Treatment Proposals for the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, Auburn, New York
Bushkie J, Buzard P, Goodstein M, Yi Li Q, Ryan VE, Sherman M, Zhan J. 2017. Treatment Proposals for the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, Auburn, New York. Cultural Landscape - Miscellaneous. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation
For over 100 years, the AME Zion Church - through its subsidiary the Harriet Tubman Home Inc. [HTH] has remained the faithful caretaker of Harriet Tubman’s farm properties in Auburn and Fleming, NY. The Church also is responsible for the Thompson Memorial Church and parsonage. At the turn of the 21st century, AME Zion in conjunction with local individuals and organizations began a concerted effort to research, document and improve these properties, focusing primarily on the architectural resources. During these efforts, advocates began investigating opportunities to better tell Tubman’s story to a wider audience, using these properties as a principal vehicle. These explorations eventually led to a partnership between the HTH, and the US National Park Service [NPS] - and the establishment of the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park. Research conducted during the last two decades focused primarily on Tubman’s residence, barn and archaeological resources at the South Street properties; with minimal attention given to overall site character and other cultural landscape features. Similarly, the buildings at Parker Street were the subject of some investigation, but the landscape was not. Therefore, to better understand these resources, the NPS through its cooperative agreement with the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science & Forestry [ESF] is preparing a cultural landscape report [CLR] for the parcels included in the national park. Once completed, the CLR Part 1 will document the first cultural influences on these properties, through Tubman’s tenure, to the present. It will include the condition and historic significance of individual landscape characteristics and features and conclude with possible treatment options. Subsequently, a CLR Part 2 will provide more fully developed recommendations for policies, programs and physical projects. However, in light of several outside factors, there is an interest in exploring treatment recommendations concurrent with rather than after preparation of the CLR Part 1. And at the request of the NPS, the ESF Department of Landscape Architecture used a thematic design studio to investigate cultural landscape treatment proposals for the Park.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Bushkie, Jennifer; Buzard, Paige; Goodstein, Max; Yi Li, Qin; Ryan, Vincent; Sherman, Mikala; Zhan, Jia Yuan
- Date of Issue
- 2017
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- HART , NER
- Keywords
- abolitionism, church, Cultural Landscape Report, ethnic heritage/black, Harriet Tubman, historic site, National Historic Landmark, New York, OCLP, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, religion, slavery, social history, SUNY, SUNY ESF, Underground Railroad