In each Transitions section of Preservation magazine, we highlight places of local and national importance that have recently been restored, are currently threatened, have been saved from demolition or neglect, or have been lost. Here are five from Fall 2024.

Restored: Hillside Theater at Taliesin

When Frank Lloyd Wright created the first iteration of the building that would eventually become known as Hillside at his Taliesin property just south of Spring Green, Wisconsin, the architect had not yet become a household name. Wright designed the Hillside Home School, completed in 1903, for his aunts, who operated a progressive boarding school there. When his Taliesin Fellowship program began in the early 1930s, he converted the school’s multipurpose space into a dedicated theater, known today as Hillside Theater. After a brush fire destroyed a portion of the building in 1952, Wright—by that point one of the world’s most celebrated architects—redesigned the structure and had it rebuilt.

Hillside Theater has been a stop on Taliesin’s tour program since the 1990s, but a $1.1 million restoration completed in June 2024 will allow the theater to find its footing as a public-facing venue. Largely undertaken in-house by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the restoration remedied water infiltration issues and improved the building’s accessibility. A grant from the National Trust covered a portion of the interior work. The team cleaned and refinished historic materials, including original stonework that survived the fire. Conservators restored the theater’s curtain, designed by Wright and crafted by his fellowship apprentices in 1956 for his 89th birthday. “With the work completed, we are now able to actively seek performers and acts we want to host,” says Ryan Hewson, director of preservation at Taliesin.

Threatened: Ingersoll's Tavern

Built and owned by Nathaniel Ingersoll circa 1670, Ingersoll’s Tavern sat at the heart of Salem Village, known today as Danvers, Massachusetts. It’s one of only a handful of still-standing structures with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of the early 1690s, but the building is threatened by neglect, and locals are trying to save it before it’s too late. A well-respected member of his community, Ingersoll served as a key witness during the trials, says Dan Gagnon, who chairs Danvers’ historic district commission and has authored a book about the witch trials. “He himself is not a person making accusations, but he ends up testifying,” says Gagnon.

Several accusers claimed to be targeted by witchcraft at the tavern, and at least one of the accused is believed to have been questioned there, “but others were held there [until] their questioning,” Gagnon adds. A private, out-of-state buyer purchased the property in 2011. Since then, Gagnon says, “it has been entirely neglected.” A hole in the roof from a fallen tree remains, likely allowing water to infiltrate. Gagnon and concerned community members led an effort to create a new bylaw that was adopted in May and would allow the town’s building commissioner to order a property owner to make essential repairs to a historic structure if a voluntary agreement cannot be negotiated. The tavern has also been accepted to the state attorney general’s abandoned properties program. Gagnon hopes the town can save this piece of witch-trial history. “It’s just so rare,” he says.

Saved: Parkland School

A community-led organization saved a historic school in western Washington, once threatened by demolition, by purchasing it earlier this year. Parkland School, designed by architect W.J. Plouffe, first opened in 1908 in unincorporated Pierce County, just outside Tacoma, Washington. Some original doors and windows from the eight-room school remain intact, as does the “Parkland School” sign on the building’s east elevation. The facade also features a cornice with flat modillions, pilasters framing the main entry, and a parapet over the center bay, according to a preservation plan prepared with grant support from the National Trust.

The school was eventually leased to Pacific Lutheran University (PLU), which bought the property in 1990. In 2015, PLU began exploring the idea of selling it, and in 2022 a developer interested in the property attempted to delist the building from the Pierce County Register of Historic Places. The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation placed the school on its Most Endangered Places list that year. Following advocacy by the community association, PLU agreed to adjust the lot lines, which the school had previously straddled, allowing the Parkland Community Assn. to purchase Parkland School in May of 2024. The association’s Wendy Freeman says the plans include bringing in tenants that provide essential services and supplying a meeting space for local organizations.

Lost: Provo Utah Temple

A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brent Ashworth witnessed the dedication of the church’s Provo Temple in 1972. “Some people didn’t care for it, thought it was too much like a cake or a spaceship ready to take off,” he says of the Provo, Utah, temple designed by Emil B. Fetzer, an acquaintance of Ashworth’s architect father. “Its design grew on all of us.” More than five decades later, Ashworth watched its demolition. Renamed the Provo Utah Temple in 1999, the single-spire structure’s exterior was made of precast concrete, gold anodized aluminum grilles, and bronze glass panels.

A very similar temple in Ogden, Utah, also designed by Fetzer, received a major renovation in the 2010s that drastically changed its appearance, raising questions about whether its Provo counterpart might follow the same fate. In 2021, church officials announced that the Provo Utah Temple would be torn down, and a new temple named the Provo Utah Rock Canyon Temple would be built on the site. Demolition began in April 2024 and was completed by July. Ashworth says that while “there were deep feelings of sorrow when they were tearing it down,” he and others in the Latter-day Saints community are now “looking forward to the new one.”

Threatened: Golden State Woolen Mills

Golden State Woolen Mills was first established in 1915 in Long Beach, California, but a fire destroyed the company’s original buildings. Golden State rebuilt the mill in 1921, this time with a water tower for added fire protection. Today it’s one of the oldest extant water towers in Southern California, but the tower and the rest of the historic mill are threatened by demolition. Constructed of brick, concrete, and steel, the building features a sawtooth roof and angled skylights, says Louise Ivers, vice president of advocacy at Long Beach Heritage. The site eventually became home to SnugTop, a camper-shell manufacturing company with a recognizable red logo that still appears on the building.