Preserving our history is no small task. Whether someone is restoring a historic home, breathing new life into a warehouse through adaptive reuse, documenting and researching a building for a nomination to the State and National Registers of Historic Places, or restoring cemetery stones, a lot of time, money and creativity goes into preservation and documentation projects.
The Division of Historic Preservation recently recognized eleven outstanding projects with the New York State Historic Preservation Awards. This year saw the addition of the Joan K. Davidson Award. Joan was Parks Commissioner from 1993-1995; Chair of the New York State Council on the Arts from 1974 to 1977, and President of the J. M. Kaplan Fund from 1977 to 1993. She was a strong believer in historic preservation and an advocate for grassroots, collaborative efforts to preserve our shared history.
Longer days. Warmer temperatures. More birdsong. The signs of spring have been growing stronger in New York for weeks, and now the season has arrived. We’re proud to share some of the delights of spring with you at our parks and historic sites — here’s hoping we’ll see you out there.
Springing from the Earth
Getting out on the trail in the springtime is an exhilarating experience, as wildflowers begin to bloom, trees return to leaf, and the smells of nature fully return. If you enjoy identifying the plants, insects and animals you see on the trail, consider joining the global nonprofit iNaturalist project. You can use their app to identify flora and fauna you find, record your sightings, or find out from other users what’s been sighted nearby. Below are a few plants to look out for!
Art and artifact conservators are the guardians of our cultural heritage. Their fascinating work blends art and science to protect the treasures of the past for future generations. But that work is often invisible to the public.
The American Institute for Conservation showcases this field through the annual Ask A Conservator Day. This year, NY State Parks and Historic Sites’ Department of Historic Preservation conservators Elizabeth Robson (Paintings) and Paige Schmidt (Wooden Objects) took a break from their labs to answer questions about their work.
What do conservators do? What is outside the scope of their field?
Conservators are highly skilled, highly trained professionals who care for art and artifacts. They assess the condition of a particular object and carry out a course of treatment for it. They also provide guidance on how to store and exhibit an object or work of art.
Conservators also specialize in one area of expertise, such as paintings, paper, objects, textiles, or architecture. There are further specialties within these categories, like murals, books, photographs, frames, wooden objects, archaeological objects, metals, and more. While a conservator’s treatment may improve the aesthetics of an object (e.g. replacing missing paint), they never do so at the expense of any original material. Nor do they give appraisals of artworks or artifacts.
About four times each year, State Parks adds a variety of properties to the State Register of Historic Places, a step towards later being listed on the National Register of Historic Places as important pieces of America’s broad cultural heritage.
But while the vast majority of these listings are buildings, like factories, churches, homes, libraries or schools, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, Parks’ historic researchers like me working on the register listings get to take on the story of something truly out of this world.
Science fiction fans worldwide recognize the name “Enterprise” as the name of the starship in iconic 1960s television series Star Trek. A decade after the show went off the air, those fans helped see to it that America’s first prototype of a reusable orbiting spacecraft would also carry that name. In 2013 I was honored to document that historical connection as part of support for the listing the NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise on the state and national historic registers as culturally and technologically significant.
It was 45 years ago this September when the Space Shuttle Enterprise rolled out of its assembly building at Rockwell International Space Division’s facility in Palmdale, California. Waiting outside were a crowd of VIPs that included six cast members of the Star Trek crew, and series creator Gene Roddenberry.
On Sept. 17, 1976, the crew of Star Trek’s fictional Enterprise attended the roll-out of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Rockwell International Space Division’s facility in Palmdale, California. Show (left to right) are Dr. James D. Fletcher, NASA Administrator; DeForest Kelley (Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy); George Takei (Ensign Hikaru Zulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Communications Officer Hyota Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (Science Officer Spock); Star Trek creator and producer Gene Roddenberry; unidentified NASA representative; and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).
NASA had initially suggested naming the prototype Constitution and even wanted to unveil the spacecraft on September 17 – Constitution Day. But as NASA’s plans became publicly known, thousands of fans of Star Trek – which had gone off the air several years earlier in 1969 – began a write-in campaign to the White House urging President Gerald Ford to name the orbiter Enterprise in honor of the fictional starship.
“I’m a little partial to the name Enterprise,” said Gerald Ford, noting that he had served in the Pacific during World War II aboard a U.S. Navy ship that serviced an aircraft carrier of that name. The Star Trek write-in campaign apparently influenced President Ford and the show’s fans are generally credited as being the driving force behind the shuttle’s name change.
While called Enterprise, the prototype NASA orbiter was formally known as Orbiter Vehicle-101 or OV-101, and represented the culmination of years of research, design, and experimentation. Planning for the Space Shuttle Program had begun in 1968, ten months before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The intent was to develop a reusable and affordable vehicle that could travel to and from space routinely, easily, and affordably.
Unlike typical aviation advancement, the space shuttle was a major technological leap forward. While airplanes tend to slowly evolve over time through constant adjustments based on testing and performance, the systems and design of the shuttle was unprecedented. Space flight capabilities went from disposable rockets and capsules to a reusable cargo space plane in only twenty years; there was no transitional design. As a prototype, Enterprise was largely responsible for making sure these new technologies and concepts worked properly to ensure the safety of the astronauts who would fly aboard the other vehicles.
Two events likely led to the decision to use a rocket/space plane system for the shuttle: the advent of thermal insulation tiles by Lockheed, which made it affordable and convenient to insulate an airplane-like design, and the order by Congress that the next space vehicle meet not only the requirements of NASA but also the U.S. Air Force. One of the biggest requirements of the Air Force was the ability to land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California so that classified missions could be completed quickly and efficiently. After testing it was determined that the sweeping, triangular-shaped delta wing design would be more stable and would allow for the necessary maneuverability at high speeds that a conventional wing design wouldn’t allow.
Enterprise, the first and only full-scale prototype orbiter vehicle of the space shuttle fleet,was first used during the Approach and Landing Tests, one of the earliest missions of the Space Shuttle Program. The Approach and Landing Tests program saw Enterprise fly in Earth’s atmosphere, doing so thirteen times, five of which saw it separate from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to fly and land unaided. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is a modified Boeing 747 that is used to transport space shuttle orbiter vehicles in a piggyback-like configuration.
In February 1977, the Space Shuttle Enterprise rides atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft as part of approach and landing tests at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
The NASA mission patch for the Approach and Landing Test.
Space Shuttle Enterprise just after releasing from the Boeing 747 carrier aircraft to start a five minute, 28 second unpowered test flight above the Dryden Flight Research Center.
Enterprise was also of paramount importance in planning and preparation at shuttle facilities in Florida and California. In the early days of the Space Shuttle Program, Enterprise was the only completed orbiter vehicle and was therefore the only vehicle capable of ensuring that the facilities were prepared and ready for the first launch. The fit checks, vibration tests, atmospheric flights and landings, and various other development tasks performed on Enterprise enabled Columbia to launch successfully into space during STS-1 on April 12, 1981.
Enterprise was used later in the investigations and procedural revisions following the Challenger and Columbia shuttle accidents. Following the Challenger accident in 1986,Enterprise aided in crew escape tests. Following the Columbia accident in 2003, one of Enterprise’s wing edges and a landing gear door were borrowed for tests related to foam chunks striking an orbiter during launch. Although the loss of two space shuttle orbiters was a devastating loss, Enterprise helped the program return to flight and continue its mission.
In February 1985, the Space Shuttle Enterprise is in launch position d during verification tests at the Vandenburg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex in California.
In 1983, Enterprise began its role as an ambassador and educational tool. Enterprise was first ferried to Paris, France for the Paris Air Show. The international tour continued on with stops in England, Germany, Italy, and Canada. This tour represents the only time an orbiter has travelled internationally. Upon returning home Enterprise was showcased at the World’s Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana. On November 18, 1985 Enterprise became the property of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
In June 1987 Enterprise was used for testing landing barriers. The landing barrier is essentially a large net stretched across the runway that helps the orbiter reduce speed when landing. The tests were successful, and the landing barriers were installed at three Transoceanic Abort Landing sites (Moron and Zaragota, both in Spain, and Banjul, Gambia). Although retired, Enterprise continued to aid NASA throughout the 1990s and 2000s to test new systems and technology.
Enterprise was put on public display by the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. from 2004 to 2012 before being transferred to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan, where it remains on display.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes it final flight on April 27, 2012, atop a NASA 747 carrier aircraft on its way to John F. Kennedy Airport for shipment by barge to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, located at the bottom center of the photo.
Accomplishments of Enterprise and the Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle Program is responsible for releasing some of the most significant orbiting telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The shuttles also released many groundbreaking probes and space craft including: the Galileo probe, which explored Jupiter; the Magellan probe, which helped map Venus; and the Ulysses probe, which conducted the first systematic survey of the environment of the Sun.
The biggest achievement of the program was the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The main purpose of the ISS is to serve as an orbiting laboratory. The station has advanced science and technology in areas ranging from biology and medicine to astronomy and physics. Hundreds of experiments have been conducted in orbit aboard the shuttle and the ISS. Some of them are long term and more publicized, such as the effects of microgravity on the human body. Astronaut John Glenn, who first traveled to space during the Mercury Program in 1962, returned to space in 1998 at the age of 77 as part of an experiment to better understand the effects of microgravity on the elderly. Other experiments are much smaller in scope, such as determining if fish can swim upright and observing seed growth in microgravity.
Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut on STS-65 (1994), STS-72 (1996), and STS-92 (2000), as well as commander and science officer on International Space Station Expedition 10 (2004-2005), stated that “[The] shuttle, to me, represents a triumph and remains to this day a technological marvel. We learned so much from the program, not only in the advancement of science and international relations, but also from what works and what doesn’t on a reusable vehicle. The lessons learned from shuttle will make future US spacecraft more reliable, safer, and cost effective.”
The space shuttle program was also the first American space program to reflect NASA’s adoption of diverse hiring practices. In the late 1970s NASA became more progressive regarding its astronaut selection process. Test pilots and military personnel were no longer the only recruitment avenue for astronauts. The agency began focusing on scientists and engineers as well as women and minority groups. The space shuttle program provided a platform for NASA’s shift in culture and allowing space to become accessible for everyone in a way that hadn’t previously existed. The first American woman (Sally Ride, 1983), first African American (Guion Bluford, 1983), and first African American woman (Mae Jemison, 1992) flew in space aboard the space shuttle. In addition, many non-US citizens have flow aboard the shuttle, representing a diverse group of people and a high level of cooperation. NASA brought diversity, equity, and inclusion to space exploration via the space shuttle.
“[The space shuttle] will be remembered for being the vehicle that enabled us to get the International Space Station successfully assembled on orbit, but it depends on what your favorite thing is. If you’re a scientist or an astronomer, it will always be remembered as the vehicle that delivered the Hubble Space Telescope, then flew four successful servicing missions capped off by one of the most spectacular flights in the history of the shuttle program, STS-125, when we did five back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back space walks and carried out every objective of that flight when no one thought we would be able to finish everything.
You look at other satellites that it deployed: Magellan, Ulysses. You look at the space laboratory that was flown on it, or the space habitation module. The people that it took to space. We now see, when you look at an astronaut crew, it’s usually a rainbow of people—all races, all genders, all nationalities…There are countless things that the space shuttle will mean, just depending on who you are and where you sit.”
– Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, 2011
Like its fictional namesake, the shuttle Enterprise was the first step of a bold journey further into outer space. It performed a 36-year mission (seven times longer than that of the Star Trek Enterprise) that set the stage for the shuttles Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavor and their crews to undertake unprecedented scientific and technological missions in orbit. The pioneering vessel truly has a place in the nation’s history, and State Parks was proud to have gotten it listed to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Live Long and Prosper!
One of the many letters received by State Parks to support the historic register listing of the Space Shuttle Enterprise was submitted by NASA astronaut Fred Haise, who had been in command of the shuttle on three of its approach and landing test flights. Haise was also a crew member aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970.
The Starship Enterprise as seen in the opening credits of the original Star Trek television series. (Photo credit – Paramount/CBS)
All photos credited to NASA unless otherwise noted.
Post by Daniel A. Bagrow, Historic Preservation Program Analyst, State Parks Historic Preservation Office
With Halloween coming up, the setting of an old cemetery might come to mind. Cemeteries are beautiful, poignant, old and sometimes just creepy, but these places are also a powerful reminder of the past and a record of the people who came before.
As part of its mission to preserve the state’s heritage, New York State Parks is responsible for the care of numerous cemeteries – from dozens and dozens of small old homestead cemeteries and large military cemeteries to burial vaults and even pet cemeteries. And cemeteries, just like any other historic item, do require maintenance and repair from time to time.
It is the job of the Historic Site and Parks Services (BHSPS) to preserve these cemeteries and the individual gravestones. That means tackling the challenges posed by time and weather, but also repairing the damage done by vandals, who break or damage stones.
Intact stones can be cleaned and inventoried in place, but fractured stones in need of repair are brought to our historic preservation labs Peebles Island State Park, where conservators perform the needed repairs. That work has been assisted by members of the New York State Excelsior Conservation Corps, who learn how to document, map, clean and reset gravestones.
A visit to a historic cemetery can be a time of contemplation in a quiet natural setting. For example, Grafton Lakes State Park in the forests of the Rensselaer Plateau in the Saratoga/Capital Region, has four historic family cemeteries. The Old Snyder Cemetery is just above the Mill Pond and shadowed by the forest. The small cemetery, dating to the 19th century is surrounded by a decorative iron fence and features obelisks, and marble and bluestone gravestones.
At the historic preservation labs at Peebles Island State Park, a fractured gravestone from a historic family cemetery within Grafton Lakes State Park is reset.
Gravestones freshly cleaned by State Parks staffers shine at Grafton Lakes State Park.
The gravestones tell the story of life in 18th and 19th century New York. Some stones simply feature a name while others feature beautifully carved weeping willows or crosses. The Thomas West, Frances West and Hicks cemeteries are smaller and buried deeper in the Park. The cemeteries are marked by fieldstone walls or split rail fence.
At the other end of the state, the 1812 Cemetery at the Old Fort Niagara State Historic Site, is the resting place of the fort’s soldiers and their families from the War of 1812 through the 1930s. This cemetery is shaded by mature oaks, pines and maple trees and overlooks the Niagara River. Traditional military tombstones are intermixed with large granite and marble memorials to the Unknown Soldiers who died during the campaigns of Western Expansion, the Revolutionary War and the war of 1812. The Victorian and Gothic gravestones feature finely detailed cannons, urns, flowers, shields and crosses.
State Parks conservator Heidi Miksch gently cleans the bronze plaque on a tombstone at Old Fort Ontario State Historic Site.
Gravestones at Old Fort Ontario during and after a cleaning session. Use the slider bar to compare pictures.
The Herkimer Home State Historic Site and Fort Ontario State Historic Site in central New York also feature military and local cemeteries. The Herkimer Home cemetery has large memorials flanked by cannons intermixed with delicate 18th-century marble gravestones and 19th-century zinc memorials, and includes the resting place of Revolutionary War General Nicholas Herkimer, who died of wounds after the Battle of Oriskany.
A member of the Excelsior Conservation Corps (ECC) cleans a gravestone at the Herkimer Home State Historic Site.
Back at the historic preservation labs at Peebles Island, an ECC member repairs a broken gravestone from Herkimer Home State Historic Site.
A map of the Herkimer Home cemetery created by Excelsior Conservation Corps members.
In Oswego at Fort Ontario, a small cemetery features 77 marble military tombstones of veterans from the French and Indian War to World War II. Inside the fort are fragile and rare gravestone from the 1700s.
Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park in Canandaigua has a small pet cemetery under an old oak tree near the 19th century Victorian mansion. The cemetery is surrounded by a low iron fence and features large boulders carved with the names of family pets owned by Frederick and Mary Thompson, the estate’s former owners. A marble statue of a resting dog guards the small resting place.
Pet cemetery at Sonnenberg Gardens, where a statue of a reclining dog stands watch.
At Katonah’s John Jay Homestead State Historic Site, in the historic house’s Terrace Garden, there is a simple marker in the memory of Old Fred, a horse that served in the Civil War with Colonel William Jay II, with both rider and steed coming home safely at war’s end.
Its inscription reads: “In memory of Old Fred, who carried Colonel Jay through the Battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Peeble’s Farm & Appomattox, and who died at Bedford in May 1883, aged 28 years.”
The grave and historical marker for Old Fred, the faithful warhorse of Colonel William Jay II. At bottom, Colonel Jay is shown in uniform with his sister, Eleanor Jay Chapman.
So, a quiet October afternoon could be a perfect time to appreciate the hand carved stonework, and imagine the lives marked by the gravestones, which are another aspect our shared history being protected by New York State Parks.
Cover Shot: Members of the Excelsior Conservation Corps cleaning gravestones at the Herkimer Home State Historic Site. (All photos by NYS Parks)
Post by Erin E. Moroney, architectural conservator, Bureau of Historic Site & Park Services
New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog 