Preserving Providence

Providence Preservation Society has been around for almost 60 years. It is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, preservation organizations in the city. We all know at least the outlines of the story of how PPS came to be: a group of dedicated, unrelenting and obviously very smart women (isn’t that always the story?) banded together, fought the powers that were and (voila!) Benefit Street’s Mile of History was saved from the wrecking ball of 1950s-style urban renewal. PPS has never let up on that mission of advocacy and education. After almost six decades, the culture has changed. The importance of preserving our historic properties is now accepted as a given. Right?

Well, not entirely. Not all of the time. Structures are still threatened. Downtown is a work in progress. I-195 parcels are opportunities to be won or lost. Parking surfaces pave the State Capitol lawn. Many challenges remain. We can’t take the past hard work and resulting successes of PPS (and its many partners) for granted. With a new Executive Director now on board (its fifth in ten years), PPS is ready to face today’s challenges head on and, as always, collaboratively, with as many of us engaged as possible.

Brent Runyon (pictured below), who came to Providence by way of Thomasville Landmarks, a non-profit preservation organization in Thomasville, Georgia (just north of Tallahassee), began his tenure at PPS in early November. Runyon earned an undergraduate and graduate degree in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech and worked in the engineering field for five years before discovering, through volunteer work in his community, that he had a strong interest in historic preservation advocacy. And engineering, he says, turned out to not be that much fun. Runyon earned a masters degree in Historic Preservation at the University of Georgia and was the Executive Director at Thomasville Landmarks for over seven years before coming to PPS.

That longevity on the job was a plus in the eyes of the Search Committee. “It takes a lot of work to come on board and get up to speed,” says Runyon. “The committee was looking to have some level of confidence that I would stay on the job for a good while.” Runyon assured the committee that he would, and that he would quickly adjust to the cold weather. “I’ve invested in winter gear - lots of wool,” he jokes, pointing out his thick wool socks, definitely a necessity for the Florida native on that particular day. What, exactly, enticed Runyon to leave the warm environs of Thomasville – which he describes as “a very beautiful place” of 20,000 residents and ten historic districts – for Providence? “In doing my research, I was most impressed with the creative energy I found to be present in Providence. The people I met in the interview process were passionate supporters of PPS, its mission and of the community as a whole. I am also impressed by the variety of architecture in Providence. The colonial buildings, of course, but the variety is also to be noted. And the colleges inject such energy into a community, obviously.”

Robert Taylor, Vice President of the Board of Trustees, was co-chair of the Search Committee. “We had a very good committee, with PPS Trustees as well as representatives from the city and from Brown. We wanted to include stakeholders as well as partners. A focus for us was to build on the strong position we were in, coming into this year, which was due in large part to the work of the outgoing Executive Director, James Hall.”

Anytime an organization goes through the process of hiring a new leader is usually a time of taking stock and assessing future needs. That was definitely the case prior to Hall’s hiring, says Board of Trustees President Lucie Searle. “We spent a good nine months of introspection and defining strategic directions.” The trustees settled on four broad areas of focus: Programs – revitalizing all programs to make them rigorous in their depth; Advocacy – ensuring that preservation is embedded in everyday decision-making within the community; Real Estate – strengthening PPS’s role of stewardship of historic properties, starting with PPS properties (the Brick School House and Shakespeare’s Head); and Funding – securing a sustainable and diversified source of funding.

Both Taylor and Searle credit James Hall with having reinvigorated PPS’s role within the community, and they are both confident that in Runyon they have found the right person to continue that work.

“Brent clearly brings his preservation experience and skills to the job,” says Taylor. “He will be a very capable leader in terms of administrative skills, but we were also very impressed with the amount of thought he has put into answering the question – How must we adapt current views (about preservation) as we move forward, so that preservation continues to be ingrained in our conversations about urban policies?”

Searle is equally confident. “I am impressed with the comprehensiveness of his experience. He is trained as an engineer. He is a professional preservationist, degreed in Historic Preservation. He has hands-on experience, having overseen preservation projects. He has experience in planning – both urban and strategic. He has the administrative background and has testified in front of public bodies. If there were a check list – he has all the items checked off.”

When interviewed for this article, Runyon had been on the job just six weeks. Because PPS has such a strong staff, Runyon says, he was able to concentrate on the administrative part of his job in the early weeks. The first thing he tackled was to prepare the budget for the year beginning on January 1. “It is a balanced budget, for the first time in many years, one that is not reliant on using money from reserve funds – which is not an uncommon practice in the non-profit world, particularly at this time.” Runyon was also making a point of meeting individually with all of his trustees, as well as with various candidates for public office (watch out – that could become a full-time job!), other key city staff members and staff and directors from PPS’s non-profit partners. He had a good start in getting to know the broader community as well, as the kickoff of this year’s Providence Symposium series (Not Always Easy: Building the New Urban Experience) took place just a few days after his arrival in Providence.

Regarding the fundraising aspect of his job, Runyon notes that over the recent past PPS has made a concerted effort to eliminate one or more of its annual events as fundraising toolsEvents take up an inordinate amount of staff time in a small organization. PPS has instead forged many alliances with corporate partners – about 26 currently – as part of its fundraising strategy. “Corporations appreciate being asked for money just one time a year and, as partners, they receive periodic updates and other benefits such as invitations to special presentations,” says Runyon. “This year, PPS is going to focus on recruiting more individual donors, with a concerted outreach to both regain members who have lapsed and to attract others who ‘should’ be members, and to solicit their financial support in the process.”

PPS has a lot on its agenda for 2014. A strategic planning process is underway. In terms of advocacy efforts, Runyon knows that downtown will continue to be a focus, and that PPS will be involved in the conversations about development of the I-195 property and the vacant Superman Building.

Runyon calls proposals for more surface parking in the area of the State Capitol “a huge issue for Providence,” saying such proposals are in direct conflict with the rules adopted years ago by the Capital Center Commission. In fact, shortly after coming on the job, the Most Endangered Properties list was being discussed and Runyon asked why this land had not been included. “The area around the Capitol is an historic landscape, equally important to the built environment and historical preservation as actual structures.”

As this article goes to print, PPS will have just concluded its Annual Meeting, with Jennifer Bradley of the Brookings Institute and co-author of The Metropolitan Revolution, as the keynote speaker. At that meeting, PPS unveiled this year’s Most Endangered Properties Photo Exhibit. PPS plans to use the Most Endangered list more effectively this year, says Runyon, taking the exhibit on the road to various venues, using it as a way to begin direct conversations with people about the importance of historic preservation.

Having direct conversations with people in the community must have been exactly how the founders of PPS began their work almost 60 years ago. Lucie Searle says we should not lose sight of the huge impact the founders had on Providence, simply by demanding an answer to the question, “Do we have to destroy our past to maintain our communities?” This is the same question being asked today. And it isn’t rhetorical. “PPS established, really for the first time, that preservation could be a tool in revitalizing communities.” She is referring to the groundbreaking study, “College Hill: A Demonstration Study of Historic Area Renewal.” Financed by PPS’s founders, the City of Providence and a federal grant, the study documented, for the first time in measurable terms, the very real economic benefits of historic preservation. Many factors have gone into the widely hailed rejuvenation of Providence over the past decades, but historic preservation has undoubtedly played a major role. PPS is fully committed to continuing the advocacy and education efforts of its founders.

“Even in our events,” says Searle, “we are very conscious of content.” 2014’s Festival of Historic Houses is a good example. PPS participated in the “conversations” surrounding Gilbane’s Thayer Street project (nine homes were demolished to make way for a new apartment complex). It was a wake-up call. “There was no protection for those nine houses.” While Searle sees the project’s final design as “much more sensitive to the area” than it would have been, the experience prompted PPS to take a look within the adjacent neighborhood area (Cooke, Manning, etc.). The area is being surveyed now – the first step in making it a local historic district. This year’s Festival tour will be of homes in this neighborhood – another part of PPS’s ongoing “conversations” with the community about the importance of historic preservation.

After just a few months on the job, Brent Runyon is equally enthusiastic. “Preservation efforts go back to the ‘60s, in other cities, but Providence was on the forefront. PPS has been so successful in the past – I am confident that a lot can be accomplished.”