26th Historic Preservation Merit Awards-2016

May Is National Preservation Month!

Please join us as we congratulate The Rockland County Executive's Historic Preservation Merit Award Recipients for 2016:

• Corinne McGeorge: Margaret B. and John R. Zehner Award for contributions to the county's history and for underscoring the value of historic preservation to the community.
• Friends of Harmony Hall, Sloatsburg: Preservation Leadership Award for individuals, groups, and government agencies that display outstanding leadership or continuing contribution to the preservation of historic resources in Rockland County.
  
• John Green Preservation Coalition, Nyack: Preservation Leadership Award for individuals, groups, and government agencies that display outstanding leadership or continuing contribution to the preservation of historic resources in Rockland County.
• Richard Sena: Adaptive Use Award for 151 Broadway, Haverstraw.
  
• Tappan Library: Adaptive Use Award for the Borcher Stable/Tappan Library, Main Street, Tappan with Special Commendations going to
• Paige Danzig, Taylor Wald, Devin Keeley, and Danielle Manos for the Antrim Playhouse History Project, Suffern.
  
• John Gromada, for efforts to save the John Green House, Nyack.
  
• James and Luke Rielly, for sympathetic renovations to The Manse, Palisades.
  
• Glenn Sungela, for Historical Marker improvements in Rockland County.
  

Please join us in congratulating the award recipients. For information on attending the awards ceremony and country supper, which will be held on the grounds of the Jacob Blauvelt house on Sunday, May 15, 2016.

History of the Rockland County Executive's Historic Preservation Merit Awards Program

Since 1991, the Historical Society of Rockland County has presented over 65 awards to public agencies, private individuals, community-based and religious organizations in recognition of their preservation efforts in the County. The Committee also supports continued, critical action to help save Rockland County's environmentally sensitive areas and endangered architecture. Instituted to preserve the rich historical heritage of the County, the annual program celebrates each May with a declaration of "Rockland County Preservation Week" by the County Executive, a festive country supper and awards ceremony.
 
With a rapidly growing population of newcomers to the area, one challenge has been to help the public understand the value of preservation as well as being involved in their community. Addressing this challenge, the HSRC’s Preservation Awards program has:
Awarded preservation efforts of individuals and groups

• Increased awareness of our historic resources
• Helped local communities to recapture history and pride of place
• Advocated for the purchase of endangered sites for the public good
• Attempted to unite all five townships in the support of historic preservation

Some of the awards made by the committee underline the positive effects of preservation on the community. In one instance, the excellent restoration of a restaurant building focused the integrity of the eighteenth-century Tappan Historic District. In Sloatsburg, a nineteenth-century village struggling to retain its working-class history, another commercial restoration anchored the block and is inspiring other renovations.

The awards, made by the Committee for preservation efforts on homes, businesses and structures both modest and grand, help to get out the word that it is in everyone's interest to restore and retain the richness of the past. The process is self-fulfilling, and it helps to unify and inspire a community.

Beginning in 2015, the ceremony also includes the “Shine a Light on Historic Sites” feature. The committee has included this effort to draw attention to “at risk” places in our county that need preservation attention, support and advocacy from the community.

For more information on the award process or to find out how to attend the Rockland County Executive's Historic Preservation Merit Awards Country Supper, contact the Historical Society of Rockland County at (845) 634-9629 or info@rocklandhistory.org.