10/30/2020
Preservation Dallas awarded the Trustee's Award for Organizational Excellence by the National Trust for Historic Preservation!
I'm very proud of my friends and colleagues at Preservation Dallas for receiving this award which recognizes the amazing work that has been done over almost 50 years! This national award for historic preservation is about as good as it gets and is testimony to the vision of its board members, past and present, and to the remarkable dedication of some of the nation's most knowledgeable and talented staff!
Text from the award announcements is below:
Trustees’ Award for Organizational Excellence
The Trustees' Award for Organizational Excellence recognizes a nonprofit organization, large or small, that has demonstrated sustained and superlative achievement in historic preservation.
Since the organization’s founding in 1972, Preservation Dallas has successfully developed numerous innovative and effective preservation programs and advocacy campaigns, including an early revolving fund that saved 26 historic homes and created the first inner-city lending program in the country to rehabilitate those homes. Preservation Dallas’ program helped lay the groundwork for the national Community Reinvestment Act.
To increase engagement with the public and to promote investment in under-served historic areas of the city, Preservation Dallas has created a wealth of educational content to inform and empower homeowners, real estate agents, elected officials, students, and the general public.
To advocate for stronger preservation practices in their city, Preservation Dallas has organized advocacy coalitions, created media campaigns, held public meetings, and lobbied to call attention to threatened historic buildings and to encourage city officials to strengthen statutory protections.
Their ambitious advocacy efforts led to the passing of the first preservation ordinance in 1973 and later, to the first designation of a threatened historic neighborhood. Since then, an additional 20 historic districts and over 130 individual landmarks have been designated thanks to Preservation Dallas’s good work.
Recent accomplishments include advocacy for the Tenth Street Historic District, one of the only remaining intact Freedman's Towns in the nation. Preservation Dallas placed the neighborhood on its endangered list in 2018, and in 2019 joined with the Tenth Street Residential Association, the Inclusive Communities Project, and the National Trust to advocate for a halt to demolitions in the neighborhood through the courts and the Dallas City Council.
Preservation Dallas’ intrepid staff of three professionals, its dedicated volunteer board of directors, and passionate membership have fought tirelessly give a voice to historic buildings and galvanize support to better to protect Dallas’ historic places.
