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Significant Elements Program Manager Alphonse Pieper and Preservation Associate Kristen Olson sit in the store, located on Center Street. (photo by Rachel Philipson) |
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Preserving the Past
By Brandi Herrera Pfrehm
Walk through the front door of Significant Elements at 212 Center Street, and you can expect to be greeted by an array of salvaged architectural pieces, reclaimed materials and antique fixtures. You can also expect to be welcomed by a knowledgeable member of the retail staff who can help guide you through the virtual maze of hardwood mantels, claw foot tubs, doors, windows, and just about every type of hardware in between.
You wouldn't expect much less from an architectural salvage. But what you might not imagine is how much more than just salvage it actually is. As a program of Historic Ithaca - which was organized around saving the Clinton House in the early 1970s - Significant Elements is first an advocacy and educational organization for preservation, and salvage, second.
If you were to wander, for example, a little deeper into the labyrinth you'd discover an extensive library of books and over 2,000 slides used by the staff to research building histories, past occupants, architectural styles and DIY home repairs. Meander farther still, and you'd come to the Conservation Lab, where new items are taken to be cleaned or dusted off, and where broken glass is removed from windows. The lab will soon become a place where the public can learn hands-on skills to maintain their own homes, and where Significant Elements will be able to offer value-added work for items they already have in stock.
Even with this trove of materials, resources and educational workspace, the real heart and soul of the organization is reflected in Alphonse Pieper and Kristen Olson; Significant Elements' Program Manager and Preservation Associate, respectively. Pieper - who holds an MA in Preservation Planning from Cornell and served as the Preservations Services Director in the late 90s - left for a time to run his own salvage in Homer, and then returned when Historic Ithaca moved to its current location in 2002. Olson, a Virginia native, came to Ithaca in to attend Cornell where she is expected to earn the same degree (forthcoming, January 2009). Pieper's 30 years of experience, combined with Olson's fresh outlook, have already expanded the organization's programs and services.
"We can provide everything from technical assistance for individual homeowners, to people that own a commercial building or people who are concerned about a building that is threatened. We can (also) provide assistance in terms of locating funding...and analyses and reports," says Olson, who had just completed a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for Rogue's Harbor Inn in Lansing.
Among such services, is a nascent series of free preservation classes. In November, Significant Elements kicked off the series, which is aimed at establishing a core of preservation knowledge for the public. In the first course, What Style is Your Home?, students were asked to come armed with photos and any information they could cull about the history of their home. The staff worked with each student - utilizing their resources in local buildings/structures as examples - to identify its architectural style. Students took away an education packet that served as a guide for continuing research.
The schedule of courses will touch on topics ranging from the process of identifying individual architectural styles, to in-depth structure research, and investigation of the predominant architectural styles of Tompkins County. In one upcoming course, participants will learn tips on how to maintain an older home. Such courses are an excellent way for the general public to learn more about our community's legacy of significant structures and how to become more actively involved in their preservation.
Significant Elements also plans to create a series of workshops for craftsmen, which would offer more specific training in disciplines such as millwork. Local professionals/experts will be called in as associate educators for such offerings.
The next phase of development also involves the slow restoration of the building Significant Elements currently occupies, which formerly served as everything from a corset factory and wagon repository to an airplane parts manufacturer. They'll use said renovations and repairs (such as stabilizing the roof and, ultimately, bringing it back to a level that is historically appropriate) as a thematic for hands-on workshops in the Conservation Lab where participants could potentially learn about window repair and roof renovations.
Significant Elements will remain an esteemed salvage, where people can be found wandering the stacks of curious treasures for building and design inspiration, and a connection to the past. It will always attract conscious homeowners and contractors in search of sustainable alternatives to new building materials; as salvages are, and always have been, inherently green. But the organization with its valuable resources and services, is foremost a vital component of our community and prophet of Historic Ithaca's mission to "Preserve the future of the past."
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Suicide has recently come to Ithaca in a very public, and at times controversial, way. This past academic year, after three years with no suicides, Cornell experienced what is known in the scientific community as a "suicide cluster." OK, so maybe you're like me and you thought this whole JetBlue flight attendant story was good for maybe one news cycle.  |
