In all honesty, it is difficult to pinpoint any specific time in my past when I fell in love with Historic Preservation.  I am certain, however, of when I was able to articulate it as such.   As a high school senior here in the booming metropolis of Eugene,  I worked as a student aide for the Planning & Development Department which was located at City Hall at that time.  When I wasn’t setting up for City Council meetings, photocopying, stuffing envelopes for the next Public Hearing, or traipsing about downtown Eugene delivering Inner-Office Memorandums…I found myself in the Planning Library, intrigued by the Historic Preservation books, and leafing through them with great excitement.  Of course, what followed was this new awareness and vocabulary that allowed me to differentiate between a Craftsman Bungalow and a deliciously ornate Queen Anne…how thrilled I was.  It was merely putting a name to a face that was already deeply loved.

When I put the pieces together, an aesthetic admiration for aged items in general, notwithstanding architecture, had taken up residence within me some time before.  For years I had been drinking in the pages of Victoria magazine…gardens, literature, fashion, travel, food and more…all coming to life before my tired, suburban eyes.  Transfixed, I was a devoted watcher of This Old House (on PBS…along with Victory Gardens and various cooking shows), and came to see the skill and devotion in keeping old places beautiful and livable.  Paired with my love of nature, it seemed only fitting for a true love of local history especially would befall me.  All of my pioneer ancestors are buried in the Willamette Valley, and most here in Lane County.  My own grandfather was a Lane County Commissioner back in the 1950’s and I spent countless hours engrossed in the stories and pictures that he and my grandmother would tell me about growing up in this great place.  To this day, I point out landmarks and building to my own children, explaining how they are connected to them by the relatives they never knew.  I believe strongly in telling stories, and the many places that tell them in their own silent voices, waiting to be echoed by those who may keenly tune their ears to hear.

More recently, I have been connected, through several different avenues,  to the city of Coburg, just north of Eugene.  A little historic town with continuing struggles towards economic viability, it is a treasure of history, lovely residents and businesses.  They are my family in so many ways.  I also sit on their Historic Preservation Committee and Planning Commission currently, and have worked with SHPO and Resore Oregon (formerly HPLO) to nominate a historic home slated for demolition.  After years of attempts, I watched it burn this last spring, but learned much in the process, and feel very called to work with preserving our local history by becoming a better equipped citizen.  Passion alone isn’t enough.

And so, I continue with my own collection of stories to tell…pictures, books, jewelry, furniture and so on…a variety of items that have found themselves useful once, and continue to be depended upon by my children and I.  How happy they must be.  The kids love to amble in awe through pioneer cemeteries for fun, explore abandoned houses, listen as I point out landmarks, and retell the stories of others so that they remain alive today.   These are important because they shape who we are and how we situate ourselves into our surroundings.  Sometimes, the old is new, and the new is old, and as long as we are here to experience them, it would be lovely to know others beyond us will as well.   This is part of my story…in the making.

Lorrie Zeller

When I was in middle school, my parents purchased an ever-deteriorating house in Petersburg, Virginia.  The use of the word “deteriorating” is perhaps too sugarcoated. The house was simply falling apart. However, my parents loved their new project and through hands-on, but sometimes forced labor, I grew to love the home as well. What was most interesting for me during the renovation process, are the stories that the house began to share with us. Within it’s walls we found newspapers, in the attic we found glasses and marbles. In the basement we found a trunk buried under layers of soot; inside were receipts, letters, and a locket of hair. I realized that the house had grown in a symbiotic relationship with the people that had lived there, and that I too, would leave my mark on the building. It was during the following years that I discovered an interest in the field of preservation, which would eventually develop into a full-fledged passion. More recently, this desire to learn about the historic being coupled with an undergraduate degree in Urban Planning, has led me to pursue a Historic Preservation Master’s degree from the University of Oregon. After achieving this degree, I hope to influence local communities, specifically in dense urban environments, to discover the merit and joys behind Historic Preservation. I hope that through my future efforts within the field of preservation, I will allow the stories of quietly waiting buildings to be heard on a massive scale.

Hello. My name is Nathan Georgitis. I have a strong interest in preserving and providing access to historical collections, which is the focus of my work as a librarian and archivist for the University of Oregon and as executive director of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. I grew up in Maine in a late-1800s New England farmhouse with a wonderful attached barn. My mother was an antiques dealer for a time and my town was a Shaker settlement that had wonderful examples of Shaker architecture. I suppose all of these things predisposed me to a interest in historic preservation. Recently my family has been concerned with preserving an historic lobster pound on family property on the coast of Maine. I am taking historic preservation courses so that I might advocate for the preservation of this building and related structures.

After growing up on the southern coast of Georgia, I ventured up to Virginia to go to undergrad. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so similar to most undergrads without direction I took classes on everything. I dabbled in environmental science and Middle Eastern studies before finally settling on a major in Art History with a minor in Middle Eastern studies. I had had a silent love affair with Art History since taking an AP Art History course in high school; silent primarily because my parents would mention phrases like “not practical,” “no jobs,” and “not useful” every time I mentioned it. Despite their concerns, I was optimistic I would be able to get a job within the art field. Unfortunately, my optimism was forced to meet a harsher reality when the financial collapse of 2008 occurred the year before I was set to graduate. Not only were the jobs in the field of Art History scarce, but all jobs were scarce.

Like most things go, a bit of luck and a connection landed me an interview at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton my senior year of college—the spring of 2009. I literally had no idea what this firm did or who they were, but I studied their mission statement and ongoing projects like any eager yet largely unqualified college student looking for their first job. After somehow getting through the interview process, I was hired onto the Global Security team. The government consulting firm was interested in my previous studies of the Middle East and Arabic language classes, not my knowledge of the history of art and architecture. Shocking, I know.

A few months at one project turned into three and half years on three different projects at Booz Allen and one more subsequent year at a boutique consulting firm. I held a lot of positions primarily in support of the Department of Defense. I did policy analysis for the Office for Cyberthreat Analysis, financial terrorism analysis for the Joint Threat Finance Intelligence Office, and strategic communications for the Defense Combatting Terrorism Center. It sounds cool, and to a certain extant it was really amazing. At the end of the day, though, it wasn’t for me. I likely knew this all along, but sometimes it takes years to figure out how to create a new path.

The opportunity to carve out my new path occurred with the convergence of two events. First, after countless searches and many conversations, I finally discovered the incredibly interesting field of Historic Preservation. More in line with my original academic and career ambitions, I knew I wanted to enter the field. Not a fan of student loan debt, I applied to roughly 15 jobs in Washington DC that were loosely related to Historic Preservation. After receiving very few responses and a handful of rejections, I realized I needed a higher degree in order to make myself more qualified for these competitive positions. So, I made the decision to go to grad school. Second, I had met a guy (now my husband) and we both had an itch to travel and experience new places. Knowing that I wanted to start grad school in the fall of 2014, we decided to quit our jobs in September of 2013 and travel for a year. After three months in Argentina, we came back to U.S. and hung out in the mountain town of Asheville, North Carolina, until moving to Oregon over the summer of 2014.

And now I’m in school for Historic Preservation and I feel happier and more confident with this path than I ever thought possible.

Photo: Myself in Tunisia at the Star Wars Site

This year is my first year in the Historic Preservation Master’s Program at the University of Oregon and already have I learned so much! I have a background in Urban Planning, where I got my Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Cincinnati. I have spent time overseas traveling, mostly in my home continent of Africa, but also in Europe (mostly the U.K.) and throughout North America. As a first-generation American I have gone back to my home country of Somaliland and spent time throughout the East African region visiting Kenya and Tanzania primarily.

My focuses in preservation are currently tied to adaptive reuse planning and transportation related issues within the field of HP with a particular interest in warehouses. I am fortunate enough to have had a variety of experiences to observe architecture in foreign countries and throughout the U.S. and I strive to use the opportunities that I have had to prosper in my field as a professional and an individual.

I’ve always been curious about human interactions with the environment – how we define ourselves in relation to our surroundings and with each other. I am fascinated by the challenge of balancing economics, equity and the natural environment. My B.A. degree is in Environmental Studies and History from Bowdoin College; it was there that I realized humans and the environment cannot be separated; they inform each other and influence the course of history. I strongly believe that preservation is the most sustainable form of development. I love the combination of new green technology and the inherent sustainable features of old buildings. Preservation as an environmental practice has the potential to reduce global warming through natural resource conservation. After all, isn’t it all about, “REUSE, Reduce & Recycle”?

The bulk of my experience in preservation is volunteering for non-profits and advocating for reuse of existing buildings in Portland, Oregon. I began to alert people about impending demolitions through Facebook in 2014 after witnessing several demolitions of existing buildings, some of which were considered of historic significance by the City of Portland. I’m excited to learn about survey and inventory because it is such an important part of advocating for intelligent growth that respects the unique historic built environment.

Lastly, I am intrigued and inspired by new trends in historic preservation including changing demographics of preservation professionals and inclusion of diverse racial, class and ethnic groups. I also love good design and quality craftsmanship. The above picture of me was taken at one of my favorite places, The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts, which was designed by Edith Wharton. After visiting the amazing site in 2011 I realized I was passionate about preservation and decided to pursue graduate school.

My name is Brian Matuk and I am a first year Historic Preservation Masters candidate at the University of Oregon. I developed an interest in historic preservation when studying in New York City, where I witnessed the preservation battle and ultimate demolition of the last remaining federal style house in a vibrant Manhattan neighborhood. This experience led me to search for a position in historic preservation and test the waters for a potential new career path. I was granted the opportunity to work as Program Coordinator at an historic preservation non-profit in Napa County, California where I worked for two years, while also taking on an intern role in a county-wide Historic Resource Inventory. This field work solidified my desire for Historic Preservation, leading me to take the next step and enroll in graduate school. I am looking forward to a long and fulfilling career, and hope to apply my newfound skills and knowledge to consulting work in dense, urban areas.

My name is Savannah Herrell and I am a first year Historic Preservation Masters candidate at the University of Oregon. I have always been passionate about history, and knew that I wanted to interpret the lives of individuals who resided in the past.  I attended the University of California Santa Cruz to receive a Bachelors in Medieval European history and intended to pursue history in further education.  However, while in college I learned about another passion that turned a summer job into an unforgettable two year experience. I became enamored with my maintenance job, which when I started I would have never believed possible. This led me to think that I might enjoy physical work and perhaps, I did not want to work in the history field. Research led me to Historic Preservation, where I could indulge my love for history and go into a field job if I wished. Once the program began in September 2014, I was introduced to the wide variety of options in the preservation field, and found that I had many other interests that I would be glad to pursue in future employment.

Architecture and Historic Preservation was part of my nature from the time I was born. Looking at old buildings isn’t my first memory but playing with the scrap wood in my dad’s modest garage wood shop and the smell of sawdust gives me warm fuzzy feelings. Spending free time sketching floor plans of houses I wanted to live in until my first architecture / drafting class in 7th grade might have been an obsession and filling all of my electives in High School with Drafting and Architecture classes was a simple choice (along side orchestra). I nurtured my interest with volunteer picket painting projects for the Gaylor House in Corvallis, Oregon when I was in the 8th grade and thought I would be an architect right up until some professional architects came to my High School Career Day and told me I would make no money so I would really have to love it. I was too young to know what love was.

My first attempt at a college major ending up being pre-med with an interest in Physical Therapy. That attempt didn’t even last six months and I was quickly applying for Architecture School at the University of Oregon and then requesting to minor in Historic Preservation, a second major in Architectural History and another minor in Music Performance. I found love.

Graduation in 2001 was mired in empty job searches so I landed in computer support, the job I did while supporting my architecture habit (degree). My patience with computer support wore out within six months and I applied for the University of Oregon Master of Science in Historic Preservation. The idea was that it would help me get the real architecture and preservation jobs not just be told to “get in line, every architect wanted to work on those projects” and I didn’t have any experience. Telling a twenty-something that they don’t have the experience to do a job…. never ends well. I was no different in my 20’s.

I nurtured my way through graduate school and into the open job market. My experience is across the map from National Park Service Internships, to Oregon State Parks jobs, large architecture firm experience in Portland, and design build work in Eugene. I have been teaching or directing the Field School at least 40% time at the University of Oregon since 2008.

Historic Survey and Inventory is a class of high importance in the Historic Preservation Program. It is where I learned to play games with architectural styles while driving down country roads, impress my family with being able to guess a date of a building construction before we could see the date plate, and yes, I use it in my professional work doing historic neighborhood surveys, reading National Register nominations, or writing condition assessments and historic structures reports. I even use the skills from survey and inventory to look at a structure in its context, understand modifications, and material changes, and make judgements on a buildings integrity even if I am not surveying or nominating it to the National Register but rather providing architectural services.

Historic Preservation might have been something that was in my nature but nurturing the skills took effort and, sometimes, painful mistakes. This is only my second year teaching this course and I am excited to have spent some time this past summer learning about the process of learning and how to reach students in a more engaging way. This makes me feel old but a lot has changed in education since I finished my course work 11 years ago.  There are days that I don’t enjoy everything that I do in academia but there is never a dull day when working with students that want to learn and understand cultural resource management. I enjoy nurturing in others something that I love doing naturally.