2011 Advocacy Award Recipient

Peter Maxwell has worked for well more than a decade for the material preservation of this remarkable city. As Falmouth Heritage Renewal's longest-standing Jamaican employee, Peter has been and remains an absolutely essential component of the preservation of Falmouth. He began by working with Jim Parrent, FHR's American director, to build relationships of trust in the community by digging soak-away latrines in the heart of the town's poorest district. Once established in the community, Peter has become an essential advocate for preservation among everyday residents of the community, working to help locals understand the significance of preserving Falmouth's smallest and most vulnerable vernacular buildings. He has also spend untold hours as a mentor in FHR's crafts training program, working to help at-risk youth embrace the disciplines of preservation carpentry and masonry, in the hopes that they translate those skills into viable employment with local building contractors. Peter has also been an essential fixture in the success of UVA's Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation, serving for years as the American students' host in and to the community. We could never have completed our work without the steadfast and long-suffering Peter Maxwell. I venture to suggest that there has not been a single preservation effort in the city of Falmouth that has been undertaken without his deft hand and faithful commitment to the job at hand. It is for these reasons and many more that Peter Maxwell is the recipient of the 2011 VAF Advocacy Award.