Stewardship Stories

Personal stewardship stories recount local controversies surrounding threatened landscapes and the lessons learned. Whether or not the landscape was ultimately saved, these chronicles bring attention to our rich and diverse legacy of cultural landscapes, and demonstrate how one person can make a difference in any situation. Collectively, these narratives highlight a diversity of geographic locations, landscape types, and individuals.

It Takes One

  • Julia Bachrach
    Chicago, Illinois

    Throughout my career I have been committed to preserving historic landscapes. When I worked in Highland Park, and found out about the discovery of the archives in Chicago, I was fascinated and intrigued.

  • David William Blake
    Buckland, Virginia

    While I was learning more about the significance of the place I live, I began to wonder what was planned for adjacent properties in the future.

  • Marc Coir
    Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

    " ... what astonished me is that no one paid heed to the cultural landscapes of Cranbrook. As new as I was, I could plainly see that these were created simultaneously with the built environment and that they entailed major alterations to the land ..."

  • Annabel Downs
    London, England

    I was invited as a volunteer to catalogue a collection of Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’s landscape drawings that he had just donated to the Landscape Institute, located in London.

  • Emily Evans
    Nashville, Tennessee

    "... a private school ... announced plans to demolish eight historic homes, remove many mature trees, cut and fill and re-grade the parcel to accommodate two regulation size interscholastic athletic fields."

  • Anthony Flaccavento
    Castlewood, Virginia

    Born in New York City, and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, I first became interested in farming through my dad’s modest organic garden.

  • Kay Fowler
    Fairfax, Virginia

    I became involved with the threatened landscape in my community for the selfish reason that I wanted to have ... the open space remain.

  • Chris Madrid French
    Charlottesville, Virginia

    In 1998, I heard that Richard Neutra's 1961 Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg was to be demolished and the battlefield landscape "restored," an impossibility considering a century of change and the proliferation of private enterprises nearby.

  • Lillie Petit Gallagher
    Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    I learned that a prominent businessman was spearheading a movement to get rid of the golf course and of City Park as it was presently known. Indeed City Park and the golf course with is mature canopy of live oaks is the sweet spot in the community.

  • Lavern Norris Gaynor
    Naples, Florida

    " ...significant changes affecting our community brought me to the realization that the faster we grow and change – the closer we come to losing a connection to our local history, to its meaning, and to its benefits for grounding our children in who they are in relationship to their community."

  • Donovan Michael Gray
    Seattle, Washington

    I was concerned that a decision to demolish Lawrence Halprin's Water Garden was made without sufficient understanding of the value of the work, the significance of its creator, and the fact that our city has too few fountains to lose even one.

  • Graycliff Conservancy
    Derby, New York

    This story focuses on three champions and founding members of the Graycliff Conservancy, Inc. While their involvement in the Graycliff Estate was spurred by differing reasons, the trio is being recognized because of their ability to come together and work “as one” to achieve a successful outcome for this significant property.

  • Ben Haley
    South Hadley, Massachusetts

    I got involved with South Hadley’s Independence Tree because there seemed to be a general lack of awareness regarding the tree’s significance.

  • Susan Keeton
    Houston, Texas

    "Initially, The Friends of Hermann Park, planned simply to plant more trees and to work on drainage issues-to spruce it up a bit.  One board member ... died suddenly [and]  it was decided to initiate a competition to redesign the Reflection Pool as a memorial.  Then wiser heads realized that what was first needed was a Master Plan."

  • Bennett Konesni
    Shelter Island, New York

    I saw what the Manor and its 243 acres might become, either chopped up, developed and sold off or restored as a living reminder of where we’ve been and where we’re going.

  • Rachel Leibowitz
    Austin, Texas

    I was raised in the suburbs of Chicago during the 1970s and 1980s, the place represented in John Hughes' comedies Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

  • Mary Millman
    San Francisco, California

    " ... the proposal to dismantle an historic Plaza, a second—and eventually eight more—sets of plans were brought forth. In all of these the colonnade was restored, but the full brunt of the landscape architect's wrath descended on Lawrence Halprin's fountain which was to be replaced by a taxi stand at the edge of yet another road that would be paved with slabs cut from the fountain's magnificent Sierra granite blocks!"

  • Nancy I. M. Morgan, Ph.D.
    Natchitoches, Louisiana

    For this National Heritage Area, the importance of the cultural landscape is central to the Congressional legislation that designated this region. The legislation sets forth what the Cane River National Heritage Area Commission is supposed to accomplish, and as such I have an interest in protecting and promoting the unique cultural landscape of the river valley.

  • Marjetica Potrč
    Ljubljana, Slovenia

    To begin with, Liyat and I asked a group of barrio residents what they thought about self-sustainable energy solutions such as solar panels for bringing additional electricity to their homes. They could not care less. They were happy to steal electricity from the municipal power grid.

  • Warrie Price
    New York, New York

    In 1994, I founded The Battery Conservancy to rebuild and revitalize the historic Battery, the twenty-three acre park at the tip of Manhattan, New York, and to bring back to dynamic use the park’s national monument, Castle Clinton.