FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2008
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834

GHF Offers Free Consulting Teams to Owners of Ike-Stricken Historic Homes, Neighborhoods

Architect with Katrina Recovery Experience Joins GHF Staff through February under National Trust “Partners in the Field” Grant, Will Team with Structural and Historic Architects to Provide Guidance

Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) have announced a new collaboration to provide detailed damage assessment and recommend specific steps toward historically sensitive mitigation to property owners, as they rebuild after Hurricane Ike. Churches and neighborhood groups may also use these services, provided under a NTHP “Partners in the Field” grant. The service will be available through February.

Darryl Daniels, an architect with 20 years of experience in historic buildings and neighborhoods, will lead the program at GHF, working with the Preservation Resources department out of the foundation’s Architectural Salvage Warehouse at 908 23rd Street in Galveston. He began working with GHF in mid-December.

GHF is one of 24 local historic preservation organizations nationwide to have been awarded Partners in the Field matching-grants, as part of a $5-million, multi-year program by the NTHP to strengthen local preservation efforts.

“We were glad to be awarded this matching grant,” said Dwayne Jones, GHF executive director. “Now, after Hurricane Ike, the program has an even more urgent focus. We are very fortunate to have Darryl Daniels aboard, with his background in both preservation architecture and neighborhood organizing, and his particular experience with the problems homeowners face after a natural disaster. He’s a homeowner in New Orleans himself, in fact, and was very active there after Katrina.”

Daniels will be joined by architects and historians from around the state and from the Texas Historical Commission to make site visits to assist homeowners in evaluating rehabilitation needs. They will help them in making improvements that will be consistent with professional standards and with the historic character of their neighborhoods.

Daniels has already held meetings with the Carver Park Neighborhood Association, the Galveston Association of Island Neighborhoods, GHF’s African American Heritage Committee, and various church groups on the island.

Homeowners, churches and neighborhood organizations who would like to schedule a site visit at damaged or threatened properties with Daniels and his team of professionals may reach him by email at darryl.daniels@galvestonhistory.org, or call the Galveston Historical Foundation Salvage Warehouse at 409.750.9108.