historic Preservation Plan (2021-2025) and Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) for public comment. [Read more…] about Comments Sought On State Historic Preservation Plan
A 2018 survey of New Yorks State parks and historic sites’ Friends organizations details the support and programs these groups provide to the state parks system. Among the findings, is that Friends groups raised more than $17 million in private funds, and contributed nearly 132,000 hours of volunteer labor.
A Friends group is a group of individuals who work to support, steward and promote a park or historic site or multiple sites. They come in a variety of sizes and approaches from all-volunteer groups, to those with paid staff responsible for generating funds for operations and renovations. [Read more…] about Friends Groups Boost NY State Parks, Historic Sites
New Yorkers from across the state came together at the State Capitol on March 4th for the 13th annual Park Advocacy Day to urge policymakers to protect and preserve New York’s state parks. Nearly 80 representatives from more than 30 park Friends groups, environmental organizations, local parks, and educational organizations signed up to make the case for state park funding.
Park advocates urged state lawmakers to support the Governor’s $110 million capital investment in the state park system in this year’s state budget and continue to support the Park and Trail Partnership Program, a capacity-building grants program for Friends groups that support and strengthen the state’s parks, trails and historic sites. [Read more…] about Activists Call For Revitalization of State Parks System
How many historic sites does the NYSOPRHP maintain? That is not a trick question. At the NY Statewide Preservation Conference, May 5-7, in Albany and Troy, the question was an unintended running joke among several sessions. Generally the number was between 35 and 40 with a variation due to how to classify a site given a site can be recreational and historic. But this is not a post about the combination of recreation and historic sites in one bureaucracy (it wasn’t always that way). Rather it is a discussion about what it means to be a state historic site. [Read more…] about Friends With Benefits: NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation
While recently investigating the dismal record of the Amistad Commission, I came across the Underground Railroad portion of New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (State Parks) – there I found reference to the New York State Freedom Trail, which began as a state project with similarly high hopes and followed the same trajectory to substandard results.
According to the State Parks webpage: “The New York State Freedom Trail Act of 1997 proposed the establishment of a Freedom Trail Commission to plan and implement a New York State Freedom Trail program to commemorate these acts of freedom and to foster public understanding of their significance in New York State history and heritage.”
[Read more…] about Underground Railroad: New York’s Freedom Trail Failures