Preservation Magazine's Favorite Photos of 2019
In what has become an annual tradition, I spend some time at work in advance of the new year looking back through the pages of Preservation magazine and remembering the places we've featured throughout the past year. And because I know you appreciate the beauty of historic places as much as I do, I select my favorite images to highlight here.
The nine photos I've selected as my favorites this year (including the Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66 shown above), represent some of the most gorgeous examples of photography we've featured but also a handful of memorable places I've been fortunate enough to visit myself. The types of places depicted in these photos run the spectrum from stunning architecture to serene vistas and historic landscapes. Up first . . . amazing architecture.
photo by: Randall Connaughton
Part of our "40 under 40" selection of important historic places less than 40 years old, Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, was a favorite of National Trust supporters when asked to rank their most important places from our list of 40.
photo by: Jeffrey Totaro
A recent restoration of the Walters Art Museum's Hackerman House in Baltimore features a Tiffany stained-glass skylight that caps the building's ornate spiral staircase.
photo by: Lee Bey
Chicago writer and photographer Lee Bey is documenting the overlooked architecture of the city's South Side. Shown here is Pride Cleaners on East 79th Street.
photo by: Ryan Kurtz
A National Trust campaign in Cincinnati helped save the city's Union Terminal, which now operates as the Cincinnati Museum Center. The building’s soaring rotunda measures 106 feet tall at its highest point and features two glass mosaic murals, one depicting the history of the United States, the other the history of Cincinnati.
While architecture is often the first thing people think of when they consider historic preservation, we know that vast landscapes, neighborhoods, campuses of connected structures, trails, and sacred vistas can be equally historic and significant. Here are a few of my favorite photos from 2019 capturing places that are bigger than just one building.
photo by: ©David Guttenfelder/National Geographic
Route 66 is one of the National Trust's National Treasures and is poised to become a National Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service. Much of the original Route 66 highway conformed to the natural landscape in a way that newer interstates do not, giving travelers a visceral appreciation for the country's diverse terrain.
photo by: NRAO/AUI/NSF, Jeff Hellerman
Also among the "40 under 40" favorites as voted on by National Trust supporters, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), located in central New Mexico consists of 27 radio dishes that create a single telescope capable of picking up radio signals from millions of light years away.
photo by: Visit Maine
Maine’s Portland Head Light and keeper's quarters (now a museum) is perhaps the most photographed lighthouse in the nation. George Washington commissioned the construction of the lighthouse, which was completed circa 1791.
photo by: Ian MacLellan
Restoration of the Longfellow Bridge, which connects Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a winner of the National Trust's 2019 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Awards. The restoration project included the addition of new lighting that illuminates the arches of the bridge at night.
