Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation adds 14 sites to the endangered list
Three of the sites are located in Northeast Louisiana
OUACHITA PARISH, La. (KNOE) - The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation released the list of endangered sites adding 14 this year that are in need of restoration. Three of the sites are in Northeast Louisiana, they included the Palace Theater in Jonesboro and two abandoned schools in Winn Parish.
The list is created from people sending in nominations to include a site on the list.
Brian Davis, the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation Executive Director, explains the process.
“We always consider those once a year an ad the committee reviews it and then decides which ones were able to hopefully help by doing some advocacy work and providing more technical services to those sites and their owners,“ said Davis.
Once selected, they visit the sites and speak to the owners to see if it has a possibility to be restored.
“Kind of understand the site’s better, really do a deep dive on the site’s their owners, their needs, the threats that they’re faced, seeing if there are, you know, historic tax credits like state or federal tax credits, other grants or anything else like that that may be able to help fund these projects and get them back in good shape,” said Davis.
This helps communities restore their identity as these buildings are part of the unique fingerprint they have on them.
Some communities have successfully been able to use the historic status to create commerce in the area while protecting the sites. Adrienne Lafrance-Wells, West Monroe Main Street Director, has been able to sustain the Antique Alley district where they have been able to utilize tax incentives to restore many of the buildings.
“You come in downtown. You are literally looking at our story, our history as a community,” said Lafrance-Wells. “It has a sense of place you know, in downtown West Monroe, for example, you know, you’re in a place that’s special, and that has a quality of life attached to it as well as commerce.”
Davis says the places also provide the community a sense of completion to the landscape.
“It really shows us hey, this is unique to our to us and this is part of our identity and part of our community pride.”
You can see the list here on the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation site.
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