American Express and National Trust for Historic Preservation Honor Women’s History From Coast to Coast

NEW YORK, September 24, 2019 /3BL Media/ – American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in collaboration with Main Street America, announced today that their annual Partners in Preservation campaign this year will shine a light on historic buildings and sites celebrating the contributions of women in local communities across the country.

In honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, the Partners in Preservation program will feature 20 sites that each play a role in highlighting and raising awareness for the often unrecognized contributions of women to American history and society.  From the home of Colorado’s first female African American doctor in Denver, to famed author Harper Lee’s hometown courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama, these sites celebrate the triumphs, struggles and rich history of women in America.

Beginning today through Oct. 29, anyone can vote for their favorite Partners in Preservation: Main Streets at VoteYourMainStreet.org. The voting platform is hosted by media partner National Geographic, and Delta Air Lines is also joining as a campaign sponsor for the third year in a row. People can cast up to five votes each day of the campaign. The historic sites with the most votes will receive a share of $2 million in preservation funding from American Express, and each local partner is receiving an initial grant of $10,000 to increase public awareness of the importance of these historic places and build grassroots support for their Main Street district. Winning districts will be announced on Oct. 30.

“At American Express, we have long valued a culture that reflects and celebrates the world around us," said Timothy J. McClimon, President, American Express Foundation. “Backing the communities where our customers and colleagues live and work is vital to what we do. We’re committed to historic preservation by bringing attention and support to buildings and landmarks that celebrate the contributions of women this year.”

“You cannot tell the full story of America without including the many incredible contributions women have made to our country’s history,” said Katherine Malone-France, Chief Preservation Officer at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “By highlighting historic places on main streets across America that are telling the stories of women, we hope to not only preserve these sites, but also amplify the women who have made our main streets what they are today.”

Partners in Preservation is a community-based partnership, created in 2006, to engage the public in preserving historic places. Over the past 13 years, the program has provided more than $28 million in support of 260 historic sites across the U.S., including 20 national parks, 14 cities, and 12 main street communities, and has engaged more than a million people through events and online voting. Partners in Preservation: Main Streets is back for its third year in a row and seeks to inspire long-term support from local citizens for sites on Main Streets across the country.

For more information and to vote daily through Oct. 29, the public is encouraged to visit VoteYourMainStreet.org.

The 20 sites vying for Partners in Preservation: Main Streets grants include:

Astoria, OR | Odd Fellows Building

In a town of less than 10,000, in the oldest settlement west of the Rockies, proudly sits the Odd Fellows Building in downtown Astoria. A center for social, cultural, and creative activity, it was the first building the community chose to rebuild in 1923 after a fire devastated the town. Almost a century later, three local women purchased the building and, with an incredible amount of community support, saved it from developers.

Today, the building houses a gallery, apothecary, art studio, and coffee shop, as well as Astoria’s only nonprofit dance studio and black box theatre—all owned and operated by local women. Funding will restore and weatherize the building’s historic facade and windows to ensure it continues to serve the community for generations to come. 

Austin, TX | Elisabet Ney Museum

Elisabet Ney rocketed to fame as a sculptor in 19th-century Berlin. Deeply intellectual, a gender non-conformist, and a democracy activist, she fled persecution in 1871 and landed in Texas. In 1892, after farming and raising a son, she built Formosa, a rugged but majestic limestone homestead and studio, and relaunched her career. She created important artwork here, but also sparked a brilliant legacy: the birth of Austin’s independent spirit.

Today, the Elisabet Ney Museum at Formosa provides both an anchor and a laboratory for progressive identity and art. Funding will help restore the homestead’s 18 exterior doors. Worn and fragile, plain but grand, they graciously welcome outsiders—women, artists, and immigrants—just as they did a century ago.

Denver, CO | Dr. Justina Ford Home

Denied access to local hospitals, Colorado’s first licensed female African American doctor Justina Ford instead treated patients at her home office, helping circumvent the racial and economic barriers to their medical care. Locally, Dr. Ford became known as the “Baby Doctor” because she delivered over 7,000 babies in her 50-year medical career.

Saved from demolition in the 1980s by the Five Points Community and Historic Denver, Dr. Ford’s 1890 Italianate-style house is now home to the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center. Grant funding will allow for important exterior renovations such as window restoration and masonry work, ensuring that the Museum can safeguard its rich collection of black history, remain a place of learning, and continue to symbolize the black experience in the West.

Franklin, TN | Franklin Grove Estate & Gardens

Saved from development by the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, Tennessee, this five-acre sanctuary in downtown Franklin testifies to the contributions of women. Franklin Grove has long had educational ties, housing institutions such as a girls’ school, a Freedmen’s School, and the O’More College of Design, founded by Eloise O’More.

Funding will support plans to turn the property’s two historic mansions into public exhibit space and an entrepreneur center; create new event space; and relocate an endangered Rosenwald school to the property for restoration, helping to transform the estate into an enduring history lesson.

Holly, MI | Holly Union Depot

Holly Union Depot, built in 1886, was such a “people place” that over time, millions of travelers wore depressions in the floor as they waited to purchase tickets. In the course of its history, women also developed a strong connection to the Depot; there, they distributed meals for soldiers, sent the men off to war, and welcomed them home. Of note, famous Prohibitionist Carry Nation arrived at the Depot in 1908 and became known locally for her hatchet-wielding crusades against “demon-rum” in nearby Battle Alley.

Grant funding will help rehabilitate the Depot and transform it into a welcome center and tourism office where visitors can learn about Holly’s history and the important roles that women past and present play in the community.

Janesville, WI | Janesville Woman's Club

Built in 1928, the Janesville Woman’s Club Building has served women’s organizations and provided countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars for scholarships and services in Janesville. More than bricks and pillars, the building was an anchor in an era of new political clout; a safe roof during wars and strife; a window into the community’s needs; and a grand entrance into a country of greater gender equity and racial justice.

Grant funding will help reinforce the building’s aging foundation and repair its entrance, renewing its life for another century of women who will continue the tradition of service to others.

Kansas City, MO | EGG (Economic Growth Gallery) Building

Located in the heart of Kansas City’s Historic Northeast, the EGG (Economic Growth Gallery) building was originally constructed in 1945 for Rose Marie’s Floral and Gift Shop. In 1995 her business closed after 50 successful years. Today, the EGG is home to small business pop-ups created by entrepreneurs (primarily women) from local immigrant and refugee communities, offering an opportunity to hone business skills while showcasing global products and services.

Funding will restore the original Art Deco architecture, replace deteriorating elements, and install new building features. The mission is to create an eco-friendly environment that nurtures a multicultural community and hatches a new future for the women of tomorrow.

Los Angeles, CA | Downtown Women's Center

Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) offers a full range of programs and services designed to help end women’s homelessness. In 1978, DWC founder Jill Halverson used her savings to open Los Angeles’ first drop-in day center for homeless women. In the 1980s, DWC’s services grew to offer the first permanent supportive housing program for women. In 2010, and with a female architect at the lead, DWC completed a $35 million capital campaign to revitalize a historic building constructed by female developer Florence Casler in 1927. 

Funding will cover the re-design of current external signage, as well as support the revitalization of DWC’s external facade. As an advocate for historic preservation and a firm believer in managing rather than preventing change, DWC demonstrates how historic buildings can continue to serve as beacons of hope for the community.

Macon, GA | Ruth Hartley Mosley Memorial Women's Center

Ruth Price Hartley Mosley was a women’s empowerment pioneer, shrewd businesswoman, and civil rights activist. She shattered boundaries in nursing when she was appointed, at age 24, as the first African American head nurse of the “Colored Female Department” at the Georgia Sanitarium in Milledgeville. She also became one of the first women morticians in the U.S. and an NAACP leader in the civil rights movement. Her estate established the RHM Center to be a community resource providing educational and life enhancing opportunities to women and families.

The Center, located in her former home and now listed on the National Register, cultivates opportunities for women and serves as a community resource and venue. Funding is essential for structural, floor, and window repairs.

Minneapolis, MN | The Woman's Club of Minneapolis

The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis was founded by women, for women, as a place to gather and engage in educational opportunities, civic contributions, and friendly association. The Club’s auditorium has historically hosted diverse forms of theatrical practice and public engagement, and currently fills a vital need in the Twin Cities arts community by providing a safe and accessible performance space for independent artists.

This space, formally called The Assembly, needs updates and upgrades to better serve the community. Funding will help replace the seats and repair the damaged floor—a critical first phase of a three-phase renovation.

Monroeville, AL | Monroe County Courthouse

Monroe County Museum houses the courtroom made famous by Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which is taught and beloved around the world and was recently voted the top favorite in PBS’ “The Great American Read” program.

Constructed in 1903, the courthouse building is showing its age with serious structural problems in the southwest wall, which grant funding will address. By saving the courthouse—and with it the very spot in the courtroom balcony where Harper Lee watched her father passionately defend his clients—the public can continue to experience the last tangible connection in Lee’s hometown to her iconic novel.  

Mount Pleasant, IA | Union Block

Constructed in 1861, the Union Block building has anchored the north side of the Mount Pleasant square for 158 years. Here in 1869, Belle Babb Mansfield passed a rigorous bar examination, becoming the first female lawyer in the United States. Mansfield then became active in the local, state and national women’s suffrage movement, including chairing the first Iowa Women’s Suffrage Convention in Mount Pleasant in 1870.

Continuously occupied until ravaged by fire in 2011, the building was renovated and rededicated in 2014. Funding will help restore the exterior elements not included in that most recent renovation—namely, the east side gable and 32 museum-quality storm windows for the trefoil windows.

Painesville, OH | College Hall (Lake Erie College)

Nestled in Painesville, Ohio, just minutes from Painesville’s charming downtown, Lake Erie College is one of the oldest institutions for higher learning in the Western Reserve. From its start as a female seminary in 1856 to its evolution into a coeducational institution today, Lake Erie College is proud of its long heritage leading higher education for more than 160 years.

At the center of its picturesque campus stands College Hall, where more than a century ago, women were leading the charge to advance their education and blaze new trails, including through the women’s suffrage movement. Funding will help preserve this iconic building by restoring its grand entrance, inviting all who enter to experience its rich and significant history.

Rawlins, WY | Strand Theatre

In December 1869, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote. This high bar remains 150 years later as Wyoming women continue to excel and give back to their community. A prime example: Rose Cain, the owner of Strand Theatre, an iconic red-brick building built in 1919 that currently awaits its comeback.

Cain, who owns three businesses in Rawlins, is an energetic entrepreneur making positive changes in the downtown. Her vision: create a vibrant performing arts center that becomes a true downtown destination. Though a partial renovation was completed in 2018, this grant funding will help complete the facade—including its historic marquee—and bring the theatre fully back to life.

Salt Lake City, UT | The Ladies’ Literary Clubhouse

The oldest women’s club west of the Mississippi River was established in 1877 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Ladies’ Literary Club (LLC) sought education in history, science, arts, literature, and current events before academic opportunities were readily available to women. By organizing study sections, lectures, and social events, the club promoted a non-religious counterculture in an otherwise conservative state. In 1913, the LLC commissioned an architectural masterpiece in the likeness of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School style, a building that became known as “the House that the Women Built.”

Situated on Utah’s most historically significant boulevard, the Clubhouse on South Temple Street proudly stands more than 100 years later as a creative venue for performing arts and education. Grant funding will help restore the sinking front porch and stairs with the addition of an ADA wheelchair ramp, making the Clubhouse truly accessible to all communities for the first time in its history.

Savannah, GA | Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace

The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace is one of the treasures of Girl Scouts. Here, visitors from around the world can learn more about the woman who started the largest, most powerful, and most successful girl leadership development program in the world: Juliette Gordon Low.

Today, the Birthplace needs to change, grow, and innovate to serve the needs of today’s girls. Funding will empower Girl Scouts to revitalize the Birthplace and make it more sustainable, accessible, flexible, and engaging for the general public, so that every person who experiences it can be inspired by the life of Juliette Gordon Low, the Savannah community she knew and loved, and the vibrant movement she founded.

Seattle, WA | YWCA Seneca Headquarters

As YWCA’s headquarters since its construction in 1914, the Seneca Building embodies the organization’s 125-year history of advocacy for women, from economic freedom to suffrage to fair housing, as it champions for their advancement and challenges the inequities they face.

The building’s lobby has long been a gateway for women to find safety, support, self-empowerment, and a place in the workforce, but it’s showing wear and tear. Grant funding will restore the lobby as a warm and inviting gathering place, creating easier access, updated amenities, and informative contemporary and historical displays—all to help inspire the next generation of women.

Staten Island, NY | Casa Belvedere

Built in 1908, this former private home-turned-public arts and cultural center has strong connections to notable “women of steel”—Suzette Claiborne Grymes, Emily Warren Roebling, and Laura Roebling Stirn—whose contributions helped shape Staten Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, and ultimately, the United States.

The Roebling-Stirn Mansion, known today as Casa Belvedere, serves as a significant architectural and cultural pillar, as well as a destination venue for locals and tourists alike. Grant funding will restore upper levels that sustained severe water damage from Hurricane Sandy, with the ultimate goal to transform them into new gallery space. 

West Chester, PA | Chester County Historical Society

Present-day visitors can still hear echoes from the first Pennsylvania Women’s Rights Convention, held June 2-3, 1852, in architect Thomas U. Walter’s Horticultural Hall, now the home of Chester County Historical Society. In the words of convention president Mary Anne Johnson: “Woman at length is awaking from the slumbers of ages. […] They weary of the senseless talk of ‘woman’s sphere’[…] We demand for woman equal freedom with her brother to raise her voice and exert her influence.”

Today a leaking roof and crumbling chimneys threaten this historically and architecturally significant building. Grant funding will enable critical repairs and help the echoes of the past reverberate into the future. 

West Palm Beach, FL | Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens

At a time when women were just granted the right to vote, a petite Southern woman left Alabama to attend college in NYC where she studied and created art during the Great Depression. That woman, artist Ann Weaver Norton, went on to create monumental art that mirrored how she approached life.

Norton’s home, gardens, and studio sit on a two-acre sanctuary that today carries on her environmental and cultural impact. Grant funding will help preserve the studio that inspired and soothed her, honoring the tiny visionary whose body of work invites us all to think big.

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About Partners in Preservation

Partners in Preservation is a program in which American Express, in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, awards preservation grants to historic places across the country.

Through this partnership, American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation seek to increase the public's awareness of the importance of historic preservation in the United States and to preserve America's historic and cultural places. The program also hopes to inspire long-term support from local citizens for the historic places at the heart of their communities.

About American Express

American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.  Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.

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About the National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization, works to save our nation’s historic places. In its 70th year, the National Trust is dedicated to preserving the places that reflect our diverse experiences. From iconic historic homes and celebrated architectural marvels, to vibrant main streets and reinvigorated cities, the National Trust invests in the future by preserving the places that matter: www.savingplaces.org.

About Main Street America

Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, Inc., a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. www.mainstreet.org

ABOUT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between the National Geographic Society and Disney, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 131 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information, visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.