THE VSA/NE has a long history of dedication and commitment
to the preservation of New England’s Victorian past. One manifestation
of this is our Preservation Awards program.
Nominations
Sought
THE Preservation Awards committee annually awards those people and institutions
whose projects represent a notable effort in the protection or preservation
of some aspect of our Victorian past.
An award is presented yearly
in the categories of building, public spaces, and aspects of social history.
Also, each year, a Lifetime Achievement Award may be presented to an individual
whose devotion and dedication to preservation has helped maintain the Victorian
Era.
Nominations with documentation
are welcomed by the committee. If you would like to submit a Nomination, kindly
contact Jack Grinold at (617) 373-2691.






1973
Preservation Award
• Raymond Cattle Company, restoration of the Ames-Webster House, Commonwealth
Avenue
1974 Preservation Awards
• Alan Chesney, landscape architect, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge
• Jonathan Fairbanks, “Confident America” Exhibit, Museum of Fine Arts
• Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Sampson, preservation of the Gardner Kingman House,
Brockton
1975 Preservation Awards
• Dorchester Savings Bank, support of Church Building in Boston 1720–1970,
by Douglass Shand-Tucci
• Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency of Boston, restoration
1976 Preservation Award
• Currier Museum, Manchester, New Hampshire, “A Sense of Place, A
Way of Life” Exhibit
1977 Preservation Award
• Swan Boats—the Paget Family, Boston Common, one hundredth anniversary
of
operations
1978-79 Preservation Awards
• Commercial Street Elderly Housing, North End, Boston
• Kathlyn Hatch, teacher
• Ann Beha, architect
• CDM, Inc., developer
• Unihab/Renovate Inc., developer
1980 Preservation Awards
• Richard Heath, Franklin Park Alliance
• Alan Emmett, Cambridge Massachusetts: The Changing of a Landscape
• Adams Nervine Asylum, Jamaica Plain, restoration
• Charles Sullivan, placement of Charles River Basin on the National Register
1981 Preservation Awards
• Hartford Architecture Conservatory, Connecticut
• Victoria Society of Maine Women
• John A. Sullivan
• Hudson Historical Society, Hudson
• Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island
• Vergennes Main Street Revitalization Committee, Vermont
• Worcester County’s Mechanics Hall, restoration and revitalization
as a concert hall
1982 Preservation Award
• Worcester County’s Mechanics Hall, restoration and revitalization
as a concert hall
1983 Preservation Awards
• Bedford Building, Boston
• Hopkinton Supply Company, restoration of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall,
North Easton
• Carol Zellie, Beyond the Neck
1984 Preservation Award
• Abbot Lowell Cummings, architectural historian
1985 Preservation Award
• Historic Boston
1986 Preservation Awards
• New Old South Church, Copley Square, restoration, Dan Coolidge, architect
• Municipal Building, Codman Square
1987 Preservation Award
• Graham Gund, Bullfinch Square, Cambridge
1988 Preservation Award
• Museum of Afro-American History, Smith Court, Beacon Hill, for restoration
1989 Preservation Awards
• The Berkeley Building, Boylston Street
• The Public Garden, for reinstatement of ice skating
• The Dimock Community Health Center, Roxbury
• Office of the Senate President, for restoration, State House, Boston
1990 Preservation Awards
• Carousel, Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard
• Hotel Barre, Barre
• Commonwealth Vintage Dancers
1991 Preservation Awards
• Lynn Heritage State Park
• Saint-Gaudens’s Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial,
Boston Common, for restoration
• Morse LIbby Mansion, Portland, Maine
— COMMENDATIONS —
• Wilbur F. Haven House, Malden
• Henderson Boat House, Northeastern University
• South End Landmark District, Historic Landmark Plaques
1992-93 Preservation Awards
• Church of the Covenant, Boston
• Marlene D. Merrill, editor, Growing Up in Boston’s Gilded Age:
The Journals of Alice Stone Blackwell
—Commendations—
• Jacob Wirth Restaurant, Boston
• Larz Anderson Park, Brookline
• Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, editors, Boston Cooks
1994 Preservation Awards
• Flint Memorial Library, Reading
• Boston University Dormitories, Bay State Road
• Blackstone / Franklin Park Squares Neighborhood Association, South End
• Northeastern University Press, publication of From Jo March’s Attic:
Stories of Intrigue and Suspense, Madeleine B. Stern and Daniel Shealy, editors
• Ann Beha: Lifetime Achievement Award for her work as a preservation architect
1995 Preservation Awards
• South Church, Andover, restoration of the church steeple
• The Arnold Arboretum
• State House Flag Project, restoration
• Henry Lee, president of the Friends of Boston Public Gardens: Lifetime
Achievement
Award for
his
dedication
to
the
preservation
of the Boston Public Garden
1996 Preservation Awards
• Boston Public Library, restoration
• Walden Woods Project, Concord
• Norlands, Livermore, Maine
• Antonia Pollak, long-term executive director of the Boston Preservation
Alliance:
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
1997 Preservation Awards
• Jordan Hall, the New England Conservatory
• Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Joan Severa, Dressed for the Photographer
• Stella Trafford, advocate for public parks—Commonwealth Avenue
Mall and the Public Garden:
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
1998 Preservation Awards
• The Brookline Music School, restoration of the Hill-Kennard-Ogden House
• Forest Hills Cemetery, restoration
• Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire
• Robert Neiley: Lifetime Achievement Award for long-term work as a preservation
architect
1999 Preservation Awards
• New England College of Optometry, Commonwealth Avenue, restoration
• Lesley College, Cambridge, building restoration
• Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield
• Charles M. Sullivan, longtime director of the Cambridge Historical Commission:
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
2000 Preservation Awards
• Memorial Hall, Harvard University, restoration of the tower and returning
it to the roof
• Orchard House Museum, Concord, restoration of Bronson Alcott’s
study
• Beacon Hill Garden Club
• Jonathan Fairbanks, longtime curator of American Decorative Arts at the
Museum of Fine Arts, and a founding member of the VSA/NE:
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
2001 Preservation Awards
• Worcester Redevelopment Authority, restoration of Union Station
• The Ayer Mansion, Commonwealth Avenue, restoration of the Tiffany interior
• The Stonehurst Museum, Waltham, restoration of the Frederick Law Olmsted
Landscape (1886) surrounding the Robert Treat Paine Estate
• Judith Brew McDonough, executive director, Boston Landmarks Commission
and the Massachusetts Historical Commission
2002 Preservation Awards
• The Fenway Studios, Ipswich Street, restoration of the Arts and Crafts
brick façade (1905)
• The Rye Driftwood Garden Club, Rye, New Hampshire, care and upkeep of
Celia Thaxter’s Garden on Appledore Island
• The Massachusetts National Guard Military Museum and Archives, restoration
of the Worcester Armory (1891) adn the preservation of the Massachusetts National
Guard records from 1636
• Eric Parkman Smith, longtime volunteer at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard
House:
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
2003 Preservation Awards
• The Boston Athenæum, major renovation and acclimatization to preserve
their collections, and preservation of the fifth-floor Reading Room, the second-floor
Long Room, and the Director’s Room
• Hildene, estate of Robert Todd Lincoln, Manchester, Vermont, for restoration
of its formal garden and the kitchen garden
• The Longfellow National Historic Site, restoration of the interior
• James Alexander: Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a preservation
architect
2004 Preservation Awards
• Massachusetts Historical Society, renovation and restoration
• Historic New England (formerly SPNEA), Harrison Gray Otis House, for
Victorian boardinghouse recreation
• Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, restoration of the Goodwin
Garden, “Tanglewood Grove,” and Greenhouse
• Stanley Smith. longtime executive director, Historic Boston, Inc. (HBI):
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
2005 Preservation Awards
• The Boston Center for Adult Education (The Gamble Mansion) for the restoration
of the Ballroom and Fountain Room
• Bowdoin College Chapel
• Richard and Jane Nylander: Lifetime Achievement Awards
2006 Preservation Awards
• The John Adams Courthouse (formerly the Old Suffolk Country Courthouse)
for the recently completed renovation
• Alice Longfellow's Garden at the Longfellow House Museum, Cambridge,
MA
• James O'Gorman, Living Architecture: A Biography of H.H. Richardson
• Paul McGinley, Preservation Architect: Lifetime Achievement Award
2007 Preservation Awards
• Trinity Episcopal Church, restoration
• Helen Hannon, restoration of the Charles Russell Lowell Post No. 7 Grand Army of the Republic Monument
• Mount Hope Cemetery, Mattapan, Massachusetts
• The Gardens at the Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts
• Sally Pierce, Curator of Prints at the Boston Athenæum: Lifetime Achievement Award in Historic Preservation
2008 Preservation Awards
• The Waterworks at Chestnut Hill, Graham Gund, Architect
• The Liberty Hotel, Adaptive Reuse of the old Charles Street Jail
• Gardens at The Mount, Lenox, Massachusetts
• William H. Pear: Lifetime Achievement Award in Preservation
2009 Preservation Awards
• Gloucester City Hall, Exterior Restoration
• Gardens at the Codman House, Lincoln, Landscape Restoration
• Gianfranco Pocobene, Painting Conservator: Lifetime Achievement Award
2010 Preservation Awards
• The Friends of the Public Garden, Restoration of the Brewer Fountain and Plaza
• Historic Boston, Preservation of the Eustis Street Firehouse
• The Blue Hill Observatory Science Center and the Friends of the Blue Hills, Preservation of the Observatory and the Surrounding Plantation
• Robert Bayard Severy, Lifetime Achievement Award, for the Restoration of Countless Victorian Paintings and the Photographing of Over 150,000 Streetscapes
PREVIOUS
RECIPIENTS
BELOW is the full list in chronological order of previous recipients
of the VSA/NE’s
Preservation Awards.
All
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