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Vermont Ranks 1st In Federal Historic Tax Credits

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A recent federal report ranks Vermont the top state in per capita use of Federal Historic Tax Credits to rehabilitate historic buildings and 10th in the nation overall – rising from 12th overall last year. A total of 34 rehabilitation projects with a total construction value of more than $23 million received $4.6 million in federal tax credits in the last fiscal year.

State officials credit the decision several years ago to require those seeking state historic Downtown Tax Credits to first get Federal Historic Tax Credits with putting Vermont to consistently within or just outside the top ten states nationally for use of the credits, despite its small size.

“This linkage allows building owners to layer the state and federal credits on a single project,” said Commerce and Community Development Secretary Kevin Dorn, “There is always risk in the rehabilitation of an older building because you never know what you will find when peeling back the layers.”

“Combining the programs not only leverages the economic impact of the state’s investment, it helps mitigate this risk and convinces more property owners to undertake historic rehabilitation projects in our downtowns and villages,” Dorn said.

In the past ten years, the program has leveraged over $38 million dollars in federal funds and $190 million in private capital to revitalize historic commercial buildings, most of them in Vermont’s downtowns and village centers.

Projects have ranged from small village storefronts in Hardwick to multi-million dollar downtown redevelopments like the Fellows Gear Shaper plant in Springfield.

The federal program returns 20 percent of eligible expenses for the rehabilitation of income producing historic buildings listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in the form of federal tax credits.

The state credit adds another 10 percent, and other state credits for facade improvement or installing elevators, sprinklers, or other code improvements can be added as well. Over 10,000 buildings in Vermont are pre-qualified for tax credits.

The program has played an important role in the downtown and village revitalization evident across the state and is now a key component the state’s efforts to promote smart growth and sustainable development.

Renovating historic buildings for higher and better uses reduces the loss of open space and farm lands to development and makes use of existing infrastructure, eliminating the need for taxpayer dollars to construct new sewer or water services.

Finally, by concentrating business, commercial, and residential uses in downtown or village center areas, redevelopment projects reduce dependence on automobiles, thereby conserving energy resources, enhancing air quality, and improving quality of life for local residents.

Vermont’s ongoing commitment to investing in downtowns and villages has not gone unnoticed – these programs played an important part in the National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations ranking Vermont fifth in the world and first in the United States for stewardship and authenticity.

“But more important is the fact that Vermont wins when these buildings are rehabilitated,” said Tayt Brooks, Commissioner of Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development.

“Property values increase, fire and safety risks are reduced, and new jobs and tax revenues are generated when and where we need them most,” Brooks said. “It’s especially important to capitalize on this opportunity as we work to create new jobs and stimulate Vermont’s economy.”

The programs are administered by the Division for Community Planning and Revitalization, in partnership with local communities. Additional details and application guidelines are available at www.HistoricVermont.org

New York State Library Online Catalog Crashes

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A notice at the New York State Library’s home page reports that technical issues have crashed the state library’s online catalog. The catalog has been unavailable since yesterday. A simple notice reads: &#8220The Library’s catalog will be unavailable until further notice. We are working with the vendor to resolve the problem and apologize for the inconvenience.&#8221 Visitors can still search the Library’s website but catalog access to collections is down.

Farmers Museum To Show Food Inc

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Otsego 2000 has joined forces with The Farmers’ Museum to screen the critically acclaimed film “Food, Inc.,” with special appearances by representatives from local food and agricultural organizations. The film will be shown in the Fenimore Art Museum Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 20th.

“Food, Inc.” a Robert Kenner film, features interviews with experts such as Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto), along with agricultural entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farm’s Joel Salatin. “Food, Inc.” reveals surprising — and often shocking truths about what we eat. It exposes the highly mechanized workings of our nation’s food industry that are kept hidden from American consumers. The film stresses the idea that the nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health.

Speakers for the evening will include Chris Harmon, Executive Director of the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE) in Oneonta- Shulamis Giordani, General Manager of the Foodshed Buying Club in Utica, New York- and Lyn Weir Manager of the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market. Each will talk about creating and supporting a vibrant agricultural and food economy here in Central New York.

For information, please call The Farmers’ Museum at 607-547-1450 or visit our website at www.FarmersMuseum.org.

19th Century Magic at the Adirondack Museum

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In the 19th century, itinerant magicians traveled throughout the Adirondacks delighting local residents with tricks and dazzling illusions as they performed in town halls and local hotels. Prepare to be mystified and amazed on Sunday, January 17, 2010 as the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York presents &#822019th Century Magic and Beyond&#8221 a magic show for all ages with Tom Verner.

Tom Verner is both a performer and historian of American magic. His shows include many of the set pieces of magic performed across the United States by magicians in the 1800s. Verner involves children and adults alike in his humorous, entertaining, and intelligent presentations.

Verner has performed magic around the world for thirty years. He has worked with the United Nations for the past eight years, creating magic for more than 400,000 refugee and orphaned children in many of the most troubled parts of the globe. Tom Verner is also a Clinical Psychologist who practices and teaches.

The program will be the first in the museum’s always-popular Cabin Fever Sunday series. Held in the Auditorium, the presentation will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m. Cabin Fever Sunday programs are offered at no charge to museum members. The fee for non-members is $5.00. There is no charge for children of elementary school age or younger. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, please call the Education Department at (518) 352-7311, ext. 128 or visit the museum’s web site at
www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Photo: Tom Verner.

Thomas Cole House Hosts Sunday Salons

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Sunday Salons are gatherings at the home of Thomas Cole, with guest speakers leading discussions on topics relating to the Hudson River School, America’s first major art movement. The public is invited for wine, cheese, and lively conversation once per month at Cedar Grove, the birthplace of American landscape painting. Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $8 per person or $6 for members. Admission is first-come-first-served.

During the reception following each talk, a new exhibition will be on view in the 2nd floor Beecher Gallery, displaying historic wallpapers from the collection of Michael Levinson. The exhibition explores Thomas Cole’s work as a young man in the wallpaper business, demonstating the types of designs he might have been exposed to and influenced by.

January 10 Patricia Junker
Sacred to the Memory of Thomas Cole: Charles Herbert Moore and his Views of Cedar Grove

Patricia Junker, Curator of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum, explores Charles Herbert Moore’s affection for Thomas Cole, evident in his captivating paintings of Cole’s house and studio. Moore rented Cole’s studio in the early 1860s, making Catskill a meeting place for a new generation of landscape painters. While much has been made of the Pre-Raphaelites’ dismissal of Cole’s visionary tendencies, Moore warmly embraced his memory. The artist who worked in Cole’s studio could not help but evoke the late artist’s spirit—enlisting the language of Cole’s art to create richly symbolic landscape compositions.

February 7 Katherine Manthorne
Eliza Pratt Greatorex: “First Artist of Her Sex in America”*

Katherine Manthorne, Professor of Modern Art of the Americas (1750-1950) at City University of New York, reveals highlights from her upcoming biography on one of the most fascinating, least-known Hudson River School painters: Eliza Pratt Greatorex. Focusing on her extraordinary life – the first female to be admitted to the National Academy of Design, one of the first artists to capture images of New York City’s historic sites before they were destroyed, and a world traveler who made her living as an artist/teacher while raising her children by herself – this talk is a wonderful prelude to our 2010 exhibition, “Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School.” The title of the talk is a phrase dubbed by a 19th-century critic.

March 14 Linda S. Ferber
The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision

Linda S. Ferber, Senior Art Historian and Museum Director Emerita of the New-York Historical Society, and former Chair of the Department of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum, returns to the Cole House with her new book, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision. Capturing the New-York Historical Society’s world-renowned Hudson River School collection in book form for the first time, Dr. Ferber’s book features all the greatest artists of the group including Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey, Asher B. Durand, Sanford Gifford, and John F. Kensett. One of the Cole House’s most popular speakers, Dr. Ferber will sign copies of her book after her talk.

April 11 Stephen Hannock
Thomas Cole with a Power Sander

One of the most exciting artists of our time – called “the consummate landscape painter” – Stephen Hannock began his artistic career near the site of Thomas Cole’s famous 1836 painting, the Oxbow. Cole has been “a reference point” for Hannock, whose virtuosic use of light &#8211 as well as a power sander &#8211 has landed his paintings in museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art Historian Jason Rosenfeld describes Hannock’s work as &#8220both distinctively modern as well as reflective of landscape traditions&#8230-.Hannock, in his radical technique is a true American luminist. His paintings, multi-layered in both surface and meaning, radiate in a manner that connects past and present.&#8221 After his talk, Mr. Hannock will sign copies of his new monograph.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday New York History compiles for our readers the week’s best stories and links from the web about the history of New York. You can find all our weekly web highlights here.

Historic Districts Councils Morning Coffee Talks

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Each Month, the Historic Districts Council hosts a Coffee Talk &#8211 a presentation and question and answers session with folk important to local historic preservation. The first Coffee Talk of 2010, on January 11th, will feature representatives of the New York City Department of Design and Construction. The event begins at 8:30 am, in the Neighborhood Preservation Center, 232 East 11th Street, Manhattan.

The Department of Design and Construction (DDC), is the lead agency for New York City public construction projects such as street, water and sewer reconstructions, firehouses, libraries, police precincts, courthouses and senior centers. Because the agency is responsible for such a large portfolio (valued at over $6 billion), the Historic Districts Counciil believes it is essential that communities help make sure that each project that DDC undertakes respects and responds to the specific needs of the communities where the projects are located.

Richard Zetterlund, Associate Commissioner for Infrastructure and Sergio Silveira, Assistant Commissioner for Structures will discuss their respective divisions and how neighborhood advocates can provide input on major projects. Our speakers will also showcase some of DDC’s recent successful initiatives and talk about the efforts of DDC’s Historic Preservation Office.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required, as space is limited. For more information about this or other Coffee Talks, contact Frampton Tolbert at (212) 614-9107 or [email protected].

Photo: Brooklyn Terminal at Brooklyn Bridge c 1903.

Library of Congress Puts Thousands of Books Online

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Nearly 60,000 books have been digitized as part of the first-ever mass book digitization project of the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC), the world’s largest library. Many of the books cover the period of Western settlement of the United States from 1865–1922 and provide historians a new source of information that would be otherwise difficult to locate and obtain. Hard-to-find Civil War regimental histories are also included- the oldest work to be included is from 1707 and covers the trial of two Presbyterian ministers in New York. All of the books are in the collection are in the public domain, according to library officials.

The new additions, along with previously digitized books can be accessed through the Library’s catalog Web site and the Internet Archive.

The Library of Congress has already digitized many of its other collections — more than 7 million photographs, maps, audio and video recordings, newspapers, letters and diaries can be found at the Library’s Digital Collections site.

The Internet Archive is the second-largest book-scanning project after Google Books. A subset of this project is the Google Books Library Project, which has agreements to scan collections of numerous research libraries worldwide.