Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

HOUSTON – The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), in partnership with the nonprofit Space Center Houston and NASA, today announced additional funding for the restoration of the Apollo Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas, allowing the inclusion of the historic visitor Viewing Room.

Space Center Houston raised $1 million to add to the already $3.1 million project to ensure the Viewing Room, a dedicated space where family members and VIP guests were able to observe mission controllers without disrupting them, is restored to its late 1960s state. The funding is being administered by the ACHP.

August is National Black Business Month, and to celebrate, the ACHP is highlighting the Walker Building in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Walker Building was designed as the headquarters of the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, founded by Madam C.J. Walker, who is celebrated as one of the first female self-made millionaires in the United States.

A pilot program is underway to bring African American young professionals into historic preservation and related career paths, such as architecture and conservation, and raise awareness of the cultural legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) is partnering with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE Crew; Morgan State University (MSU) in Baltimore, Maryland; and the National Park Service’s Western Center for Historic Preservation on “Touching History: Preservation in Practice.” Six MSU architecture students spent June 11-21 training at the Center, located at White Grass Ranch in Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

A little one-room country schoolhouse in Waubeka, Wisconsin is on the National Register of Historic Places for its connection to the origins of Flag Day. It was there that a 19-year-old teacher and his students held the first known observance of Flag Birth Day on June 14, 1885, using a 10-inch 38-star flag propped up in a glass bottle. Teacher Bernard Cigrand had his students, mostly descendants of Luxembourger immigrants, honor Old Glory by “reading essays they had written and discussing the flag’s history and meaning,” according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Aimee Jorjani testified today before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C. on her nomination to become the first full-time chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP).

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the committee’s ranking member, said the ACHP has an important mission, ensuring federal agencies are good stewards of the nation’s heritage, and will be served well by a full-time chairman.

“I think this change is in keeping with the importance of the office and its mission,” Senator Cantwell said. “I hope the change will increase the stature and independence of the council and strengthen their voice within this Administration. “