SCAD student demonstrates that preservation reaches beyond buildings

Article By: E. Christina Spitz
Published: May 28, 2008

Sarah Sisser, a senior historic preservation student at SCAD with a minor in architectural history, has demonstrated that historic preservation is about more than just the buildings.

After volunteering with the Hancock Park District in Findlay, Ohio, Sisser returned to the site as an intern to create a proposal for an historic 1820's log structure to be added to an existing living history park within the district.

The Hancock Park District operates the historic McKinnis homestead as a living history park, which has the original farmhouse that Charles McKinnis, a Hancock County pioneer, built for his family in 1847. That house has been restored. However, an early county history indicated that, before building this house, McKinnis had built some kind of log structure when he first came to the site around 1820.

"The park district felt it would be interesting to try to recreate this log house, either by moving a similar historic house onto the site or reconstructing a new house to look historic," Sisser said.

Since there were no primary documents stating what this log structure had looked like, Sisser had to research extensively the family, its social status and ethnic background, and the typology of the Ohio log house to determine the appearance of the structure.

She traveled across the state of Ohio, visiting historic log houses to determine the pros and cons of their preservation and use within their communities. Finally, she presented her findings to the park district's board of directors in order to encourage them to move forward with the project.

"The board was very receptive to my proposal," she said. "Through extensive research, I made sure I was more than prepared to answer any questions they might have. I tried to convey a sense of excitement at the meeting about what a great asset this structure could be." Sisser's presentation was covered in the local paper, which helped to introduce the idea of the project to taxpayers.

"The goals of [presenting] the project were achieved by implementing all of the comprehensive skills I have learned at SCAD in preservation law, research, technology and economics," she said. "I was also able to improve my skills in public speaking. The experience made me confident that I will be able to compete in the professional world and present myself well."

After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school for community planning. "I hope to combine this field with historic preservation and possibly work in something like downtown revitalization," she said.