[MassHistPres] Subject: Premiere of Film, "Rediscovering Newburyport's Historic Wharves" at Custom House Maritime Museum, 7 p.m. Saturday, May 19, 25 Water Street, Newburyport

[WILLAM HARRIS]

Subject:  Film Premiere - "Rediscovering Newburyport's Historic Wharves" - Saturday, May 19, 2012, 7:00 p.m. at the Custom House Maritime Museum, 25 Water Street, Newburyport, MA.  Introduction plus 42 minute    Documentary, plus refreshments. 



A Free event in Newburyport Preservation Trust's Preservation Week.  (voluntary donations welcome).  A Case Study in cost-effective project mitigation aided by MHC and experts on wharf archaeology. 

Responding to Michael Steinitz'sListServ message:

This Bill (Section of GOV #119) appears to deprive communities throughout the Commonwealth of the technical expertise and networking resources of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, when a project will impact archaeological resources that are not previously listed as a state (MACRIS) or federal (National Register) historic resource.


ListServ participants might be interested in a film documentary, to have its premiere showing tonight, May 19, 2012, as part of Preservation Week, at Newburyport's Custom House Maritime Museum (CHMM).  The 42 minute documentary, produced and videographed by Jerry Mullins, is entitled "Rediscovering Newburyport's Historic Wharves."  

A free showing and reception starts at 7:00 p.m., CHMM, 25 Water Street, Newburyport, MA 01950, Saturday, May 19th.  The event, including reception, runs from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The film highlights the rediscovery of the infrastructure of two historic wharves,Coombs Wharf (1765-66) and Bartlet Lower Wharf (circa 1802-1808), on the Merrimack River.  Through the backtracking of personae connected to these historic wharves, the City of Newburyport through successful modernization of an Operations, Control & Laboratory Building for a Waste Water Treatment Facility, rediscovered two of this community's leading citizens and entrepreneurs during the period of the Revolutionary War.  

Concurrently, rediscovery of the original records of the Committee on Public Safety and Correspondence (1774 - 1777) allowed us to rediscover the vital role of privateer missions initiated at Coombs Wharf to import gunpowder vital to Gen. Washington in the effort to drive British forces from Boston in 1775-1776.  

This documentary shows what was done with under 0.2 percent of the project's total costs of about $33 million.  When a granite capped wharf wall was found to be directly under a proposed foundation wall for the new building, the City contacted MHC for assistance.  MHC put the City in touch with New England's most experience investigator of historic wharves, Mitch Mulholland and a team at U MASS Amherst.  As a consequence of MHC knowing who had the key skills, the City was able to act promptly in mitigating and bringing the Project impacting the wharf wall to successful completion in less than two years from initial groundbreaking.

Dr. Mulholland also explained the opportunities and potential cost-savings for future projects, if a time series of historic harbor and wharf maps are overlaid on a modern GIS database.  By mapping waterfronts ahead of large development projects, historic resources can be preserved.  And overall project costs can be lowered.  Had the map overlays been done for Newburyport ahead of site design for the Waste Water Treatment Facility, a slight relocation of the building in the initial design (instead of mid-project) could have saved $1 million to $2 million, and at least three months of time lost when the building footprint had to be redesigned and relocated about 15 feet -- not to save historic resources but to avoid higher project costs emplacing a bearing wall where an extensive granite and stone infrastructure already existed.

So early consultations with MHC, and through that Commission, with specialized experts, can reduce project-time to completion and can reduce overall project costs.  These issues are partly addressed via the Mullins film, which provides site photography during excavation, and perspectives of the City's project coordinator, preservation planners, and waterfront GIS experts at a Symposium conducted in May 2011.  

Without preserving MHC jurisdiction, cost-savings combined with historical documentation are both at risk.  Some of the law makers who seek to restrict MHC jurisdiction need to see this film, so they can save developers time and money, preserve MHC jurisdiction, and bring in MHC-identified experts for faster project mitigation.

Sincerely,


William R. (Bill) Harris
Coombs & Lower Bartlet Wharf Project Volunteer for the 
  Newburyport Historical Commission &
Director-Emeritus, Custom House Maritime Museum
Newburyport, MA 01950
email: wm.r.harris at gmail.com
tel 978.255.2203
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/private/masshistpres/attachments/20120519/87e1a5e5/attachment-0001.htm>