Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

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.

The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which established the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in 1966, requires federal agencies to act as responsible stewards of our nation’s resources when their actions affect historic properties. Section 106 of the NHPA sets forth a process for federal agencies to identify and assess the effects of their actions on historic resources. The responsible agency must consult with appropriate state and local officials, applicants for federal assistance, members of the public, and Indian tribes and consider their views and concerns about historic preservation issues when making final project decisions.

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.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month is celebrated each June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan, a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. However, a full three years prior to Stonewall, a “sip-in” was staged at another New York City establishment, Julius’ Bar. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, Julius’ Bar, located at the corner of West 10th Street and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, was built in 1826. After serving as a grocery store, the structure has been a bar since 1864.