HISTORIC PRESERVATION SERVICES

In 2021, Caledonia Northern Folk Studios is proud to be expanding our services to include a focus on historic preservation services, including National Register of Historic Places nomination preparation for individual buildings, multi-property nominations, and Historic Districts, help preparing your property to apply for State or Federal Historic Tax Credits, and interpretive or re-use plans for owners of historic properties who wish to build programming or engage signage to interpret their properties’ significance. At this time, our historic preservation services remain in the realm of historic research, documentation, & interpretation; but we will gladly connect you to other professionals in the state who specialize in the building pathology & rehabilitation aspects of preservation.

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU WITH YOUR HISTORIC BUILDING

We specialize in soup-to-nuts National Register of Historic places nominations, and provide all services in-house: from historic research to architectural description to photography to composition of contexts to authorship of statements of significance. Contracting with Caledonia Northern Folk Studios for your National Register of Historic Places nomination means every aspect will be taken care of. Our standards for historic research, writing, and argument about historic significance are exceptionally high — our goal is to get you property listed (and to unlock the benefits of National Register listing) within a year. We’ll steward all aspects of the process, including the relationship with the State Historic Preservation Office, all necessary rounds of revision, and preparation of the final form & packet of materials for forwarding by the SHPO to the National Parks Service in Washington, D.C. for approval.

A partial list of our Caledonia Northern Folk Studios In-House Historic Preservation Service Offerings:

• Full stewardship of the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Process — including all communication with the State Historic Preservation Office, National Register Preliminary Questionaire (NRQ)Research, Writing of the Draft Nomination, & All Subsequent Edits Required to Get to Listing

• Freestanding NRQ Applications (required before submission of a Draft National Register Nomination)

• National Register Format Design & Recommendations/Strategy (for DIY Clients)

• Historical Research & Narrative-Building and/or Advising (including Chain-of-Deeds & Newspapers Research)

• Oral History Research to Build Narrative Around 20th-Century Social Use

• Constructing a Statement of Significance & Argument

• Architectural Description & Photography

• Maps, Historic Photos & All Support Documents

• Comprehensive National Register Editing & Formatting

RATES & FEES FOR SERVICES

Our flat fees for full nomination form preparation (per building or district) are extremely competitive for the state of Ohio, and reflect the recommended fee schedule of the Pipeline Program for the State of Ohio.

If your interest in National Register Listing includes a plan to apply for Historic Tax Credits for adaptive reuse or substantial renovation of a property for commercial re-use or multi-family housing, we’re also happy to work with you to apply for a Pipeline Grant, which will cover your fees for contracting with us for nomination research & form preparation services in full. Contact us with the button below if you wanted to get started working with us on a Pipeline Grant Project!

We’re also, alternatively, happy to work in an educational // resource consulting role with clients who want to learn the National Register of Historic Places process themselves, or who can’t afford the full nomination consulting fee or don’t qualify for the Pipeline Grant; in thee cases, we’d love to work with you on retainer as an hourly consultant to provide directions, manage the timeline & break down the process for you, & provide guidance on historical building/site research, architectural description, photography, map—making, & argument strategy. These consultancies mean alot to us because they’re also tools of capacity-building for our clients — & they help grow our collective capacity, in North-Central Ohio & beyond, to work as active advocates for our historic built environment!

Philosophy of preservation: Preservation for the people

At Caledonia Northern Folk Studios, our historic preservation work is also an activist practice. We believe in preservation justice: that the tools of Historic Preservation and resources of Historic Tax Credits (& beyond!) meant to off-set the costs of stewarding & maintaining historic properties should belong to the people — working-class people — not just to wealthy billionaire developers.

We specialize in helping everyday people get their properties listed — & in providing education, technical assistance, & capacity building to working-class historic building owners to build a wider preservation movement in North-Central Ohio, & to get our built heritage the recognition & rehabilitation that it deserves!

Although wealthy developers are the ones who most often take advantage of these programs, our mission at CNFS is to bring preservation to the people, creating our own pipeline of properties telling everyday & working class (and especially BIPOC) histories, from working-class & community building owners. We specialize in working with owners who are new to the National Register process, and may be nervous about the process, or overwhelmed with the costs associated with maintaining old buildings. We’re here to help — to demystify the process, and to help get you & your worthy historic property listed, so that you, too, can benefit by the significant tax credits and other programs offered to listed properties. Preservation belongs to everybody, so we’re sharing the love.

CALEDONIA NORTHERN FOLK STUDIOS’ Marion County “Fifty in Five” CAMPAIGN

In 2021, CNFS will be prioritizing the listing of historic properties in North-Central Ohio, and in Marion County, in particular — in partnership with the Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History Program’s ambitious “Fifty in Five” National Register of Historic Places listing goals for Marion County. Marion County currently only has sixteen properties listed to the National Register; while nearby urban counties, like Franklin, have over 300! For us at CNFS, that doesn’t reflect a paucity of historic resources or eligible properties in Marion & neighboring North-Central Ohio counties: it represents a gap in equity & capacity, and need for historic preservationists like us to work on educating building owners about the possibilities & benefits of listing. We take our capacity-building mission seriously, and will happily work with you or your local historical, heritage, or tourism association to provide educational workshops & presentations on the power of National Register listing, in collaboration with our local SHPO.

While our mission prioritizes work in the eleven-county region of North-Central Ohio, we will also gladly take up work elsewhere in the state, as long as current COVID-19 conditions make it safe to do so. Please note that travel and archival research — including the often very time-consuming chain-of-deeds process required for many nominations — is incredibly tricky and potentially dangerous, at moment where sharing indoor air with other people is ill-advised and county COVID numbers are spiking, so we will work carefully with each client to work out a plan that is COVID-19 safe for us, for you, and for archival staff, while getting the job done.

co-operative sharing & capacity-building for Marion County history:

CNFS is grateful to the historic research services the Marion County Historical Society makes available to our community to help build capacity for public history & historic preservation work! For every full building or district nomination consultancy CNFS takes on in Marion County or the surrounding counties, CNFS will make a donation to the Marion County Historical Society to help grow local history in our community, & to ensure these resources remain available in our community!

See below to read about our most popular consultation packages, & contact us today for a free thirty-minute initial consult.

FULL NOMINATION PREPARATION

We’re happy to work with you to fully guide & run your property’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Our competitive rates include everything the process requires: from initial consultations with you to preparation of the National Register Questionnaire Form to all research, fieldwork, photography, & writing leading to the National Register of Historic Preparation Draft — plus all communication with the State Historic Preservation Office to take your nomination through all draft stages required to get it to Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board Approval, and then on to Washington, D.C., for listing by the National Park Service // Dept. of Interior to the National Register of Historic Places!

We are happy to work with qualified clients to apply for a State of Ohio Pipeline Grant for buildings with anticipated commercial reuse & intending to apply for Ohio and/or Federal Historic Tax Credits. The Pipeline Grant, if approved, will cover all costs of our full nomination preparation work via reimbursement to the building owner.

NOMINATION ASSISTANCE: RESEARCH, FIELDWORK, EDITING

For clients // building owners who want to steward or learn the ropes for their own National Register of Historic Places nomination process, we offer one-off or bundled specific nomination preparation services to help cover any gaps in your experience or expertise, including:

• Historic Building Research (including Chain-of-Deeds research & Oral History Interviewing) // Section 8

• Architectural Description // Section 7

• Historic Property Fieldwork (Photography & other on-site work)

• Consultancy & Advising on Statement of Significance and/or Strategy

• Integrity Consultations & Advising

• National Register Nomination Writing (from your research)

• National Register Nomination Editing

We also offer one-off National Register Preliminary Questionnaire services to clients who want to test the waters & get the SHPO’s opinion on their property’s eligibility. You’re welcome to use our NRQ to try to write your own nomination; or you can bring us back for particular pieces of the work, or full the full process (see above).

NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION HOURLY CONSULTANCY & GUIDE SERVICES

For clients who wish to do it themselves — or if, for financial reasons, you can’t afford a consultant to steward the full process or can’t qualify for a Pipeline Grant — Caledonia Northern Folk Studios is pleased to offer hourly consultancy services for specialized attention to the National Register nomination process.

This option is perfect for clients who want to learn the process or format themselves, or who might want to nominate other buildings as primary nominator in the future. Learn our best practices & tips on research, timeline, procedure, or get our advice on strategy/approach for the argument for your particular building!

We’re available for one-off hour appointments, or for hourly consultancy packages for three, five, ten, & twenty hours of service across the anticipated period of your National Register Nomination process.

coNTACT US TO GET STARTED TODAY!

Caledonia Northern Folk Studios would love to help you get your historic building (or an important one in your community) or even an entire historic district listed to the National Register of Historic Places, & to help you & your community take advantage of the Historic Tax Credit & other intiatives that are out there to help keep our built heritage in commercial use! Reach out below to book a free fifteen-minute initial consultation to share about your property & get started; & we’ll take it from there. All subsequent consultations, for Pipeline Grant Applications, will be folded into the overall cost of the Pipeline Grant project, for which you will be reimbursed in full upon the building’s listing!