The Peru Gazette

A Talk by Steven Engelhart, Executive Director, Adirondack Architectural Heritage

Thursday, July 23, 7:00 p.m.

Chazy, New York – The Alice T. Miner Museum is pleased to announce a talk by Steven Engelhart, Executive Director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) on Thursday, July 23, at 7:00 p.m. “Historic Preservation: What’s It All About?” provides a general introduction to understanding the importance of our nation’s built environment.

Using illustrations from all over the eastern seaboard and from the Adirondack region, it begins by exploring the many reasons that individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations, and governments are increasingly involved in promoting historic preservation. These examples include the ways in which historic architecture and historic preservation offer us a higher quality of space, are our most tangible links to our past, foster community and national identity, contribute to community revitalization, help us to conserve energy, and are part of a process by which we can manage change and growth in an increasingly chaotic world.

The second part of the program involves looking at a whole range of historic places which deserve our attention, from the obvious to the obscure. These include places of great national importance to simple places where significant local events took place; homes of the rich and famous to homes of miners and slaves; churches, downtowns, and neighborhoods of all scales and sizes; and things from our most recent past and things often overlooked.

Steven Engelhart is the Executive Director of AARCH, the regional historic preservation organization of the Adirondack Park. AARCH’s mission is to promote better public understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the region’s built environment. Steven is a native of the region and has a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Plattsburgh and a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Vermont. He is the author of Crossing the River: Historic Bridges of the AuSable River, a book about bridges and the local history of the AuSable Valley.

The Alice T. Miner Museum is located in Chazy, New York. This fifteen-room Colonial Revival museum houses Alice T. Miner’s collection of furniture, ceramics, glass, samplers, silhouettes, quilts, dolls, and more, most from the 18th and 19th centuries. The museum also displays artifacts related to Alice and William Miner’s life and philanthropic work in the North Country.