ABSTRACT
Explain the value and meaning of historic places, properties, and • cultural resources Define the criteria for recognition as a historic property • Understand the economic value of historic and cultural resources • Outline basic plans that can be put into place to protect historic and • cultural resources before disaster Describe how various communities have recovered historic and cul-• tural resources after disaster Identify several funding sources for recovery efforts • List steps and actions important to disaster recovery and mitiga-• tion planning Demonstrate an understanding of the value of mitigation strategies • for historic and cultural resources
Introduction What do you like the most about your hometown, or perhaps your university or alma mater? Where do you like to go on vacation? When you get
there, do you wander through an historic district to eat and shop? Perhaps you visit an art museum? Where do you take your vacation pictures-in front of a famous site like Times Square in New York City or the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC? As you drive closer to these destinations, do they seem familiar, perhaps even raising a level of excitement as you draw closer? Is there something about the character of the buildings, the layout of the downtown, or the look of your neighborhood that evokes nostalgia or a sense of belonging? If so, it is because of a combination of things: the physical structures that exist, the meanings that we attach to these places, and the roles that they play in our sense of cultural heritage . Historic and culturally meaningful locations tie us to the past, to a sense of identity-of who we are, the people who came before us, and the legacy that we intend to leave .
