Michael Swanson Historic Preservation Talk in Bristol

FRIENDS OF LINDEN PLACE PRESENTS

DR. MICHAEL R. H. SWANSON

Historic Preservation in Bristol, Rhode Island:
Successful Rescues and Failures

A Lecture in Celebration of Linden Place's Bicentennial

Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Rogers Free Library Herreshoff Room
525 Hope Street, Bristol, RI

Linden Place will continue its bicentennial year celebration with a lecture on historic preservation by long time Bristol resident and Roger Williams University Professor, Dr. Michael R. H. Swanson. Dr. Swanson, or “Mike” as most of us know him, will reflect on America’s love/hate relationship with the historic fabric of its cities and towns resulting in battles between "Old and Revered" buildings and "New and Improved." Sparked by events such as the Historic American Buildings Survey completed during the Great Depression and the United States Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, America’s interest in its own past led to the phenomenal growth of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and to government legislation to protect historic structures. Dr. Swanson plans to talk about this reawakening of interest which led to the creation of the Historic Preservation Program at Roger Williams and to further collaboration in preserving and recording buildings to prove their contribution to the landscapes of towns like Bristol.
Dr. Swanson came to Bristol in 1972 after graduating from Case Western Reserve University with a PhD in American Studies. He was instrumental, along with Horace Knight, Bonnie Warren and Lombard Pozzi, in establishing an Historic Preservation major at Roger Williams, the first undergraduate program of its kind in the United States.
Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information contact Susan Battle at 253 0390/sbattle@lindenplace.org