Historical Experts Brace for Fallout of Changes to National Historic Preservation Act

Buffalo Toronto Public Media | By Alex Simone

Recent changes to federal law have local experts raising concerns about the preservation of designated historic sites and buildings around Western New York.

Changes to the Historic Preservation Act have removed requirements for federal agencies to assess how their projects will impact such sites.

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site is a direct beneficiary of the law, said Spencer Morgan, the site’s executive director. It was saved from demolition shortly after the preservation act passed 60 years ago.

“Any erasure of Section 106 and the National Historic Preservation Act could be inherently detrimental to the very purpose of preservation, which is to set aside historic landmarks and locations for future generations of Americans, so that they learn from their past.”

There also is concern that historic sites could lose access to their artifacts, though the Roosevelt Inaugural Site is in a unique position since it owns almost all its artifacts directly.

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site features replicas from when Roosevelt stayed at the residence in 1901, as well as some original artifacts.

But the revisions could mean uprooting areas that have significance to Haudenosaunee culture, said Peter Jemison, a member of the Seneca Nation Heron Clan and former historic site manager for Ganondagan State Historic Site.

“There are still human remains on these sacred sites. This is why we have labeled them as a sacred site because they have … cultural artifacts and human remains on these sites,” he said. “These sites are also used in the ceremonial life of the people who live in those general areas.”

Located just east of Rochester, Ganondagan is the only New York State Historic Site dedicated to Native American history, as well as being a National Historic Landmark.

It’s not just sites from hundreds of years ago being impacted.

An increasing number of buildings in Buffalo and across New York are approaching the 50-year designation for historic landmark status, but there’s no longer a guarantee for the same considerations as before, KTA Preservation Specialists President Kerry Traynor said.

“It’s making (an) easier path for the federal government and some energy programs — or, think about gas lines — to not have to go through the same review process,” she said. “The danger or the potential impact on cultural landscapes is significant.”

Jemison is concerned the changes will mean a loss of historical resources and could result in history being whitewashed, whether by design or in the federal government’s pursuit for profit.

“We come back to cultural resources and the and the protection of these resources, and of these sites. It’s all part and parcel of the same, you know, kind of thinking,” he said. “The only the only thing I can say is that it’s like somehow or other, money is the answer to all things. And personally, I don’t believe that.”

Image: Visitors tour Ganondagan State Historic Site near Rochester, NY. (Alex Simone
/BTPM NPR)