{{< alert-box title=“Cross-listed event” icon=“fas fa-exchange-alt” >}}This program is organized in partnership with the Boston Preservation Alliance.{{< alert-box >}}

About this event

Join the Boston Preservation Alliance with the Leventhal Map & Education Center for a talk on histories of preservation in Boston. Leventhal Center President and Head Curator, Garrett Dash Nelson, will give a live demonstration of the Center’s Atlascope tool. The demo will be followed by a discussion with Maddie Webster, PhD, who heavily used the Atlascope tool while researching Boston.

Maddie’s research makes a case for histories of historic preservation that incorporate actions resulting in preservation, not only stories about those who self-identify as preservationists. She is interested in how Black middle-class families converted upper Roxbury’s single-family housing stock into multi-family homes in the postwar era—a process of “filtering down” normally associated with deterioration—and argues that this additional income from rent allowed owner-occupants to build equity and maintain their houses despite exclusion from traditional funding sources. That much of the housing stock is still around today is a testament to this stewardship process.

This talk is presented as part of the Boston Preservation Alliance 2023 Annual Meeting of Members and is open to the public.

• Please register here on Eventbrite if you are not a member of the Boston Preservation Alliance.
• Please register here if you are a member of the Boston Preservation Alliance.