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Past Advocacy Award Recipients
2024 Advocacy Award
This year, the Committee is excited to make this award to the Bring Back Calumet initiative. This initiative is composed of a large partnership of several non-profit organizations and governmental agencies that together have demonstrated exceptional cooperation and dedication to maintain and create futures for the historic buildings. The Village of Calumet had long suffered by demolition-by-neglect, but most recently Calumet has faced new threats to its nationally significant historic village. A significant spike in tourism and high-tech business expansion is threatening the historic built environment, in short through flipping historic properties, or tearing them down to make way for new amenities and infrastructure. The Bring Back Calumet initiative formed in 2016 to keep the stabilization and rehabilitation of historic buildings at the center of the town’s development plans. Since its creation the Bring Back Calumet has garnered over $9 million in public and private investments and rehabilitated 10 historic properties downtown. These efforts have also earned the Bring Back Calumet initiative the State of Michigan Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation.
This award is being presented to a group of people. Nikki L’Esperance from the Calumet Downtown Development Authority, John Haeussler on behalf of Lisa Mattila from the Houghton County Land Bank Authority, Sam Stonelake on behalf of Jeff Ratcliffe from the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance, Wyndeth Davis from the Keweenaw National Historical Park, Glenn Anderson from Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission, Leah Polzien from Main Street Calumet, and Megan Haselden from the Village of Calumet.
2024 Advocacy Award Committee: Catherine Morrissey, Sam Palfreyman, and Bobby Cervantes.
2023 Advocacy Award
Peggy M. Baker and James W. Baker
The 2023 Local Advocacy Award goes to Peggy M. Baker and James W. Baker. These two individuals have had distinct, yet complementary careers directly related to the appreciation, interpretation, and preservation of place-based history in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their extensive study of 17th century material life in Plymouth has undergirded public history projects that have had an enduring impact on the Town of Plymouth and Plymouth County, including nuanced yet accessible publications, transformative work at local museums, and tireless service on preservation organizations. Most recently, their research has been integral to the 2023 VAF Field Guide for the annual meeting in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Peggy M. Baker
Peg Baker joined the staff of Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1991 as Curator of Manuscripts & Books. In 1995, she became the Executive Director, retiring with emerita status in 2010. Her most significant project was a $4 million capital campaign that expanded and upgraded the Hall by improving accessibility, introducing climate control, and reinstalling the permanent exhibition. Peg served several terms on Plymouth’s Historic District Commission. She is an elected member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Since 2010, Peg has been a member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants “Silver Books” genealogical research team, documenting the descendants of Pilgrim Thomas Rogers through the 6th generation. Two books on the Rogers family have been published, with a third currently in editing. Peg has also written more than forty-five articles on Pilgrim and Plymouth-related topics, many published in the Mayflower Quarterly. dants.
James W. Baker
Jim Baker began his Plymouth-based career as the librarian for Plimoth Plantation, now the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, in 1975. He served as the Director of Research from 1978-1989, aiding in the development of the Plantation’s first-person interpretative programs and the Wampanoag Homesite. In 1989 he was named Director of Museum Operations, before becoming Webmaster/Senior Historian for the Plantation from 1994-2001. Between 2003 and 2009, he was the Curator of the Alden House Historic Site in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Jim served on Plymouth’s Historic District Commission from 2006-2022. He is an elected member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Many of Jim’s published contributions have focused on the Pilgrims and New England History in the 17th century, most recently Made in America: The Pilgrim Story and How it Grew (2022) and Mayflower Meetinghouse: A History and Guide (2023). His scholarly books are written with a general audience in mind, and much of his work has found its way to broader audiences by being shared online.
2021 Advocacy Award
2021 Advocacy Award Recipients
The 2021 VAF Advocacy Award goes to Mimi and Ron Miller for their advocacy for the preservation and rehabilitation of the broad range of historic resources located in and near Natchez, Mississippi applied consistently and successfully over the course of professional careers that span almost fifty years. Both Mimi and Ron coordinated their preservation efforts and their advocacy as executive directors of Historic Natchez Foundation, Ron as the foundation’s first executive director (1979-2008) and Mimi as its second (2008-2018) after Ron moved temporarily to the Gulf Coast to guide the rehabilitation of more than 270 historic buildings damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Under their leadership, HNF grew into one of the nation’s leading local preservation organizations as they tackled a wide array of projects that recognized and maintained Natchez's unique sense of place.
When Mimi and Ron Miller began their work with Historic Natchez Foundation, Natchez already had a reputation for a historic preservation ethic that focused on high-style antebellum mansions. Building on past accomplishments, the Millers inspired new interest in the city’s downtown commercial district, described at the time as “desolate” and “deteriorated”. Working as a team, Ron and Mimi successfully broadened the scope of HNF’s efforts to include the wider range of vernacular buildings the area’s other heritage organizations had previously overlooked. The success of their advocacy is written not only in a revitalized downtown but also in eight historic districts registered during their tenure.
The Millers’ careers in advocacy paralleled the course of the best work in the nation in the last quarter of the twentieth century as they raised the level and scale of concern from single, large residences to the town’s historic commercial center and to its many neighborhoods. This shift in scope brought early attention to Natchez’ African American neighborhoods and required successful synergies between preservation and affordable housing through rehabilitation of remaining historic houses and sympathetic new infill in historic districts. While attention to African American resources and preservation-based downtown revitalization were part of a broader national movement from the 1970s on, these areas of focus and attention to related issues, including bluff erosion that threatened some neighborhoods, reflect a broad-based approach to the preservation of the historic cityscape and cultural landscape of Natchez. The Millers’ commitment to telling the fuller history of Natchez energized their efforts in the 1988 establishment of Natchez National Historical Park, a venue for the fuller interpretation and presentation of Natchez’s rich and diverse history which includes the stories of its Native American and African American residents.
VAF’s 2021 Advocacy Award to Mimi and Ron Miller draws attention to the preservation movement’s long-term association with telling inclusive stories and using the preservation of historic resources and neighborhoods as a key strategy for creating affordable housing. The Millers’ example helps to see the results of the application of this strategy over the long-term in a specific community. The 2021 Advocacy Award also draws attention to the Miller’s energetic documentation of historic resources and the roles they played laying out successful preservation strategies and forging partnerships.
For their efforts that made historic preservation in Natchez more equitable, for scholarship that drew attention to the wider history of their city, for consistent promotion of the sustainable value of existing buildings, for forging innovative partnerships that secured futures for historic buildings and landscapes, and for long careers devoted to the inclusive stewardship of the city’s historic resources, VAF is pleased to award its 2021 Advocacy Award to Mimi and Ron Miller.
2020 Advocacy Award Recipient
Patty Gay
Preservation Resource Center
New Orleans
2019 Advocacy Award Recipients
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Dick Pencek emeritus teaching scholar Pennsylvania State University
2018
Galesville Community Center Organization Inc.,
2017 Award
MT Preservation Alliance, the MT History Foundation, and author/photographer Charlotte Caldwell
“Big Sky Schoolhouses Statewide Preservation Project”
2016
Open Durham / Preservation Durham
Friends of Oberlin Cemetery, received honorable mention
2013
Cultural Centre Le Griffon for restoration and conversion of the old cold storage warehouse at L'Anse-au-Griffon
Cloutier family for restoration, management and development of the former Robin general store at L'Anse-à-Beaufils
2012
Mr. Dana Duppler
Executive Director
2011
Peter Maxwell of Falmouth Heritage Renewal, Jamaica
Peter Maxwell of Falmouth Heritage Renewal
ignites a lime rick, used in the Peter Maxwell discusses framing details with Falmouth Field School students.
traditional preparation of mortar and plaster.
2009 Award
Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization / Butte CPR
Butte Montana Street Scene
22008 Award
Donna Graves and Jill Shiraki
Screen shot, California Japantowns Website