Preservation Week starts tomorrow
In keeping with tradition, organizers are planning for another week full of preservation activities.
In what has come to be known as Preservation Week, this year’s fourth annual event is designed to help provide a sense of “who we are and where we came from” to both natives and newcomers, Main Street McMinnville director Amy-Jo Stanford said.
Events traditionally coordinated by Main Street McMinnville include an architectural scavenger hunt featuring downtown buildings, which features cash and other goodies as prizes, and a day-long preservation workshop to be held at city hall featuring expertise from state and local authorities.
Additionally, preservation awards honoring those who have dedicated time or interest to historic preservation throughout the year will be awarded Thursday at First United Methodist Church, which was recently named to the National Register of Historic Places.
The scavenger hunt usually generates quite a bit of interest, Stanford said, with around 100 people participating last year. This year’s contest will be similar to past events, with participants asked to match architectural details to buildings, addresses or business names located downtown. Participants have from this Monday to May 26 to complete the scavenger hunt.
Also scheduled is a workshop featuring technical aspects of historic preservation, including professional advice from the Tennessee Historical Commission, the McMinnville Historic Zoning Commission, the Upper Cumberland Development District and the Center for Historic Preservation.
“It’s free to the public and for anyone who is interested in getting their property on the National Register, it would be a great place to be,” Stanford said of the workshop.
Members of the McMinnville Regional Planning Commission are also expected to satisfy yearly training requirements via the workshop and a number of other communities within the region have been invited to attend, said workshop co-organizer and McMinnville’s community planner Lisa Milligan, who co-organized the workshop with Alderman Jimmy Haley.
The Collection is providing lunch in connection with the workshop, so those who want to attend are asked to contact Milligan at 473-1204 to make arrangements. Contact the Main Street office at 506-5335 for more information about the scavenger hunt.
Sponsors for Preservation Week events include the city of McMinnville, The California Doggery, The Collection Mall and Cafe, Cumberland Bank, First National Bank, Main Street McMinnville and Union Planters Bank.
Historic Preservation Workshop
When: May 8
Where: McMinnville City Hall
• 9 a.m. – Walking tour downtown identifying potential National Register buildings with Claudette Stager of the Tennessee Historical Commission and Jimmy Haley of McMinnville Historic Zoning Commission
• 10 a.m. – Preservation standards with Randy Williams of the Upper Cumberland Development District
• 11 a.m. – Programs and services of the Center for Historic Preservation with Coneta Hankins and Van West of the center
• Noon – Lunch, The Collection Mall
• 1 p.m. – Historic district guidelines and certified local governments with Kevin Chastine, THC
• 2 p.m. – Signage in historic districts with Kevin Chastine, THC
• 3 p.m. – Grants and services of THC with Kevin Chastine and Louis Jackson, THC