The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia and Main Street West Virginia held a joint conference at the beginning of May, 2006 in Charleston. Seeking to emphasize the crucial role that cooperation and partnership often play in successful projects, the event was a major success. Participants in the conference, entitled “Opening Doors to Preservation: 25 Years of Partnerships” called the three-day event “helpful,” “interesting.” and “a great resource of information” to take back to their various communities and projects.

The Friday sessions were followed by the main keynote speech, delivered to a general audience of conference attendees and outside participants by Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston, South Carolina. A mobile workshop tour of Charleston’s East End filled the remainder of Friday afternoon, and led participants to the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia’s 25th Anniversary dinner on Friday evening. The event concluded with a series of concurrent tours on Saturday.

The conference, held Thursday, May 4 through Saturday, May 6, 2006, included sessions on preservation, heritage tourism, and organizational development. On Thursday evening, Main Street West Virginia held its annual Awards Banquet, with Governor Joe Manchin serving as the keynote speaker for the evening.

Preservation topics focused on topics useful for individuals or groups carrying out their own projects. Susan Pierce of the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office delivered a talk entitled, “Surviving the Money Pit: Real-Life Success Stories of Building Preservation,” using the Tom Hanks film The Money Pit as a worst-case scenario example before launching into a discussion of projects that came through successfully in spite of economic pitfalls. Preservation consultants Terrell Ellis and Mike Gioulis presented on the preparation and use of feasibility studies in preservation projects, citing several real-life examples from their work. John Sandor of the National Park Service delivered a comprehensive primer on best practices in maintenance of historic buildings with examples targeted at Main Street managers and property owners. The final session Friday featured a panel presentation on Preserving Industrial Sites. Starting with a general presentation on the topic by Dr. Mike Workman of West Virginia University, the panel included case studies on two specific projects. Dusty Hibbs and Jeffrey H. Miller of Vandalia Heritage Foundation told of their struggles to preserve the B&O railroad station hotel in Grafton, and Matthew Grove of Grove and Dall’Olio Architects talked about ongoing work at the Martinsburg Roundhouse.

Cultural heritage tourism track led off with a session on the basics of cultural heritage tourism with national and international examples of heritage tourism practices featuring nationally-recognized cultural heritage tourism expert Cheryl Hargrove, as well as an analysis of the typical cultural heritage tourist by Mitzi Miller of the WV Cultural Heritage Development program. The second session included a roundtable discussion concerning heritage tourism partnerships throughout the state via byways organizations, heritage areas and thematic trails. Friday morning’s panel session shared a wide variety of resources available for cultural heritage tourism development from public and private sector community, state and federal support. The final session brought back Cheryl Hargrove, who provided practical, community-based tools for organizing heritage tourism development efforts within the community.

Main Street West Virginia assembled a set of sessions on organizational management, including sessions on taxes and public accountability, fundraising, volunteers, and managing boards. Patricia McGill spoke on best practices in tax compliance, and her session was followed by a session on fundraising in times of disaster by David Pichette of the Washington, D.C. firm of Vineyard Consulting. The sessions also included a presentation by strategy consultant Leslie Stone on developing an active volunteer force. Kim Tieman of the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation presented a talk on board development, focused on identifying financial management responsibilities between the staff and board.

Mayor Joseph Riley’s keynote speech on Friday afternoon was presented against the backdrop of a stage display depicting a model city. With the help and coordination of Susie Salisbury of Charleston Area Alliance, the model was constructed by local schoolchildren who had recently visited Charleston, S.C., and had been in the process of studying the features that make cities work best. Charleston, WV Mayor Danny Jones introduced Mayor Riley, who delivered an uplifting and inspiring speech on continuing preservation and management of urban growth in South Carolina’s major port city. The Mayor made the case for preservation by highlighting example after example to show how the city has maintained an exemplary level of civic pride and economic activity by avoiding infill demolitions, maintaining the essence and character of the urban fabric, taking traditional-design approaches to new construction, and encouraging preservation wherever possible. Mayor Riley received a standing ovation for his engaging talk.

Following the mobile workshop walking tour looking at design solutions in Charleston’s East End, Friday concluded with the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia’s 25th anniversary celebration. The event, held at the historic Charleston Woman’s Club, featured traditional string music provided by Kanawha Tradition and a first-rate meal catered by the local eatery Bluegrass Kitchen. PAWV Executive Director Dave Vago welcomed participants to the dinner, and Mike Gioulis, Phyllis Baxter, and Dan Gooding provided a brief overview of the organization’s 25 years of achievements, and its current activities.

The conference concluded on Saturday with an assortment of tours. Some participants chose an all-day tour of sites along the Midland Trail from Charleston east to Ansted, where participants viewed that community’s heritage resources and ate lunch. The tour visited several key sites along the way, including a hike to the mouth of an old coal mine. The downtown Charleston tour included some of the best examples of preservation and adaptive reuse on Capitol Street, including completed projects and projects under construction. Henry Battle of the Kanawha Valley Historical and Preservation Society and John Sandor of the National Park Service provided running commentary on history and preservation practice as each building owner walked participants around their respective sites. Following lunch, the Charleston West Side tour featured the current headquarters of PDM architects, led by David Marshall. Located in the former Custer Theatre, the building gave a good example of a completed adaptive reuse. Next was the nearby Ort Building, a project currently underway as an adaptive reuse project to serve as the future home of an engineering company. The tour ended at the site of one of PDM’s successful preservation projects, the Breezemont Mansion, where owner and resident Pauline Lester provided a room-to-room tour of the house, as well as refreshments to guests.

All told, including attendees at the Main Street Banquet, the conference included nearly 250 registrants, approximately half of whom participated in the education sessions, keynote speech, and tours. Visitor responses were overwhelmingly positive, with appreciation for the diversity of programming provided by the joint conference. Each participant received a commemorative poster featuring photographs of 25 historic doors from around the state, reinforcing the Opening Doors with partnerships theme.

As a result of partnership between Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, Main Street West Virginia, and the many other organizations who partnered in its success, participants went away happy. PAWV thanks everyone who helped make this conference such a memorable success.