A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR ORGANIZATION

Six Years Old and Going Strong

No longer a newcomer, PV is advancing both nationally and, through its exchange program, internationally. Since 2002 French volunteers have been coming to the United States to work on American projects, and in 2004 and 2005 PV has sent American volunteers to France.

The Founding of PV:

A 13th century French Chateau, its inner courtyard strewn with the stone blocks that seven centuries earlier had formed its walls and towers, was the inspiration for the founding of Preservation Volunteers. It was winter, 1978. Two Americans, Evelyn and Everett Ortner, traveling in Normandy, were intrigued by the fact that it was crawling with workers, perhaps twenty or more: French volunteers, the Americans were told. In 1998, twenty years later, the Ortners returned to see an amazing transformation: the guard tower and fortifications had been resurrected. The loose stones had all been put back where they had been centuries before. Displays in the huge lower vaults showed drawings and photographs by the organization that had been responsible for the magnificent reincarnation of the ancient chateau.That organization was REMPART--an acronym for "Union des Associations Pour la Rehabilitation et Entretien des Monuments et du Patrimoine Artistique"--Union for the Restoration of Monuments and Artistic Heritage. To Everett Ortner, an active preservationist, it was an inspiration. Everett Ortner is a photographer. His pictures of the Chateau Gratot, displayed at a meeting of the Brownstone Revival Coalition, an organization he helped to found and in which he is still active, got an instant response. BRC's President at the time, Dexter Guerrieri, liked the idea from the start. So from then on BRC became the de facto “incubator” of PV. Later, with the help and guidance of REMPART, Preservation Volunteers modeled itself after that organization, and, 3 years later its first projects came into being.

PV's Startup Years: 2002-2004

2002, PV's first year of operation. French and American volunteers worked at restoration projects in The Green-Wood Cemetery and in Brooklyn's historic Fort Greene Park. (A picture of the five French volunteers posing before a stone marker on a plot owned by a French association appeared in the cemetery's annual report--the first time that its report had carried a picture of live persons in its century and two-thirds' existence.) Other volunteers, French and American, started the restoration process -- carpentry and painting -- on a deteriorated century-old one-room schoolhouse in Gunnison, Colorado restoring it for use as a community center.

2003. Five PV volunteers–three French, two American-- labored on the classic 1823 United Methodist Church in Nantucket, Mass. All were lodged in a private home (with back-yard pool). Six French volunteers painted the interior and much of the exterior of the 1776 Lefferts homestead in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. All were lodged in Park Slope homes.

2004. Through arrangement with New York's Historic House Trust, five French volunteers worked at the 1776 Morris-Jumel house in Manhattan. Four volunteers worked at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. All nine were lodged in Park Slope homes in Brooklyn. Four American volunteers helped to restore a 19th-century structure in Gothic, Colorado, an abandoned mining town 9,000 feet high in the Rockies, for use by the renowned Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory.

2005. Our recent achievements

Green-Wood Cemetery, New Paltz, NY, and Gunnison, Colorado
Preservation Volunteers assigned French volunteers to three projects in the United States in 2005: in New York City (Brooklyn's historic Green-Wood Cemetery), in New Paltz, NY (the old houses of the Huguenots), and in Gunnison, Colorado (a century-old one-room schoolhouse being restored for use as a community center).

Green-Wood Cemetery. PV has received glowing reports from all of its sites. "They were simply wonderful," Richard Moylan, president of the cemetery, said of the volunteers, who were assigned to clean and restore gravestones and mausoleums, plus the famous statue of Minerva, which faces the Statue of Liberty across the harbor. "They were smart, they worked hard, and our people loved them." For the cemetery, PV supplied three French volunteers, one German, and three Americans. In a pattern established in 2002, foreign volunteers working in New York lived as guests in American homes. They were all given free access to all of the City's transportation facilities, a mobility they used to its fullest! Weekends and evenings they were off to the riches of the Big City—museums, theaters, the wonderful neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Times Square they had all heard of, and of course, shopping!
New Paltz Restoration. First things came first for the Huguenot Historical Society, which meant starting at the Society's workshop in the area known as Huguenot Village. For the first week, volunteers sanded and scraped the old paint, and primed and painted the exterior of the old building. Three French volunteers were joined by three Americans. The French reported their pleasure at improving their English and making friends of the local residents. The Americans enjoyed working with and making friends with their foreign visitors.
The Gunnison Schoolhouse. Begun three years earlier by previous volunteers, restoration of the century-old schoolhouse was completed in 2005 by a second shift. Inspired by the accomplishments of 2002, the local Rotary Club had raised funds for a new roof. One volunteer, PV's Executive Director Nancy Vitale, who worked with the volunteers for several days at Gunnison, Colorado, reported: "I can describe my trip to work on the Fairview schoolhouse as nothing less than magical.

From the solidarity that formed among the volunteers to the gratification of a job well done, this was an unforgettable experience for me." The local folk, ranchers all, took the volunteers to heart in barbecues, parties, and Western-style folk dances. The volunteers loved the true feeling of the American West. There were six volunteers in all: three French, and three American.

REMPART And French Volunteers

Volunteers learn techniques for preserving and restoring stonework

The agreement with REMPART has enabled PV to engage in an international exchange of volunteers. REMPART is an acronym for "Union des Associations Pour la Réhabilitation et Entretien des Monuments et du Patrimoine Artistique" –Union for the Restoration and Preservation of Monuments and Artistic Heritage. Founded in 1966, it now numbers more than 150 member associations in France, plus some in England and Italy, and offers instruction in many restoration skills. PV volunteers

Pulling Together: Volunteers at the Esseillon Fort in France Although Preservation Volunteers has modeled its goals after REMPART's, there are differences. REMPART not only receives technical support from the Ministry of Culture, but it is heavily subsidized by the French government, which enables it to maintain its network of associations. Some further details:
    REMPART volunteers pay for their travel expenses, plus a small per-day fee to the local associations, which supply supervision, and lodge and feed the volunteers. There is no time limit to a project; chantiers, as the French call them, usually have a continuity, summer after summer, for many years. Volunteer work periods are typically two weeks at a time.
    2004 in France. For the first time, PV sent volunteers to France, to REMPART chantiers: two to the 12th-century St. Pierre d'Avejan Church in St. Jean de Marvejols, being restored for use as a community center; one to a group of five Esseillon fortresses in the Alps; one to a redoubt in Merville-Franceville. All four of these volunteers were recipients of $1,000 "Travelships" from the PV fund set up for that purpose.
    2005 in France. PV sent three volunteers to France. One worked at the St. Pierre d'Avejan Church, two at the ancient Esseillon fortresses.

PV Goals and Objectives

In the course of restoring historic structures in both nations, Preservation Volunteers assists in revitalizing communities and bringing their histories to life, while offering its volunteers a broadened cultural experience and valuable training in sometimes lost skills. In addition:

Through its web site and its steadily enlarging network of interested organizations, PV can act as a national information exchange for preservation volunteers and projects.
PV can foster the creation of -- and give hope to -- small, unprofessional preservation groups with specific projects.
Through teaching/work sites, PV offers a special learning experience for young and old alike.
With a wider variety of projects available, PV intends also to attract particularly experienced volunteers and to make use of their special skills and supervisory ability.
Through its continuing French connection, PV maintains a close learning relationship, valuable to both organizations.