The Julia Kiessling Historic Home Repair Program is a new initiative of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia launched late 2025 after two years of program development. Hear about how the Preservation Alliance developed their forgivable loan program focused on historic property repairs from the ground up, including establishing qualifications, pilot neighborhood selection, marketing the program, and how their first round of projects is going.

Historic property redevelopment programs often present organizations with many challenges to overcome. This holds true whether the program is just beginning or has existed for years. We all face decisions related to building and maintaining capacity, deciding on programmatic approach, establishing project pipelines, defining success, making a substantial impact, and—perhaps most crucially—sustaining our programs, not only for the important work they facilitate but for the people they help employ. Legislative advocacy can play a vital role in creating programmatic sustainability. It relieves dependence on philanthropic support, creates a broader, more collaborative network, resulting in diversified resources and expanded partnerships, establishes precedence, and helps to cement preservation as a legitimate and worthwhile solution at all levels. Hear from Nick Redding, President & CEO of Preservation Maryland, on how the organization has facilitated the work accomplished through its own program by building support, securing funds, and reducing red tape through legislative action.

The Main Street program was created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a holistic approach to downtown revitalization and economic development. Achieving an authentic sense of place that respects and reflects the history of the built environment is a challenge in many communities, based on lack of available resources and local knowledge. Many Main Street programs rely heavily on local preservation leaders and historians for guidance on how to restore their downtown assets. Learn how historic preservation and authentic experiences combine to become an economic development engine for nearly 2,000 communities across America.

You’ve probably heard of YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard), but you may be less familiar with YIGBY – Yes in God’s Back Yard. As the affordable housing crisis deepens nationwide, communities are looking for solutions in unexpected places, including underutilized religious property. YIGBY is a growing movement that supports faith institutions in leveraging their land for housing and broader community benefit, an approach with enormous potential for impact. Yet many congregations lack expertise in real estate, zoning, and development, and are often hesitant to engage in policy or development conversations. This session will highlight YIGBY success stories, share original research, and feature a congregant whose faith community has successfully built housing.

Over 85 years, Preservation North Carolina (PNC) has protected nearly 950 historic properties across North Carolina. How has PNC grown, changed and evolved? What have been the highs and lows? When and how did PNC get into the transactional property business? Revolving fund? Endangered Property Program? HPRP? This session will focus on the broad timeline, challenges, and successes of one of the nation’s leading statewide preservation nonprofits.

In this presentation, long-time President of the Cleveland Restoration Society will explain the development of the Heritage Home Program^SM , a housing program that provides free homeowner technical assistance and low-interest loans. Now in its 33^rd year of operation, the program started small but has been built into a large and productive county housing service. Along the way, the Society has accepted donated real estate and sued to prevent historic property deterioration.

The Village of Industry & Art (VIA) is a new creative campus rising on Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts—a dynamic, evolving ecosystem for artists, makers, and mission-driven organizations at the intersection of culture, craft, and civic life. Developed by Scout, the project spans over 110,000 square feet across 1.9 acres, reactivating two iconic buildings—formerly Hamilton and Furness Halls of the University of the Arts—through an adaptive reuse approach that prioritizes affordability, minimal intervention, and community-first design. Inspired by Scout’s Bok Building model, VIA is not just a redevelopment; it is a living village for cultural production, where residential life, creative labor, and civic engagement coexist.

How do you know if a building is a good candidate for historic rehabilitation? Can you anticipate potential pitfalls and steer clear of setbacks? We will explore how to evaluate a building being considered for redevelopment. How can you identify red flags before they become problems to help the team make solid decisions and keep the project on track.

Preservation easements are in many ways the best tool in our arsenal, and yet many preservation groups shy away from them. Instead of asking how can we use easements to permanently protect important historic properties, we quibble about fees, IRS audits, enforcement issues, and other potential roadblocks that ultimately lead to inaction. Do we really need to get an A+ in every class? Isn’t a B+ sometimes perfectly fine? Myrick Howard, retired president of Preservation North Carolina, will provide food for thought about why every preservation organization might want to consider having a dedicated staff person for easements.

Speaker Bio

From 1978 to 2023, Myrick Howard served as President of Preservation North Carolina, the state’s only statewide private nonprofit preservation organization.  During his tenure, Preservation NC became one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious statewide preservation organizations.  The National Park Service referred to Preservation North Carolina as “the premier statewide preservation organization in the South — if not the nation.” 

A Durham native, Myrick attended Brown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his Master’s degree in city planning and a law degree in 1978.  In 2006, he participated in the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.  In the fall of 2024, he entered Duke University’s Graduate Liberal Studies program.

Since 1988, he has taught a graduate seminar on Historic Preservation Planning each year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  His book Buying Time for Heritage, now in a new edition from UNC Press, is used extensively around the country in preservation education programs.

Through the years, Myrick has received a number of national, statewide and local awards, including the 2023 Louise DuPont Crowninshield Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nation’s highest preservation award.  He was also named 2023 Tar Heel of the Year by the (Raleigh) News and Observer. In 1996, he was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr.  

Myrick lives in a 1939 historic duplex, his eighth renovation.

The Wayne Junction Historic District, bordering lower Germantown and upper Nicetown, was once a bustling Philadelphia industrial center known as “Workshop of the World.” In the later decades of the 1900s, Wayne Junction experienced disinvestment and decline as manufacturing moved elsewhere, leaving many of the buildings vacant and deteriorated. Join real estate developer Ken Weinstein for a tour of the historic Wayne Junction area to get a closer look at his redevelopment projects while experiencing Philadelphia’s historical importance in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the hope and potential for Wayne Junction’s future.