All around us, people are saving historic places. Whether they are community activists, grassroots advocates, architects, or formally trained preservationists, they each bring with them a passion for the past and a drive to protect the cultural heritage all around us. During Women’s History Month—and as part of our campaign for Where Women Made History—we are interviewing five women who illustrate the many ways we can protect historic spaces. In this interview we hear from Sara Bronin, a Mexican American architect, attorney, and policy maker.

Sara Bronin is a woman who wears many hats. Her interdisciplinary approach to preservation leverages her expertise as a lawyer, writer, and policymaker to lead conversations related to urban planning, transportation, real estate, climate change, and sustainability. Her recent projects include leading the research team behind the Connecticut Zoning Atlas, and in 2020 she founded DesegregateCT, a pro-homes grassroots coalition that “successfully advanced the first major statewide zoning reforms in several decades.”

Bronin is the current nominee for the position of chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and she currently serves as an advisor for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. [Ed. note: On December 22, 2022, Bronin was confirmed as the Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). We look forward to working with her as the second full-time Chair of the ACHP and continuing the National Trust’s more than seventy-year history of working with the Advisory Council.]

Listen to Sara Bronin describe, in her own words, about the ways in which local governments regulate historic places, and the role preservation plays in response to climate change.

In Her Own Words

I am Sara Bronin, a professor at Cornell University who focuses on historic preservation and land use law.

As a researcher, I've explored preservation issues from a variety of angles, writing on everything from the designation process to rehabilitation tax credits. Right now, I’m really excited to be researching how local governments regulate historic places. It turns out that we don’t really know how many local governments have historic regulation. And what’s worse, we really don’t know what those local laws say.

Unfortunately, some laws prevent us from fortifying, relocating, or modifying our places to protect them from these risks. We have seen that’s the case from Alaska to New Orleans. What’s more, disaster management policies don’t give us the tools we need to plan for or mitigate the impacts of natural hazards on historic sites. My work examines those laws and policies and encourages us as preservationists to figure out whether it's time to update them in the face of new realities.

Fortunately, many preservationists around the country have engaged in this issue, including many convened by the National Trust.

Similarly, we have seen increased interest in ensuring that preservation itself becomes more inclusive. Through the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, we have seen significant engagement on a national level in sites that have long gone overlooked. I’m proud to have served on the board of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, which shines a light on Latino cultural and historic sites, and is also opening the door for more Latinos to enter the field of preservation. And there are other groups all over the country who are also advancing underrepresented communities in historic preservation. All of that is really exciting.

Along those lines, I'd like to take this chance to draw some attention to a unique and important site of cultural heritage. It's in my hometown of Houston, Texas. It is the historically African American Fourth Ward neighborhood, which is seeing new attention thanks to Houston Freedmen's Town Conservancy (HFTC) and several other local organizations. They are working to restore landmarks, public art, and brick streets, through the lens of the experience of formerly enslaved people who created this neighborhood.