 Good evening. On behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, I welcome you to the 2020 National Preservation Awards. I'm Bob Vila, and I have the distinct privilege of being here with you today as we honor the people who transform, restore, and bring extraordinary vision to our communities throughout the nation. I think it's fair to say that buildings, especially homes, are my life's work. I know the power of place to transform people and communities. I've seen it through my work in broadcast television and through building homes with organizations such as the Peace Corps and Habitat for Humanities. Over the years, I've supported many causes dealing with housing and architectural preservation, and more recently, I've been involved in the restoration of Ernest Hemingway's home in Cuba. And so it's a great honor and privilege to be here today as we honor the incredible group of people and places that have made a significant impact in their communities. In one of the many ironies of 2020, we celebrate the power of place, and yet we can't be in a physical place together for this event. But inspired by the strength and resilience of today's honorees, we adapt. In fact, I'd hope to be with you in person at the historic Olympia Theater in Miami, my hometown, where the National Trust originally planned to hold this ceremony. Now, Miami is my birthplace, my hometown, in my earliest memories of going to the movies, always centered on the Olympia Theater. My parents and my sister and I would go on a Saturday evening. Back in the day, they still had floor shows before the show, but for me, it was the building itself. You looked up and you felt like you were outside at night. The dark ceilings were the twinkling lights and surrounded by arches and columns, giving you the feeling of being in an old Spanish palace. But here we are in a beautiful old wailing church in Martha's Vineyard. I hope that today's ceremony will inspire, uplift, and encourage you to continue your preservation efforts in the places that are meaningful to you and your community. And now on to our first award of the evening. Each year, the National Trust honors an organization that has demonstrated outstanding and continued achievement in historic preservation. This year's honoree has been working for almost 50 years to save and preserve one of the great American cities. They have shown us that a small group of people can have a tremendous impact. Take a look. Against tremendous odds in a city with a newer, bigger, better attitude, one organization has worked tirelessly to change the narrative around Dallas' historic places. Using innovative programs and advocacy, Preservation Dallas has saved historic places against one's reluctant city leadership and developers eager to demolish historic buildings. Originally called the Historic Preservation League, the organization started in the 1970s with their first preservation ordinance. This early work set the stage for 48 years of sustained success, which has resulted in 20 historic districts and over 130 individual landmarks. As one of the founders of the Historic Preservation League, Virginia McAllister was a key figure in efforts to designate historic sites across Dallas. With a staff of three, a dedicated volunteer board, and the support of countless other volunteers, Preservation Dallas has created educational programs, articles, architectural style guides, and tours that have saved the landscape of Dallas. Recent accomplishments include successful advocacy for the 10th Street Historic District, one of the only remaining intact Freedmen's towns in the nation. Preservation Dallas placed the district on its endangered list in 2018, and in 2019, they joined with the National Trust to successfully stop court-ordered demolitions. Through organizing, advocacy, and working with lenders, they have fought tirelessly for historic structures that have no voice of their own. It's with great pleasure that I present Preservation Dallas and honor the legacy of Virginia Savage McAllister, which this year's Trustees Award for Organizational Excellence. Howdy y'all from Dallas, Texas. Preservation Dallas is most honored to be receiving this prestigious award. It means a great deal to us after 48 years of preservation work. It took our early founders like Virginia Savage McAllister a lot of work to convince people that historic preservation was important and that it was a community revitalization tool. Now Preservation Dallas has a seat at the table when it comes to preservation issues at the city, so we're very pleased that we've come this far and we hope to take it even further. This award really goes to the many, many people who have fought tirelessly over the years to save Dallas's historic places. Thank you to the National Trust for this most amazing award. Thank you, David, and Preservation Dallas. Each year, the National Trust recognizes success and innovation at a historic site. This year, our honoree has taken the neglected Bush-Holly House, once an epicenter for American Impressionism, and transformed it into a space of promise and possibility. In the late 19th and 20th century, the Bush-Holly House was the epicenter of Costco in Greenwich, Connecticut, the cradle of American Impressionism. We're now artists gathered here to paint and share ideas about art and society, but development and the invasion of modern roadways left the Bush-Holly House isolated and deserted. In 1957, the Greenwich Historical Society saved the building from destruction and restored it as their headquarters. Through active engagement with the community and a varied approach to financial sustainability, they have brought these structures back to life and created a larger campus by acquiring adjacent properties over time. The design protects, restores, and unifies historic buildings while providing programs that serve the community with exhibits, gardens, public programs, archives, collection storage, and extensive school programs. The site is now a member of the historic artists' homes and studios program. Visitors can explore the area's role in northern slavery, wander the Impressionistic Gardens, which inspired a generation of painters and take in exhibits about immigration, refugees, and women's suffrage. Through the restoration of buildings and programming, the Greenwich Historical Society is providing the Greenwich community with a needed connection to its rich history. Pleased to present this year's Trustees Emeritus Award for Historic Site Stewardship to the Greenwich Historical Society for their preservation of the Bush-Holly House and their commitment to community. Hi, this is Peter Balkan speaking to you from my home in Greenwich, Connecticut. On behalf of the board of the Greenwich Historical Society, of which my wife, Isabelle, is the senior member, and on behalf of David Scott Parker, the architect who redesigned the campus of the Greenwich Historical Society, I am delighted to accept this award. When the restoration was completed in October 2019, there was a very sharp increase in the number of visitors to the campus of the Greenwich Historical Society, and the people are really very, very pleasantly surprised at the beautiful campus that now surrounds the Historical Society. It's a wonderful place to visit, and we encourage everybody to come and see it for themselves. Thank you very much, National Trust for Historic Preservation, for recognizing this program. Thank you, Peter, and Greenwich Historical Society. The John H. Chaffee Trustees Award for Public Policy recognizes achievement in preservation advocacy. This year, we're recognizing a legislative victory that will save our nation's parks. More than four years ago, the National Parks Conservation Association and other partners joined efforts as part of the Restore Our Parks campaign to help tackle the nearly $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog of the National Parks Service. A separate decades-long campaign, led by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, LWCF Coalition, and their partners, worked to provide full permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. After years of extraordinary advocacy, these two campaigns joined to support the Great American Outdoors Act, which passed the Congress by overwhelmingly bipartisan votes and was signed into law on August 4th, 2020. This landmark legislation will invest up to $9.5 billion to repair historic and other assets of the National Parks Service and other federal agencies, as well as fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually. This represents the largest investment in historic resources in more than a generation. We are proud to honor the remarkable campaign championed by the National Parks Conservation Association, the National Park Foundation and the Core Network to address the deferred maintenance needs of federal lands and the LWCF Coalition, the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land for securing full permanent funding for the LWCF. I'm truly honored to accept this award on behalf of the LWCF Coalition. We have worked for decades to fulfill a promise to the American people to fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. A key voice in that effort was yours, so thank you to the National Trust for your unwavering commitment. The Great American Outdoors Act is a major step towards fixing our national parks. But this is just the first step. Congress must provide the robust funding so that America's most iconic and inspirational places continue to thrive, now and into the future. And so we can increase access to public lands for all, no matter where they live. One piece at a time, LWCF has protected innumerable special places, from Bandelier to Harper's Ferry to Martin Luther King Junior's birthplace to Flight 93 and everywhere in between. But our history is still being told, and now because of your work with the Coalition, LWCF is permanently funded. Your efforts to protect and preserve our current and future heritage for every generation is assured. So thank you again for this award and for all you have done to achieve this landmark victory. We hope you will continue to join us. Thank you again for this wonderful honor. As I mentioned, today I'm joining you from the Old Wailing Church. It's a beautiful historic church in Edgerton, Massachusetts, here on the island of Martha's Vineyard. I've loved it here for a very long time, and this place is especially important to all of us islanders. The Old Wailing Church is one of the finest examples of Greek revival architecture in New England. In 1980, the church was acquired by the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust, an organization on whose board I serve, and now it serves as a key community space on the island. The National Trust and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation have joined together to celebrate collaboration between federal agencies and non-federal partners that result in exemplary preservation outcomes. Please welcome, I'm A. George Johnny, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to present this year's award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation. I am honored to be here to present the Joint National Trust Advisory Council and Historic Preservation Award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation. The CHP is an independent federal agency that promotes the preservation and productive use of our nation's historic resources. The National Trust is a member of our council and we are grateful for our working relationship. For over 50 years, the CHP has encouraged federal agencies to be good stewards of their historic properties. This award honors outstanding partnerships that preserve important historic resources and have an impact on their communities. It celebrates a project or a program in which a federal agency or one or more non-federal partners has worked together to achieve an outcome that is made possible because of this collaboration. Tonight, we celebrate a model program that is an example of a federal agency working with partners across the country and to the benefit of a multitude of communities and historic resources. The result is a win-win for the taxpayer and for the public. We are thrilled to be presenting this award tonight. Leveraging its historic building inventory, the General Services Administration established its National Historic Preservation Act section 111 Out Lease program in 1999 with no comparable models in the federal government. This nationwide program leases space in historic federally owned buildings for rehabilitation and reuse by the community. In some instances, private partners pay for the capital improvements which benefit the property and the buildings are preserved through a creative team approach. Throughout the U.S., these out leases make federal buildings more accessible to the public, and it attributes to the vitality of the surrounding community. In the 20 years since its inception, the program has earned more than $173 million in income, money which is then dedicated to the preservation of GSA's owned historic buildings. The program has funded hundreds of preservation projects and incentivized the leasing of excess space. Annual income from the program has grown from $575,000 in its first year to more than $12 million today. In Los Angeles, the National Historic Landmark U.S. Courthouse is now housing 140,000 square feet of state courts functions. In Alabama, the Montgomery Greyhound bus station is leased by the Alabama Historical Commission and has been adapted as the Freedom Rides Museum, one of the few civil rights sites operated by the state. The Freedom Rides Museum is now recognized as an official designation of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail along with more than 100 locations across 14 states. Led by the Center for Historic Buildings Office of the Chief Architect, the program is an innovative federal agency model for the effective use of excess space in historic buildings. Through these effective public-private partnerships, thousands of residents have seen a revitalization of their community, increased small business opportunities, and importantly, the improved utilization of historic public buildings. Hi, I'm Dan Matthews, Commissioner for the Public Building Service at the General Services Administration. And on behalf of GSA, thank you. It is an honor to accept the 2020 Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation Award for the GSA Section 111 Outleasing Program. Since its inception over 20 years ago, the GSA Outleasing Program has restored and increased the public benefit of federally-owned historic properties across the country. Section 111, specifically, has over 700 outleases in 198 historic buildings. GSA's outleases make otherwise highly secure federal buildings more accessible to the public. They also contribute to the economic health and vitality of the community. We are proud to be a partner in the effort to restore and preserve the country's heritage while delivering value to the American people. I'd like to publicly thank my GSA colleagues, Beth L. Savage, Director of our Center for Historic Buildings, Sarah Garner, Section 111 Program Manager, Jeff Jensen, Brian Tai, Rob Lacy, G.G. Peel, and Jason Mack for their historic building stewardship and commitment to the GSA mission. The American Express Aspire Award recognizes emerging leaders in preservation. To present this year's honorees, please welcome Susan Chapman Hughes from American Express. Good evening. I'm Susan Chapman Hughes, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Digital Capabilities Transformation and Operations at American Express, as well as a trustee emerita of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I'm so pleased to present the 2020 American Express Aspire Award, which highlights the promise and potential of the preservation field through its talented emerging leaders. As part of the National Trust Where Women Made History campaign, American Express has supported the important work to identify, elevate, and preserve the historic places that tell the stories of women, of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, and identities, whose vision, passion, and determination has shaped the country through our Partners in Preservation Program. With the National Trust, we have already awarded $2 million in funding to preserve and protect 20 places across the country that demonstrate women's lasting impact on American history and society. One of those impacts is the vital role that women have played in the preservation movement since its inception, and with this year's Aspire Award, we celebrate the achievements of three accomplished young women who each use their unique backgrounds to bring meaning to their preservation work, an activist and architect from Brooklyn, a structural engineer from Chicago, and a preservation planner from Chattanooga. Individually, these women are standouts in their careers and communities, but together they offer an inspiring vision of the future of the preservation movement. The American Express Aspire Award honors three strong and powerful women that are changing the landscape of their communities. In Brooklyn, New York, Sue Milena then is the president and founder of Preserving East New York, a bilingual preservation and advocacy group. She is also the preservation manager of Weeksville Heritage Center. The mission of Preserving East New York is to protect culture and historic structures through landmarking East New York. They focus on educating underrepresented citizens about the importance of their voice within preservation. Sue Milena engages fellow New Yorkers through stands at local farmers markets, bilingual tours in her neighborhood, and heart-bombing actions that show community love for local landmarks. Through her tireless advocacy and preservation, Sue Milena is actively providing a space for people of color to join the conversation. She is changing the narrative and communities that have long been stigmatized by the media and outsiders. In Illinois, Allison Tunen-Talamo advocates tirelessly for the preservation and improvement of historic structures. A first-generation Mexican-American professional, Allison has used her personal history to advocate, energize, and improve communities impacted by development. Bringing her knowledge of engineering, Allison played a pivotal role in preserving the National Landmarked Board Trimotor Hanger in Lansing, Illinois. This led to increased foot traffic and awareness to the smaller and underserved communities near Chicago. It is now a point of pride for the Lansing community. Allison is also engaging and educating young people to join the preservationist community through her role as chair of the Landmarks Illinois Skyline Council, which is building the next generation of leaders working in the built environment. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Melissa Mordemer works as a historic preservation planner. Leveraging over a million dollars in state and federal grant funds, she was able to restore and transform many important buildings, including the famous historic Rhea County Courthouse. Alongside the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Park Service, she works to interpret and preserve the Cherokee removal, which is part of the Trail of Tears. Melissa noticed a lack of awareness and education in preservation in Chattanooga. To fill this void, she organized Preservation Chattanooga, a new program of cornerstones which offers workshops and basic restoration techniques. Melissa formed a restoration and consulting LLC, founded a youth preservationist group and harnesses the power of social media to reach and educate folks in her community. She is empowering them to participate in local preservation efforts. Through their expertise in engineering, city planning, and advocacy, these three women are emerging leaders who are changing the landscape of preservation and creating a new future. Please join me in welcoming three amazing women who are changing the future of preservation. Allison Tunan-Tolamo, Melissa Mordemer, and Zou Milena-Ven. Thank you so much the National Trust in recognizing my work with preserving East New York. Getting this recognition is important to me because it's about changing the narrative of East New York. We focus on the love, the passion, the work of the community into moving this neighborhood forward. We use preservation as a tool not to just save buildings, but preservation for us is about saving communities because black and brown communities matter. And before we say that buildings matter, black lives matter. I would like to humbly, graciously thank the National Trust for giving opportunities such as these for individuals to projects and letting us shine and having a voice to speak up. It is important work. Those of us in preservation are the gatekeepers of our history. Ensuring the stories connected to our built environment are told. I would love to thank my family, especially my mom, for always being by my side throughout these inventors in my career and my education. And I would especially like to thank all my mentors who have molded me, challenged me, educated me, and provided me the guidance necessary to become the person I am today. Thank you. I'm so honored to be one of the recipients of this year's American Express Aspire Award, especially that I get to share it with two other amazing women. I love that someone in southeast Tennessee like myself can share an award with people doing great things in Chicago and New York. It just goes to show with preservation. Every place has its story. Every building has its story. So at the end of the day, as long as I can just have someone have a different outlook or notice a building on their commute that they didn't notice before, I consider it a win. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. Thank you so much. Thank you, Allison, Melissa, and Zule Milena, for inspiring us all. It's now time for the prestigious Richard H. Dreehouse National Preservation Awards, which are given to recipients who have reached the highest level of achievement in historic preservation. I'm pleased to welcome Anne Lazar, the Executive Director of the Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation. Good evening. I'm pleased to be with you tonight from the beautiful headquarters of Dreehouse Capital Management as we celebrate the Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation National Preservation Award recipients. For the fifth year, the Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation is presenting these awards in partnership with the National Trust to recognize the best of the best in historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and the reimagining of historic buildings for the future. The Dreehouse Foundation was established in 1992 and over the years has provided dedicated support to the built environment and historic preservation. Thank you to the National Trust for these three decades of partnership and for continuing to be an unwavering steward for these awards. Tonight's recipients not only remind us of the potential of historic places to tell the full history of our country, but also demonstrate how innovative historic preservation solutions can serve the unique needs of any community. Among them are a public health facility focusing on women's and LGBTQ health for underserved populations in New York City, a unique architectural site in Memphis that honors a long legacy of black-owned businesses and community empowerment, and the adaptive reuse of a historic house into a creative urban farming solution for the Matapan neighborhood of Boston. I'm honored to introduce this collection of inspiring projects which speak to the resilience and relevance of the historic preservation movement during such a challenging year. Please join me in celebrating the achievements of the 2020 Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation National Preservation Award winners. Our first Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation National Preservation Awardee exemplifies how historic preservation can be used to meet an important need of the community. Just five years ago, the oldest farm still in existence in Boston was in disrepair. The Epstein estate who owned the property was in a legal battle with the city over demolition by neglect. A designated Boston landmark, the farm is a unique property that expresses the demographic and social evolution of the neighborhood of Matapan over the course of 400 years. Fighting hard to keep the property, historic Boston Incorporated acquired it in 2015. The newly named Fowler-Clark Epstein Farm underwent an extensive restoration which transformed the farm set into a 21st century urban farm, now managed by the Urban Farming Institute. Using demonstration farm beds, classroom spaces, a teaching kitchen and processing facilities, the Fowler-Clark Epstein Farm is working with the Matapan community, a largely African-American and immigrant neighborhood with one of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the city to improve food access and turn this space into an urban farming training center. With the support of over 500 community members and friends, in 2018 the farm celebrated its dedication with a mission to end the so-called food desert by training new farmers, expanding the number of small farms and offering access to fresh produce for years to come. Join me in welcoming Kathy Cateritas with Historic Boston Incorporated. Greetings from the Fowler-Clark Epstein Farm in the Boston neighborhood of Matapan. On behalf of Historic Boston, Inc., the Urban Farming Institute of Boston, the Trust for Public Land and North Bennett Street School, I'm excited to accept this honor that celebrates a wonderful renewal of an important historic place. At the Fowler-Clark Epstein Farm, hundreds of people will be obtaining access to fresh food, learning how to cultivate food, and seeing their neighborhood and their community in a completely new way. And for the rest of us, this is really a great model for how to bring people and resources together to achieve the impossible. Historic Boston and our partners are grateful to the Dree House Foundation, to the National Trust, and to many leaders here in Boston, including our mayor, Martin Walsh. Last but not least, we thank the neighborhood of Matapan, a spirited group of residents who kept up their hopes for this place. On behalf of the entire team working on this project, we're very grateful for this honor. Thank you. Our second honoree demonstrates the significance of investing in public facilities for community use. In 1930s New York City, health centers were nearly absent from many neighborhoods. Built in 1937, the Chelsea District Health Center. Renamed the Leona Baumgartner District Health Center in 2002. After the first woman to head the city's health department is one of New York's historic New Deal-era district health centers, which brought primary health care to underserved communities throughout the city. But after decades of use, they fell into disrepair. With the goal of reducing HIV cases through STD education training and treatment, in early 2000s, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene decided to transform these buildings into state-of-the-art sexual health clinics. In 2018, under the guidance of Stephen Javelin Architecture, the historic 23,600 square foot center reopened to the public. The creative design of the transformed WPA building is inspired by its unique location inside a public park. It reinvents the clinic experience by creating a welcoming environment where everyone feels deserving of dignity and respect. The Chelsea District Health Center serves as a model example of how to upgrade historic and obsolete medical facilities and uplift sexual health clinics that were once stigmatized places. I'm pleased to welcome Stephen Javelin of the Chelsea District Health Center. Wow, thank you so much for this very prestigious award. We really are very grateful to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Richard Dreehouse Foundation. What an honor. And also thanks to our team at Stephen Javelin Architecture and our partners, Department of Design and Construction and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of New York City, for helping make this an innovative project. It's a beautiful site. It's a city block. It's a city park. And this building sits right in the middle of it. And even though the park has been well kept, the building had fallen into disrepair. The city made the decision that instead of selling them, that they were going to renovate them, what's, I think, historic architecturally is that it was probably the first time that the city of New York used architecture to express that healthcare was as important as libraries and police stations. This transformation restates what the original building communicated, that high quality healthcare is an essential right and an important function of civic government. Thank you. Our final Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation National Preservation Award recognizes a building that's a testament to generations of African-American empowerment. Designed by the renowned African-American architecture firm, McKissick & McKissick, the Universal Life Insurance Building, with its expansive limestone facade and unique Egyptian revival style, opened in Memphis in 1949 to great fanfare. Owned by the rapidly expanding Universal Life Insurance Company, which provided an array of community services with the goal of improving the economic condition of people of color, the building was also a meeting place for organizers of the civil rights movement, such as Jesse Jackson and Sammy Davis Jr. In 1973, Universal Life was the largest black-owned business in Memphis. After many decades of service to the community, the company closed its doors in the early 2000s. In 2006, self and Tucker architects purchased the building and began a decade-long journey to save the building. They used the federal historic tax credit and other financing to restore and enhance this historic space, and were able to do so with tight resources. In partnership with the city of Memphis, the work was completed in 2018 and now serves as the office space for self and Tucker architects and the city of Memphis's Business Development Center, which provides economic development resources for black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Jimmy Tucker and Juan Self of the Universal Life Insurance Company building. We want to thank the National Trust for recognizing the Universal Life Insurance Building with this prestigious award. I also want to take time to thank my partner Jimmy Tucker and the great team of design professionals that made this possible. This project encompasses the preservation and adaptive reuse of a historic Egyptian Revival Office building designed by McKissick and McKissick architects. It is prominently located on the Memphis Heritage Trail and embodies significant regional civil rights history and national business history. And it's now home to our firm Self Tucker Architects and the city of Memphis Business Development Center containing multiple tenants. This innovative public-private partnership was a critical aspect of the successful building revitalization. Each day we are honored to build on this inspirational past for a promising and more environmentally sustainable future. We're thrilled and honored to be a part of this cultural, historic and economic icon in the city of Memphis. Congratulations to our three wonderful Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation National Preservation Award winners. I'm pleased to be joined tonight by Paul Edmondson, President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to talk about the impact of these awards on their communities. Thank you, Bob. And congratulations again to the Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation National Preservation Award recipients and to all award recipients of the night thus far. Tonight we've seen the extraordinary accomplishments of people around the country who are strengthening their communities through historic preservation. As these awards demonstrate, preservation has the power to uplift untold stories to make our communities more just and equitable and to improve our health and our well-being. I can't think of a better group to represent preservation's positive impacts than tonight's honorees. It's with the support of the Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation and American Express that we're able to raise awareness of these important inspiring projects, organizations, historic sites, partnerships and individuals who are serving their communities and strengthening the preservation field as a whole. Sincere thanks to both of our sponsors for their generous support and for their deep commitment to historic preservation efforts across the United States. And now the final and highest honor of the night, the Louise Dupont Crown and Shield Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Historic Preservation to present the award, J. Clemens, National Trust Chair of the Board of Trustees. Congratulations again to all the recipients of the 2020 National Preservation Awards. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I now have the privilege of presenting the National Trust's highest honor, the Louise Dupont Crown and Shield Award for Superlative Achievement in the Field of Historic Preservation. This year we honor a true visionary in preservation, community planning and revitalization. As shopping malls and big box retailers became prominent throughout the United States in the 1970s, once prosperous historic downtowns were being neglected and abandoned across the country. That's when Mary Means stepped up to meet this challenge and in doing so changed the way that communities looked at the value of their historic commercial districts. Throughout her expansive career, Mary has been dedicated to fostering innovative preservation solutions and empowering people to promote and enhance what is special about their communities. Mary's strategic vision, dedication and leadership are evident in the success of Main Street America, an organization that is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary of supporting preservation-based economic development and community revitalization in more than 1600 urban and rural communities. On Main Streets across this country, Mary is both a legend and a hero. Her work has not only preserved the fabric of hundreds of historic neighborhoods, but she has also helped communities come together to recognize and celebrate the cultural and economic value of their distinctive historic downtowns. Through the Main Street framework, Mary has deepened the impact of historic preservation as well as engaged new people in communities across this nation in this important work. While traveling across the U.S. in the 1970s, Mary Means noticed the widespread loss of historic buildings across small towns in the Midwest. With shopping malls drawing retail from downtowns, historic buildings were becoming vacant, neglected and gearing for demolition. Mary Means looked for ways to preserve these beautiful buildings and bring back downtowns but found none. Mary conceived of and designed the Main Street Project for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a three-town, three-year pilot project in Galesburg, Illinois, Madison, Indiana and Hot Springs, South Dakota. The project had the bold mission of demonstrating economic development within the context of historic preservation. Main Street is more than historic buildings, it's more than small businesses. It's really about the heart and soul of the country, it's a deep part of the American psyche. The pilot was such a success that hundreds of towns across the United States wrote to the trust, wanting their help to reinvigorate their own towns. Knowing that the success of the project hinged on sharing her findings, Mary went around on an educational campaign to save these historic districts. Lessons learned from Mary's pilot towns became the four-point approach that has been used by thousands of towns and cities to save their downtowns. At a national level, the historic tax credit was arguably saved by its link to Main Street more than once. Nothing better exemplifies the small town spirit of working together than the efforts of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the pioneering accomplishments of its National Main Street Center. Project Main Street evolved into the National Main Street Center, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It has tracked data in over 2,000 communities. Their grassroots effort is responsible for $85 billion in public private investments, renovating nearly 300,000 buildings, starting more than 150,000 new businesses, and creating 672,000 new jobs. They were doing economic development. Some people were doing preservation, but no one had ever taken all of the elements and put them together the way that Mary did with the Main Street program. That's really what Mary pioneered was thinking about how to use the marketplace as a tool for preservation. It started off as a program and ended up as a movement that continues 35 years later. So this is one of the most successful economic development programs ever created in the United States. Mary Means has made a lifelong career of speaking tough truths and motivating brokers not only to care about historic preservation, but to help elevate the concerns of communities. Mary continued to expand how historic preservation could make practical connections to and beyond communities through her small but mighty firm, Mary Means & Associates. Her work in heritage tourism including plans for Colorado and Pennsylvania convinced legislators that heritage tourism is economic development with real jobs, quality of life, and preservation of places that mattered attached. In 2019, she won the American Planning Association Planning Pioneer Award and later this year, Mary plans to release a book 40 years in the making about the resiliency of Main Streets. Mary is a visionary, a change maker, and a legend who has expanded the narrative around historic preservation in our nation to go far beyond just great places. It is with great pleasure and admiration that I present the esteemed Mary Means, a true pioneer and hero of the preservation movement. I am so excited to receive this award. It's really humbling. Mainly because I've known quite a number of the people who've received it before and they've been inspirations to me, particularly the younger me. And I want to especially recognize the three original Main Street managers, Scott Gerloff, Tom Moriarty, and Clark Shuttle. Together, we truly changed historic preservation. The pandemic recovery is going to be long and it's going to take every one of us doing our part to make it happen. Everyone has a stake in Main Street's future. It's going to take all of us and it's particularly going to take Congress. We're going to need help keeping this vital Main Street revitalization network of organizations going so they can help the individual businesses. It's a lot more than small business though. Main Street is the heart of our communities and so much a part of the American psyche. Together, we can make it happen. I really want to thank everyone who's been involved in the Main Street revitalization movement because it's you who've really done the work. I'm honored and thank you. Thank you, Mary, and thanks to all of you for joining us today for our very first Virtual National Preservation Award ceremony. Hopefully our last. We want to send a personal thank you to the Richard H. Dreehaus Foundation and to American Express for sponsoring today's event. And finally, I want to say a special thank you to you who work to save historic sites, build stronger communities, and tell the full American story. Through your actions, your financial support, and your tireless efforts, what you do has a tremendous impact on people's lives. I hope today's presentation has inspired you to continue to save the places you and your community hold dear. Thank you so much for joining me and good night.